[Daniel Fiedler] Economics of multiculturalism

South Korea struggles these days with the issue of multiculturalism. Proponents argue that for South Korea to truly become an advanced nation it must enact progressive ways to deal with the influx of foreigners coming to participate in one of Asia’s most successful economies.

Those opposing such programs cite Korean ideals of self-reliance and point to the difficulties that Europe is experiencing with the integration of newcomers. Newspapers and television programs in South Korea are filled with positive and negative images of foreigners. 

South Korean netizens post comments that run the gamut from passionate support of foreigners to rabid xenophobic hatred. However often overlooked is the simple fact that the low birthrate and aging population of South Korea means that the country needs an ever greater number of immigrants in order to continue the miracle on the Han.

This harsh economic reality may be hard for opponents of multiculturalism to accept. Many of these individuals have developed an unhealthy obsession with the idea of keeping Korea “pure“ and often show an unreasoning fear of outsiders. Thus the findings of a recent study in the United States on the impact of immigrants on social welfare programs may be the panacea needed to alleviate their xenophobia.

This study looked at the effect that immigrants had on Medicare, a social health insurance program for elderly Americans. The study focused on the inflow and outflow of monies that were attributable to the contributions of immigrants and to payments on their behalf to Medicare providers. What was found was that immigrants paid more into Medicare over the period of the study than was paid out to providers on their behalf. In fact from 2002 to 2009, the period of the study, immigrants paid over $115 billion more into the system than they received in benefits.

This massive inflow was because the vast majority of immigrants to the United States were of working age. Few elderly individuals leave their homes in order to emigrate to America; it is the young and able-bodied that come.

This net inflow is estimated to keep the Medicare program solvent for many more years than it would be without the payments from these immigrants. Now although this study analyzed the effect of immigrants in the United States the same demographics and the same logic applies to the migrants who come to South Korea from Southeast Asian countries.

These migrants, the so-called “3-D” workers who perform difficult, dirty or dangerous jobs shunned by South Koreans, are often vilified in the South Korean press and culture.

Too often news and television stories portray these hardworking individuals as preying on the Korean people and their country. And yet crime statistics show that to be a fallacy. The truth is that these individuals are young and hardworking and they contribute substantially via tax and pension dollars to South Korea’s welfare programs as well as to its economy.

Further, while Americans who oppose immigration are unlikely to be swayed by this study, the different cultural paradigm that exists in South Korea may make this study far more persuasive to South Koreans who fear outsiders. For as any who have been to South Korea know, the South Korean culture is based extensively on Confucian ideals and these ideals dictate clear responsibilities and duties for those who live within its strictures.

One of the prime ideals is the support of one’s parents and grandparents. Another is the universal duty to respect the elderly. Many Koreans are proud of these duties and the respect given to the elderly and will regularly inform visitors that parents and elders receive more respect and support in South Korea than in any other country.

Whether or not that is true is debatable; nonetheless a son or daughter who provides a comfortable existence for their parents in old age is considered among the most righteous of individuals and a citizen who exhibits pious respect for the elderly is regarded as honorable.

Considering these cultural duties it becomes clear that the 3-D workers in South Korea, as well as any immigrant who willingly pays taxes, should be regarded as among the most honorable and righteous members of South Korean society.

These immigrants, through contributions to South Korea’s social welfare system, support elderly South Koreans who are neither their parents nor of any relation at all. Thus they exhibit that supposedly most Korean of all attributes: a respect for the elderly.

Such individuals seem even more honorable when compared to the many famous and well-known Koreans currently suspected of evading taxes by hiding monies in overseas tax havens. Perhaps those South Koreans who choose to complain about the influx of these foreigners into South Korea should first consider the ideals of their own culture and recognize the error of their thinking.

By Daniel Fiedler 

Daniel Fiedler has been a professor of law in South Korea since 2006 and a licensed attorney in California since 2000 and Arizona since 1998. ― Ed.