The Korean Diaspora in Germany

Abstract

Unlike other countries, Germany has never been a greatly favored destination for Korean migration until the German government began to drive its Gastarbeiter (literally: guest worker) policy in the early 1960s. Based on this policy, numerous foreign workers from a variety of countries were invited to work in Germany; amongst them thousands of Koreans. The Korean Gastarbeiter came to work in West German coal mines and hospitals without receiving sufficient prior education in German language or culture. The Germans only knew little about their Korean neighbors who worked hard to establish themselves in the foreign society. In Korea as well, Germany is not the typical country one thinks of when talking about the Korean Diaspora and so, the first generations sacrifices and efforts for the development of their home country are almost forgotten by the young generation of Koreans today. The majority of the first generation had never planned to migrate entirely to Germany before. Most of them intended to return back to Korea after working for a couple of years since earning prospects were relatively lucrative. Yet, for different reasons, a large number of Koreans who came during that era decided to settle in Germany. They, hence, became migrants by accident who formed a significant portion of the first generation of Koreans in Germany. For the second generation – still essentially linked to Korea through their parents – growing up in Germany very often means living between two worlds. In consequence, it is not uncommon that members of the second generation feel neither German nor Korean. This study intends to characterize the second generation and the ethnic identity formation of its members with focus on the question whether they were able to generate a pronounced Korean ethnic identity. The study contains a survey among 144 members of the second generation and 10 in-depth personal and telephone interviews. In attempting to measure ethnic identity, I included items of the Multigroup Measure of Ethnic Identity (MEIM) that has been developed by the psychologist Jean S. Phinney and that can be used with diverse populations and enables researchers to study and compare the role of ethnic identity. The MEIM scores of Korean Germans in terms of ethnic identification with the Korean group were surprisingly high. Apparently, Korean Germans were able to achieve ethnic identity with the Korean group, despite cultural distance and other challenges. Moreover, this study revealed that self-evaluations to be Korean-German, German-Korean or mixed that occurred frequently among survey participants do not mean that ethnic identification failed. They rather indicate the development of a multiple ethnic identity.