North Korean immigrant youth in South Korea are called 'Saetue-min,' which means people who settle down in a new place. As students, they have difficulty adapting to the school system because of confused identities, discrepancies in academic levels, a...
North Korean immigrant youth in South Korea are called 'Saetue-min,' which means people who settle down in a new place. As students, they have difficulty adapting to the school system because of confused identities, discrepancies in academic levels, and the psychological burden of academic attainment. Thus, most of them end up leaving schools voluntarily and the dropout rate is ever increasing these days. This thesis examines how North Korean refugee students overcome these difficulties in the school and what types of social support in the community help them overcome difficulties in interacting with parents, teachers, peers and social workers. In order to do this, the researcher has the following three questions prepared:
a1) How do North Korean immigrants students overcome the confusion of identity and adapt in school?
2) How do they interact with parents, peers and teachers in the system of social support?
3) What assessment and significance does social support system have in the process of their school adaptation?
This research based on interviews of nine North Korean immigrant students on their experience in school life and on participant-observation at Hannuri school, which was built in 2003 as an afterschooling system for helping their academic attainment.
The findings of the research have been summarized as follows.
This thesis on North Korean immigrant students' adaptation and experience in the social support system consists of fifteen minor subjects and these minor subjects are categorized as three major topics under a main theme. The main theme is 'adaptation in the school system through the formation of identity from interacting with social supports such as parents, teachers and peers in the community.' The first topic explores the question, 'who am I?’ for the process of identity formation involves the student’s memory and experience in North Korea and China, the perspectives of South Korean on North Korean immigrants, and self-reflection of North Korean immigrant youths. Although most of them are hesitant to reveal the fact that they are from North Korea because of negative stigma in South Korea, they end up revealing themselves in high school and they are doing their duty as high school students.
The second topic, 'School life: to reveal and acknowledge myself,' explains the difficulty of academic attainment, the process of revealing themselves, the development of academic efficiency, the power of self-control, and changeable method of solving problem. The students feel alienation because of bias and are excluded from their peers in the school. They cannot form positive relationship with peers, teachers and others in the community until they make an effort to reveal themselves confidently.
The third topic, "Social support system: growing up with social interaction" describes in detail their interaction with parents, peers, teachers, social workers and others. Because of South Korean's bias and lack of understanding on North Korean immigrant youths, North Korean immigrant youths have difficulty in adaptation. However they grow up receiving physical and psychological social support from parents, peers, teachers and social workers.
As a result, this research offers a few practical suggestions for their adjustment in school system through social supports. Up until now, most studies tend to show the negative phenomena of their inability to adapt in South Korea. However, it is necessary to develop theories of social supports and discover the positive factors that help them adaptation well. Secondly, social welfare services need to develop concrete programs in connection with each social support, such as parents, teachers and peers. Thirdly, this researcher suggests that it is necessary to provide a school curriculum for the cultural understanding between North and South Korea in order to solve mutual conflict. Fourthly, the schools located in the areas of North Korean immigrant resettlement, need to provide professionals, special counselors and mentors to assist their adaptation. Finally, North Korean immigrant youths need to be placed in the school based on age, not on academic level. Also, it is academically necessary to keep conducting statistical research annually in order to track their situation of school adaptation, including factors such as the number of students who enter or leave the schools voluntarily.