Within the boundaries : migration choices of women from North Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Why would many North Korean women prefer life in China, living as an undocumented migrant, to legal residence in South Korea? Why is it that many North Korean women do not want to live in South Korea, even after arriving in the country, and even after experiencing the dire conditions in North Korea and China? There have been many studies on North Korean women, which can be broadly divided into two groups: the first focuses on the role of the savior of victimized women from North Korea; the other concentrates on empowering those women by emphasizing their agency. Hence, the former takes a rather paternalistic approach, whilst the latter allows the women their agency but leaves them stuck with the status quo.
Using participant observations from 2012 to early 2018, and in-depth interviews with 40 women, in both China and South Korea, this study attempts to answer the aforementioned questions with concepts like migration choice and happiness, through a close analysis of the individual women’s narratives about their motivations and experiences of migration. The narratives of these women demonstrate views that differ from conventional ideas about what it means to live a better life, regardless of whether they are located in North Korea, China, or South Korea. Contrary to the general perception of developed societies, that happiness in a modern society should prioritize economic life and give a guarantee of human rights in lineal way, the narratives of the North Korean women illustrate a holistic and multifaceted understanding of happiness, human rights, and migration choice. This study finds that there are diverse reasons why women choose to stay in or leave certain places, such as family duty, spousal betrayal, family disagreement, state corruption, love of family, socio-economic improvement, wanderlust, and career ambition, among others.
While the reasons for migration vary from individual to individual, this paper argues that such women have been bound by the agendas set by sociopolitical theories of North Korean migration, which suppress and hide the individual choices of the women themselves.
However, the women who provide their voices for this study are those who are hoping for opportunities to better themselves, even when in the position of the victim—as many are commonly labeled. In other words, they are neither victims, nor aggressive go-getters striving for survival, as they are generally perceived and described in many kinds of literature. They are just living their daily lives under various dynamics, as they dream of the best that is yet to come. Thus, throughout the interviews and further studies described here, this research finds that the subjective experience of each of these women is that of a freed person, at whose core lies not the political rhetoric of countries such as North Korea, South Korea, or China, but an inner calling to look for happiness. These various reasons for migration give further directions for future development.

목차 (Table of Contents)

• I. Introduction 1
• 1. 1. Preliminary Trip and Research Question 4
• 1. 2. Organization 6
• 1. 3. Scope of the Study and Terms 11
• II. Background of the Voices 15
• 2. 1. Assigning Political Intentions to Migration 15
• 2. 1. 1. How It Started: Background of Migration from North Korea 16
• 2. 1. 2. Between Traitor and Propagandist: How North Korea Perceives the Ones who Left Their Country 17
• 2. 1. 3. Between Human Trophies and Communists: How South Korea Perceives the People from North Korea 20
• 2. 1. 3. 1. Laws, Terms, and Politics 20
• 2. 1. 4. Between Demand of the Marriage Market to Calculation for the International Politics: How China Perceives the Ones who Left Their Country 31
• 2. 1. 4. 1. Numbers, Laws and Conditions of North Koreans in China 31
• 2. 1. 4. 2. Political Reasons behind China’s Repatriation: Security and Sovereignty 35
• 2. 2. Women and Migration in the Context of North Korean Women 39
• 2. 2. 1. Feminization of North Korean Migrants 40
• 2. 2. 2. Women in Socialist State 42
• 2. 2. 3. Gaps between Ideology and Reality 44
• 2. 2. 3. 1. Gaps in Economics 47
• 2. 2. 3. 2. Gaps in Politics 50
• 2. 2. 4. Debunked Patriarchy: Economic Downturn and Consequent Changes among Women 51
• 2. 3. Migration and Choice 58
• 2. 3. 1. Disciplinary Explanations 59
• 2. 3. 2. Choice and Migration: Analytical Frames 62
• 2. 3. 2. 1. Neo-Classical Approach 63
• 2. 3. 2. 2. Life Satisfaction and Happiness 66
• 2. 4. Migration and Limited Choices 72
• 2. 4. 1. Categories of Migration 74
• 2. 4. 1. 2. Migrant and Refugee 74
• 2. 4. 1. 2. 1. Refugees and Choice 76
• 2. 4. 1. 3. Migration and Trafficking 79
• 2. 4. 1. 3. 1. Trafficking and Choice 81
• 2. 4. 2. Migration Choice of Women 83
• III. Methodology 93
• 3. 1. Overview 93
• 3. 2. Qualitative Study 94
• 3. 2. 1. Interview Questions as a Signpost 96
• 3. 2. 2. Approaches in South Korea 100
• 3. 2. 3. In-Depth Interviews and Observations in China 108
• 3. 2. 4. Ethics 110
• 3. 3. Issues of Representativeness 111
• IV. The Voices of the Women 113
• 4. 1. Why Leave: Security Threatened 118
• 4. 2. Why Leave: Disappointment in the North Korean Regime 120
• 4. 3. Trafficking 123
• 4. 4. Are You Happy: Domestic Violence 128
• 4. 5. Why Leave and Why Stay: Family 129
• 4. 5. 1. Husband 130
• 4. 5. 2. Children 134
• 4. 6. Why Stay: Fear of Repatriation 139
• 4. 7. Why Stay: Fear of Different Regime 140
• 4. 8. Why Stay: Age 141
• 4. 9. Why Leave: Wanderlust 142
• 4. 10. Are You Happy: Religion and Church 144
• 4. 11. Are You Happy: A Society of Competition? 148
• 4. 12. Are You Happy: Marginalized Others/Discrimination 151
• 4. 13. Are You Happy: Failed Dreams 155
• 4. 14. Why Leave: Career Ambition 156
• 4. 15. Are You Happy: Health 159
• 4. 16. Are You Happy: Power of Community and the Shadows 161
• 4. 17. Are You Happy: Potential Love 165
• 4. 18. Why Leave: Economic Reasons 168
• 4. 19. Preference of Society 170
• 4. 20. Tend My Sheep vs. Let My People Go 175
• V. Conclusion 178
• 5. 1. Trafficking: A Choice of Migration or Forced Migration? 181
• 5. 2. Love Paradox: Is Family a Haven in the Unsecured World or a Fetter against the Better World? 187
• 5. 3. South Korea: A “Land of Canaan” or Another “Inferno?” 191
• 5. 4. A Good Friend Worth more than a Country? – Power of Social Network 194
• 5. 5. Policy Implications 196
• 5. 5. 1. Existing Law and Further Questions: Regarding the North Koreans in South Korea 197
• 5. 5. 2. Regarding the North Koreans in China 202
• 5. 5. 2. 1. Refugees and Mixed Migration: Reconceptualization in the Context of the North Korean Women in China 203
• 5. 6. Further Works 209
• Bibliography 211
• Appendix I. Written Surveys 222
• Appendix II. Existing Statistics on Migration Choice of the People from North Korea 234
• Appendix III. North Korean Refugees Protection and Settlement Support Act 243
• Appendix IV. Details of Settlement Support for North Korean Migrants 264
• Appendix V. Panmunjeom Declaration 267
• Appendix VI. Number of North Korean Refugees and Asylum-Seekers around the World (Except Republic of Korea and China) 271
• List of Tables
• Table 1. Number of North Korean Asylum-Seekers and Refugees (Worldwide) 13
• Table 2. Number of the North Korean Border Crossers to South Korea (Between the 1950s and 1980s) 25
• Table 3. Total Number of North Koreans Entering South Korea 29
• Table 4. Number of North Koreans Entering South Korea (Including Gender Proportion) 41
• Table 5. Income by Position of Work in North Korea 48
• Table 6. Questions as Signpost 98
• Table 7. Reasons for Leaving North Korea (in 2016) 115
• Table 8. Reasons for Leaving North Korea (in 2014) 116
• Table 9. Respondents’ Reason for Leaving North Korea 124
• Table 10. The Reasons for dissatisfaction in South Korean Life (In Year 2015) 153
• List of Figures
• Figure 1. Difficulties of North Korean Defectors in China 34
• Figure 2. Six Clusters with Different Characteristics 102
• Figure 3. Motivation and Choice 185
• Figure 4. Motivation and Choice 185