Southeast Asians tell of mistreatment

One in four Southeast Asians living in Korea has experienced discrimination, more than triple the corresponding figure for foreigners from Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries, according to a poll released yesterday.

The survey, conducted by the Seoul Development Institute (SDI) on 333 foreign nationals living in the capital, found that 25.9 percent of Southeast Asian immigrants have faced discrimination, compared to 8.2 percent of foreigners from OECD nations, including the U.S., Japan and countries in Europe.

Twenty percent of immigrants from Northeast Asian nations, such as China and Taiwan, said they were also treated differently, the survey said.

Out of the total respondents, 32.7 percent have face discrimination during the job search or while earning money, followed by 7.2 percent in using public administration services and 6.9 percent in finding housing here.

People from OECD nations said they have faced the most discrimination when using financial services, while Southeast Asian immigrants picked housing and Northeast Asians chose medical service, the survey said.

Asked whether they felt a sense of attachment to Seoul, 29.7 percent agreed somewhat, while 21.9 percent disagreed somewhat and 13.8 percent totally disagreed, it noted.

More than 250,000 expatriates from 166 nations were living in Seoul, with 66.8 percent ethnic Chinese, 10.3 percent Chinese and 5.3 percent Americans, according to Justice Ministry data from 2009.

Yonhap