Future for Korean-Americans

Korean-Americans have come a long way to settle down and make a living in the United States. Their family-centered Confucian ethics and the ethics of self-discipline and dedication to work have allowed them to prosper and become a successful group of immigrants. Korean immigrants have been a fairly new population that is spreading rapidly and have become an important minority group in the states. According to Wikipedia,

“(Korean Americans,) along with those of other Asian Americans, would also be noted in headlines and magazine covers in the 1980s for their numbers in prestigious universities and highly skilled white collar professions. Favorable economics and education have led to the painting of Asian groups such as the Koreans as a "model minority". Throughout the 1980s until today, Korean Americans and other East Asian groups continue to attend prestigious universities in high numbers and make up a large percentage of the professional white collar work force including such fields as medicine, law, computer science, finance, and investment banking.”

With such hopes and expectations, it seems that Korean Americans, especially second-generations, have a bright future ahead of them. Recent nomination of Philip Yun as a senior Pentagon official also showed that Korean American elders will continue to contribute and influence the American society. As more and more Korean immigrants assimilate and adjust to the new life in the United States, I believe there will be much more focus on the group that can lead to better services and care in the future.

Working Females

             The Korean society is traditionally patriarchal, in which women tend to stay at home and take care of the family. There is also a belief that women should be obedient to their husbands because men are the provider for the family. This idea has been deeply embedded in the Korean society for a long period of time that sexism continues to remain in modern society. According to The Economist, working women earn 63% of what men earn. They also face social pressure to quit when they have children, making it hard to stay on the career fast track. Yet these disadvantages opened new doors for the younger generation of women, where foreign multinationals are recruiting large numbers of educated Korean women in their workplaces. Additionally, marriage and fertility rates have decreased significantly, which may increase the chance of women employment in the future.

             Because Korean elders are unaccustomed to working females, there has been some conflict between the older and younger generations. Elders prefer that their daughters get married and raise a family, while the daughters seek to find work and live a successful and independent life. However, many elders are now helping their working daughters with raising children and with house chores, which in turn, brought elders closer to family.

Discussion of Sex and Intimate Details

According to the Stanford School of Medicine’s assessment of Korean-American elders, 

“Korean culture is strongly influenced by Buddhism and the philosophy of Confucianism. Modesty is an important virtue especially for women in Confucianism, which may…be difficult to illicit intimate details such as bodily functions and sexual history when the health care provider interviews the female patient.” 

This explanation of the Korean culture is well-described and shows how conservative Koreans can be. Talks of sex and related subjects are almost prohibited among elders and even the younger generations are careful when they talk about these issues. Yet exclusion of these subjects can be inconvenient when it comes to health care. It is important for patients to reveal sexual histories and other necessary information in order to receive the right treatment and medicine. By hiding or simply refusing to share certain details about their medical records can be not only disadvantageous but also dangerous in more extreme ends. These situations can also apply to homosexual individuals, who are not fully accepted in the Korean community. While preserving traditions and upholding certain beliefs are important, it is also vital for Korean and Korean-American elders to be open to such discussions and understand the importance of providing the care providers with the right information.

Koreatown: Good or Bad?

According to the Stanford Korean-American research information, over one million of the US population identified themselves as Koreans. Out of those one million residents, 25% were concentrated in the Los Angeles area and 16% in the New York region. Additionally, 4.4% were aged 65 and over, which is equivalent to about 44,000 elders in total. Because 91% of these elders were foreign born and spoke little English, it is most likely that they live in Koreatown or in a highly-concentrated Korean neighborhood. Such environment calls for little changes in both the language and culture, which hinders Korean-American elders from assimilating in the United States. While living in these concentrated neighborhoods can be comforting and stress-free in some ways, many elders will not be able to have access to proper health care and social services as they age. Moreover, 43% to 48% of the Korean-American elders live alone and only 1.4% live in a nursing home. These numbers show that these elders do not have anyone to depend on as they age and become ill. Because of these circumstances, Korean-American elders must find ways to access health care services alone and bridge the gap of communication with the American society. Accordingly, it is important for elders to obtain both the language and the culture in order to benefit from the various resources that are available to them.

Korean-American Elders As Targets?

The Korea Times reported on a rising concern over Korean-American elders traveling overseas. Recently, the Department of Social Security is investigating SSI (Supplemental Security Income, the federal income program for the aged, blind, or disabled) benefits on “random” travelers. However, Ms. Moon Katelyn, the director of a Korean American Senior Center in NY stated:

"Currently, over 70 percent of Korean SSI beneficiaries here have questioned whether travelling to Korea is advisable, given their limited financial situations. SSA is targeting Korean-American seniors who have not reported trips in 2009 and re-examining benefits and qualification for those sampled."

The elder who were questioned suffered significantly from a reduction in benefits which include a plane ticket fee of $1,300 plus an additional $700 from the SSI allotted benefit, as exemplified with Mrs. Choi in the article. Such situation illustrates how unfair and distressing circumstances that the Korean-American elders are in. The lack of English skills led to a lack of information on SSI regulations which resulted in a huge disadvantage for the uninformed elders. Additionally, having 70% of the Korean SSI beneficiaries questioned brings people to inquire about why SSA is selecting or even “targeting” this particular group or re-examination. It is important to examine these issues in order to prevent such mishaps from occurring in the future.

Background

According to Laura Katz Olson's discussion of Korean-American immigrants in her book, Korean-American elders are divided into two categories: those who came to the United States at the invitation of their adult children who were already settled (also known as “invited elderly”), or those who immigrated as adults with their own family and who recently reached the age of retirement (also known as “immigrated elderly”).

While Olson argues that most of the Korean immigrants in the United States are invited immigrants, her record of the US census is outdated and lacks the changes in society today. The rise of global corporations has led many foreigners to immigrate due to oversea branch offices and other work-related issues. Many workers who came through these businesses were granted green cards and were able to settle down much easily than before. Also, the 2009 US census showed that “there were about 16.9 million children age 17 and under with at least one immigrant parent. They accounted for 23.8 percent of the 70.9 million children age 17 and under in the United States. (Additionally,) the 14.6 million second-generation children — those who were born in the United States to at least one foreign-born parent — accounted for 86.2 percent of all children with immigrant parents. The remaining 13.8 percent (2.3 million) were children born outside the United States to foreign-born parents.” Such results illustrate how much more immigrated elderly reside in the states than in the past.

Despite having different backgrounds, both invited and immigrated Korean-American elders face difficulties in adjusting to the new environment and cultures in the United States. The invited elders are oblivious of the differences that they will face as they immigrate, while immigrated elders tend to be more alert and aware of these differences as they start to settle down. Yet, as discussed in the previous post, language barriers are a significant factor that hinder both groups of Korean-American elders from acquiring informations on governmental services and care. As elders continue to struggle with the clash of two cultures and ideas, such conflict lead them to reject possible benefits and services that are available to them.

Learning the Language

Unfortunately, many Asian-Americans failed to completely learn the English language despite their prolonged stay in America. The reasons for not fully acquiring the language may vary in various cases but largely, many elders did not have the luxury to attend classes or schools for learning English. In one research that studied Korean immigrants in New York, researchers found that:

"Korean War experiences and the sociocultural milieu of South Korea created a personality profile strong in survival instincts, opportunity seeking, and materialistic ambitions.

In addition, Koreans adhere to family-centered Confucian ethics and adapt the ethics of self-discipline and dedication to work. Long work hours and sacrifices for the sake of family unity and well-being characterize many immigrants' lives."

 Such circumstances hindered the Korean-American immigrants from learning the language, which could have helped them significantly in both financial and cultural ways. As a result of this, many Korean-American elders tend to have broken pieces of the English language that they picked up from working and include only a limited number of adults who are fully fluent.

Interestingly, many Korean elders in the United States emphasize education as the main avenue for social mobility according to Evelyn Lee in her book, Working with Asian Americans: A Guide for Clincians. This mindset may be a byproduct of their griefs and regrets toward learning, which affected them to stress the importance of education to their children and the younger generation. For them,

"Education is thus a viable means of success."

 

Introduction

Coming from a Korean background and culture, I have always had an interest for the Asian-Americans living in the United States. Having experienced both of the two worlds, I wanted to observe the differences in the two cultures and how Asian-Americans adapt to these cultural differences as they make their living in the states. Generally, Asia is restricted and conformed by laws and rules of society. Few changes may have occurred in the previous years by studying American and European values, yet the differences between the West and the East continue to remain embedded in society.

The curiosity starts here, where people start to question how Asian-Americans, more specifically Korean-American elders, react to the changes in the United States as well as the advancing modern world, which is filled with new technologies and ideas. After being educated and raised in Korea where many conservative views circulate, the elders must face some difficulties adjusting to such differences. These changes are not only cultural differences, but also the quickly advancing technologies and societal transitions. By studying new researches and articles on these matters, this blog aims to discover how and what the elders respond or refuse to do in modern America.