Корейская диаспора на Филиппинах: история и современность.

Ethnic group

Koreans in the Philippines, largely consisting of expatriates from South Korea and people born in the Philippines with Korean ancestry, form the second largest Korean diaspora community in Southeast Asia and the 14th largest in the world, after Koreans in Kazakhstan and after Koreans in Vietnam. Many South Koreans living in the Philippines are attracted to the low cost of English language education and housing, both significantly cheaper than those offered in their native South Korea. The warmer climate is yet another motivating factor for the recent surge in migration. The Philippines is also a popular destination for retired South Koreans on fixed pensions; the Filipino government actively promotes the settlement of South Korean retirees in the country because of the potential lucrative opportunities for the local economy. There are also known cases of North Koreans having been admitted to the Philippines as migrant workers.

The history of Korean settlement in the Philippines can be divided into five phases. The first, lasting until the end of World War II, consisted of just a few disconnected individuals. Jang Bogo of Unified Silla was said to have visited the country as early as the 8th century. However, there was sparse contact or information of contact over the centuries later. There is brief mention of a Korean noblewoman, Doña Maria Park, who lived around 1572 1636 as a Catholic nun serving with other local Japanese exiled Christian (Kirishitan) nuns under the Jesuit chaplained Beatas de Meaco (Kyoto) or Miyako no Bikuni (Nuns of Kyoto, 1615–1656) in Manila. Moon Sun Deuk, a native of Ui Island who survived a shipwreck in the Philippines, was a ray merchant who sailed and drifted to Japan's Okinawa Island with his uncle and four other colleagues, then ended up seeing northern Philippines and lived there for 9 months. Moon had a flair with foreign languages as he acquired the language in Yeosong (Luzon) possibly Ilocano language, and had a sharp eye for the way the people lived. Considered as Korea's first person to learn a Philippine language, he was able to use his interpretation skills conversing with the five Filipinos who were shipwrecked off Jeju Island in 1801 and were able to return home after nine years. He was the first recorded Filipino interpreter in Joseon dynasty. In 1837, Andrew Kim Taegon and two other Korean Catholics took refuge in the Philippines after fleeing a riot in Macau, where they had been studying. They lived in a monastery near Lolomboy, Bocaue, Bulacan. Around 1935, a few itinerant ginseng peddlers from Uiju, North Pyongan (in present day North Korea) arrived in the country via Vietnam. Some Korean soldiers came with the Imperial Japanese Army when it occupied the Philippines during World War II; three of these, from Uiju, are known to have married local women and to have chosen remain in the country permanently. One of them, Pak Yun hwa, went on to establish the Korean Association Philippines Inc. in 1969, which would grow to become the country's largest Korean organization. The second phase of Korean settlement in the Philippines consisted of the war brides of Filipino soldiers who fought on the side of the UN Forces in the Korean War. About 30 moved to the Philippines with their husbands in the 1960s; in 1975, they formed the Mothers' Association. Beginning with the third phase, migration began to take on a more economic character. With the growth of the South Korean economy, companies in labour intensive manufacturing industries responded to increasing wages by relocating their operations to other countries, including the Philippines, beginning in the 1980s. As a result, managers of enterprises both big and small, along with their families, began to increase. The fourth phase, in the 1990s. saw an expansion in the variety of Korean businesses in the Philippines; South Korean businesspeople not from just manufacturing companies, but import export businesses, restaurants, and construction companies, all founded ethnic specific business associations in this era. The fifth phase of migration history, beginning in the late 1990s and 2000s, saw the number of students increase. The influx of students coincided with a more relaxed visa policy of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) aimed at attracting foreign students. It was also marked by growing influence and engagement by the various Korean associations with mainstream Philippine society. For example, the Merchant Association, formed in July 2001 and renamed as the Financial Expert Union Association in 2002, helped to regularise the status of South Korean entrepreneurs who had been working without a proper visa, while the South Korean Used Automobile Import Association fought against a newly introduced prohibition on the importation of used cars, and the Travel Company Association worked with the Philippine Department of Tourism to resolve visa and licensing issues for South Korean tour guides who hoped to work in the Philippines. This case of migration can be seen in a unique standpoint. Rather than arriving for purposes such as political safety or financial stability, they are rather coming to the Philippines for vacation, leisurely activities, business ventures, or for schooling. In the past, when we look at global migration patterns, people typically leave their countries for safety or financial purposes. This is one of the rare cases in history where a migration pattern so large is coming from a place of stability.

In the early 2000s, the Philippines also began to become a transit point for North Korean refugees leaving China en route to South Korea, similar to the manner in which the country turned into way station for Vietnamese "boat people" in earlier decades. The Philippines is one of just three Southeast Asian signatories to the 1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees (the other two being Cambodia and East Timor). Hwang Jang yop passed through the Philippines after he defected in 1997. In 2001, seven members of a North Korean family transited through Manila. According to a U. S. diplomatic cable leaked by WikiLeaks, the number would grow to more than 500 annually by 2005; the Philippine government continued to cooperate quietly with the South Korean government to permit transit of refugees, but reacted coolly to suggestions of admitting North Korean refugees for settlement. The most well known Koreatown in the Metro Manila area is located in Makati's Barangay Poblacion. In Quezon City, the Kalayaan Plaza Building has various Korean businesses, apartments, and a church (one of seven or eight Korean churches in QC that existed in 2005). Increasingly, students are billeted in rented houses in expensive gated communities such as Barangay Ayala Alabang, Muntinlupa City. A Korea Town was also established in the district of Malate in Manila.

MOFAT statistics showed 4,212 Koreans in Baguio as of 2013. The weather and low cost of living is a particular attraction to Korean retirees; the latter factor is disappearing recently but the former remains. In the late 1990s, there was only one Korean restaurant in the city, along with a Korean owned beauty parlor. The population expansion was led by Korean students who came for English courses during their school breaks. Some enrolled as regular students in local universities. Others brought their families. However, in 2008, it was reported that thousands of Koreans had left Baguio since their businesses went bankrupt in the face of the global economic crisis' effects on the Philippines, dropping the local Korean population from 10,000 to 4,000. A plan for Korean investors to redevelop the Baguio Athletic Bowl in Burnham Park fell apart in early 2010 due to the city government's opposition to the facility's privatization. The number of language schools aimed at Koreans has expanded rapidly. By 2006, the city officially already had twelve tutorial schools aimed at Koreans. Baguio is also a popular destination not just for youths, but also for Korean nurses who aim to improve their English skills before working in the United States or United Kingdom. Problems with school accreditation continued, and by 2011, Koreans in the city agreed to a moratorium on the opening of further English schools, to allow the by then 115 schools to be audited. Aside from students, Korean Christians from Busan and Incheon have come to plant churches. South Korean fashion and entertainment have also become trendy in Baguio, affording entrepreneurial Koreans the chance to do good business as importers of cultural products. Koreans participate in local events such as the Panagbenga Festival (Baguio Flower Festival). However, their integration is not entirely without problems: in particular despite estimates that the city had the country's second largest Korean population following Manila, the municipal records showed only ten Koreans who had permits to operate businesses in the city. It was widely known that many were actually working illegally. Residents complained of illegal businesses which violated foreign ownership limits and underpaid wages, and of loud parties held by Koreans in their apartments. In 2011, Koreans in Angeles held a Kor Phil Cultural Exchange Hanmadang Festival at Bayanihan Park. The Hanjin Group has a US$1 billion shipbuilding project at Subic, estimated to comprise almost a third of total South Korean FDI in the Philippines in 2007 and was then the world's fourth largest shipyard. However, their investments have provoked environmental controversy, especially with their building of a US$20 million condominium complex for their managers in the Subic Watershed Forest Reserve, the home of the Aeta peoples. Korean investors are also building a $20 million industrial and tourism complex in Pangasinan comprising a fish farm, solar and wind power generation facilities, seaplane berths, and a monorail. There is also minor Korean activity on the northern Luzon coast. As early as 2005, a group of South Korean investors began setting up a golf academy at Suba, Paoay, Ilocos Norte. In 2007, the Real Enterprise Group, a South Korean hotel and casino operator, were reportedly interested in investing in tourism facilities in the province, especially beach resorts at Pagudpud and Paoay. The Korean investors are interested in support facilities such as spas, night clubs, and golf courses. The Laoag government also aimed to get direct flights between Korea and Laoag, so that tourists would not have to waste time flying south to Manila and then catch a connecting flight back north. There had been plans for the Korea Overseas Grain Investment and Development Company (Kogid) to invest $12 million in a maize plantation in Mallig, Isabela, but the plans were put on hold over a dispute on value added tax exemption. On Angeles, Pampanga. Anunas is the barangay that houses the city's Koreatown, a chain of Korean establishments along the Fil Am Friendship Highway. Anunas is also identified as one of the growth centers of the city, focusing on light industries such as woodcarving and rattan craft. There are also known to be some North Korean migrant workers who have been admitted to the Philippines as laborers in the area. There were claims that the magnetite had been illegally mined in violation of a provincial ban, but others claimed that the quantity in question was just a "sample" and came from a pre existing stockpile. Some reports claimed that the ship also carried marijuana and shabu, but an immigration officer was quoted as stating the materials in question were just butter and tea.

Cebu is a popular tourist draw for Koreans, and some settled down to make the province their home. In Cebu City, as early as 2005 Korean investors were renting old buildings in the city center, helping to revive the area in the same way that they revived Avenida or Escolta districts in Manila. Even high bureaucratic fees (such as a P50,000 levy on foreigners running short term language schools) did little to slow the influx. By 2007 there were estimated to be 13,000 Korean residents and 200 Korean owned businesses in various cities across Cebu. Koreans make up the vast majority of foreign students in Cebu; they are far and away the largest group of special study permit holders there, holding 4,473 of the outstanding 5,065 permits in mid 2010, nearly twenty times the second largest group, Japanese. The population continued to grow, to 32,000 by 2013, according to MOFAT statistics, even while Korean populations in other areas of the Philippines were shrinking. The 200,000 tourist arrivals from South Korea to Cebu as of 2009 prompted a Korean development company to plan a P4.5 billion resort investment to get in on the action. In 2011 Koreans were also reported to be interested in building a 400 MW coal power plant at Naga. Local residents have also seen business benefit from the Korean influx, for example in the organic farming sector due to the demand for organic produce by local Korean groceries as well as in the hospitality sector. In 2011 it was announced that the Cebu City government planned to declare a Korean Day in October each year to celebrate contributions of Korean immigrants and tourists to the cities, and promote cultural exchange between Filipinos and Koreans.

Bacolod is the main draw for Koreans in Negros Island Region, where they formed the largest group among the 21,741 tourist arrivals in the city between 2008 and 2009. The city mayor Evelio "Bing" R. Leonardia hopes that the Korean community in Bacolod can contribute to the further development of Korean tourism in the city and plans to provide them with marketing incentives to that end. Local Koreans have suggested providing Korean language signs at Bacolod Silay International Airport, hoping that the city government could look into direct flights between the airport and South Korea's major international airports. However Korean students in the city are concerned over the "public safety" situation there due to what newspapers described as "rampant crimes" against them, and the Bacolod Language Center Association has requested increased police presence around the schools, especially at La Salle Avenue and Gallardo Street. A Korean company is also reported to be investing in a 40 megawatt solar power plant on a site at Barangay Santo Niño of E. B. Magalona, which will operate for 12 hours a day and charge a P12/kilowatt hour tariff after accounting for the feed in tariff incentive. Smaller numbers of Koreans are also found in Negros Oriental. Dumaguete has a small Korean community, according to 2004 statistics having about 50 students at Silliman University and other schools in the city, five Korean run churches, and two Korean run religious schools. Korean owned Bio Green Manufacture and Processing have also invested in a cassava and jatropha oil plantations in the Tamlang Valley, aimed at the production of biofuels. However, they have faced opposition from local residents due to the potential impact on food security, and have even had their tractors burned by the Negrense squad of the New People's Army at the towns of Santa Catalina and Siaton.

The Korean population in Iloilo City has also been growing. There were 1,500 Koreans living there in 2013, according to MOFAT statistics. There were estimated to be about 2,000 Koreans settled in the city, and 10,000 visitors from South Korea. In 2008, TESDA forced the closure of twelve ESL schools aimed at Korean students. Korean investors were reportedly interested in a waste to energy project, which could almost four megawatts from the 170 tons of garbage the city generated each day. The Seoul based Full Gospel Nowon Church sent a medical mission to Iloilo City in September 2010. In 2011 Koreans settled in Iloilo City began to press for direct flights between there and Incheon in 2011.

The Korean firm KI Bio 2007 has invested $5 million in the jatropha business in Northern Samar province. The Philippine National Police have urged the Koreans there to set up community organization in order to liaise with them on security issues.

There were 3,734 Koreans living in the Davao Region in 2013, according to MOFAT statistics. In 2007 South Korean investments in Davao were reported to be expanding. Some of the then 800 Korean residents of Davao City formed a chamber of commerce that year. Korean restaurants were sprouting up to serve the Korean students studying abroad there, and Korean property developers aimed to construct hundreds of millions of pesos of projects including golf courses, English language schools for foreigners, and export oriented industrial parks to entice Japanese and South Korean firms to set up shop. Businesspeople feel the city's potential is relatively "untapped" compared to other markets in the Philippines such as Cebu or Baguio. About 2,647 Korean tourists visited Davao in 2006, up slightly from 2,622 in 2005. There are a number of Korean investment projects in the region. As early as 2002, two consortiums of Korean and Japanese investors were in the process of setting up used car refurbishment plants in Davao City. SK Chemicals, part of the SK Group, looked into the possibility of setting up a coconut processing plant there in 2004, which would process one billion coconuts per year. Korean and Japanese investors have set up retirement communities in Davao City for their respective nationals, and in 2008 looked into expanding their sites. The Korea International Cooperation Agency is also working with the local government of Davao del Sur on a P193.36 rice processing plant designed to cut postharvest losses from 25% to 5%. A Korean investment group which has already opened one vegetable farm in Luzon is also reportedly interested in building another farm near Davao City. However, there were also some cultural conflicts in the integration of Koreans there, with the Davao City mayor especially complaining about their habit of smoking in public places. Furthermore, some Davao City councilors have received reports of Koreans illegally doing business, behaving arrogantly, and underpaying employees.

In Northern Mindanao, Koreans have come to Cagayan de Oro as ESL students, businesspeople, and missionaries. 2013 MOFAT statistics showed 1,000 living there. In 2008 announced plans to build a casino and hotel complex there, though there was local opposition from community leaders in religious and civic groups over the casino aspect, and in fact the city council had an ordinance prohibiting casino operation. Korean and Turkish investors are also reported to be interested in a power plant project in nearby Iligan. Misamis Oriental is also making efforts to lure Korean investors to invest in agricultural processing enterprises in the Phidivec Industrial Estate, a special zone under the Philippine Economic Zone Authority.

2011 statistics of the Philippine Bureau of Immigration showed that more than 6,000 Koreans held 9(f) visas enabling them to enroll in tertiary education, roughly twice as many as the next two most frequent nationalities (Chinese and Iranians). The cost of university tuition in the Philippines is roughly one fourth that in South Korea. According to 2007 statistics, the Philippines had 6.6% of all Korean students enrolled in universities abroad. Since the 2001–02 academic year, South Korean international students have also been the largest group of foreigners studying at Philippine tertiary institutions, edging out Americans; in the 2002–03 academic year, they totalled 1,069 individuals, or 24.6% of the total 4,363 foreign students in the country, while in the following year, they numbered 726, or 34.6% of the total 2,161 foreign students. They are attracted to such universities by the opportunity to use English in a real live setting rather than as a classroom exercise; however, they face several difficulties in this regard, including the use of Taglish, and more generally the prevalence of code switching between English and Tagalog by both lecturers and peers. They also find it difficult to adapt to the student centered teaching style of Philippine universities, which demands active class participation.

Compared to other countries in East and Southeast Asia, the Philippines boasts high English proficiency. This is due to their history of American occupation from 1898 1946. When the Americans initially arrived, the natives living on the island were mostly illiterate and lacked a unifying language. Though the Spanish had colonized them for over 300 years, little to no effort was made to enforce Spanish as a nationwide written and spoken language. The Spaniards were mostly uninterested in administering or providing public education. Because of this, the Americans felt the need to educate and take the Philippines under their wing. One of their main goals was to provide public and private education. Through this, English became a dominant language and the tongue of education. In the past, Korean middle class families were unable to pay for ravel and boarding expenses, so studying abroad was off the table. However, because of how South Korea's economy is strengthening, it is becoming more feasible to send their children abroad. Their numbers include a large proportion of young people; according to Son Jung Son of the Philippine Korean Cultural Center in Seoul, over 1,500 Koreans under 20 years old arrive in the Philippines every month to study English. However Koreans have a more negative view of the Philippine English accent, as compared to their more positive attitudes towards American English. This point was brought to wide public attention when a video of actress Lee Da hae mocked the Filipino accent on a KBS television show "went viral" among internet users in the Philippines. Lee, who herself had previously taken classes with a Filipino English teacher, quickly apologized and denied that any insult was intended. Some Koreans are also attracted to the chance to learn Spanish, taking advantage of the country's historic ties to Spain; seven thousand South Korean students are reported to study at the Instituto Cervantes in Manila. Illegal ESL tutorial schools have been a persistent problem, and eventually provoked government crackdown. In early January 2011, Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers raided the Korean owned Fantasy World resort in Lemery, Batangas on reports from anti gambling advocate and competing school operator Sandra Cam that an ESL school was operating illegally there, and arrested six operators. Newspaper reports claimed that the BI was quite reluctant to carry out the raid and were only forced into it by Cam's threat to publicly denounce the BI, since protection money had been paid to some immigration officers. The seventy students of the school were found to have no special study permits (SSPs) allowing them to enroll in schools in the Philippines, and the owners of the school were found to have no business permits. The BI ordered that everyone involved be deported. The case attracted a number of negative reports in the South Korean media as well, complaining that the Philippines were "ungrateful" and "racist". In the coming weeks a total of 154 Korean minors would be detained in relation to raids on schools. However, the Department of Foreign Affairs emphasized that it saw the students as victims of deception by the managers, not criminals. They would not be charged with a crime.

South Koreans living in the Philippines have a Korean medium day school for their community's children, the Korean International School Philippines at McKinley Hill in the Bonifacio Global City in Taguig, Metro Manila; it was opened in January 2009 in a cooperative venture between South Korea's Ministry of Education and several South Korean nationals living in the Philippines, who jointly invested more than US$1 million. Korean children are also served by seven weekend Korean language schools recognised by the South Korean government, the earliest being the ones in Cebu and Antipolo, both founded in 1994. Between 1997 and 2000, five more schools were founded in Davao City, Angeles City, Pasay, Baguio, and Cainta. In total, the seven schools enroll 383 students.