Why Not Accept Refugees:The Case Of South Korean

In 2020,more than 80 million people around the world have been forced to flee their homes and become refugees.The number of war refugees is rapidly increasing as conflicts over power and border issues are intensifying around the world.Refugees who risk their lives to cross the border avoiding war,terrorism and poverty are not the only problem in neighboring countries.The recent events in Afghanistan and the war in Ukraine have forced the international community to become more concerned about refugees.Various countries have been attempting to solve the refugee problem.Unlike European countries,which have historically taken in refugees,East Asian countries have continued to refuse to accept refugees.Although South Korea is the first Asian country to joined the Refugee Convention in 1992 and enacted a refugee law in 2012 that embodies the treatment and rights of refugees,the its recognition rate of refugees is the lowest among the G-20 countries,accounting for only 0.8percent.In this thesis,I will analyze the causes of the low refugee recognition rate and the limitations of the Korean refugee policy despite the active government interest in the Korean refugee issue(w.I argue that the following factors explain South Korea’s limitation of the refugee policy: the government’s attitude toward refugees,the negative perception of the Korean people through the government’s public opinion creation,and the incomplete refugee policy.Since joining the Refugee Convention in 1992,the South Korean government has been skeptical about refugees.Furthermore,the public’s perception of refugees has changed even more negatively due to fake news and public opinion against them.Korea’s incomplete refugee system deprives many refugees of their right to life,leading to human rights issues.In examining South Korea’s refugee policy,the thesis conducts a case study on the Yemeni refugees in Jeju Island in 2018.This study makes contribution to the existing literature on refugees and migration,by examining the relatively understudied case of South Korea and specifying the limitation of the policy through a case study of Yemeni refugees.Through this research,I hope to find a new direction for the protection of Korean refugees and to find a better direction by protecting them from a more humanitarian perspective.