4월 16일 (목) Young Couples Fill Emigration Fair

[Nios(임규철)]

Young Couples Fill Emigration Fair

An increasing number of young South Korean couples are seeking a new life in foreign countries due mainly to the stiff competition for *higher education of their children and unstable job market here.

The trend was evident during a fair held in Seoul over the weekend to provide information on emigration and studying overseas.

"Because it’s hard to make a living here in Korea," said a woman in her 30s, who was carrying her four-year-old girl, when asked why she plans to leave Seoul and settle in Australia, at the emigration fair at the Convention and Exhibition Center (COEX) in southern Seoul. "I don’t want my children to grow up here as it is obvious they have to *undergo stiff competition in education and throughout their whole life."

With some 100 exhibitors of emigration agencies, law firms, embassies, and overseas education centers from 10 countries such as the U.S., Canada, New Zealand and Australia, the Korea Emigration Fair 2004/Fall drew some 20,000 visitors during the two days.

An emigration boom in South Korea is not new, as many people have left their homeland. According to *the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the number of people emigrating from the country was 11,584 in 2001, 11,966 in 2002, and 10,497 last year.

However, the age of those wanting to leave the country is becoming younger, as recent polls showed over 70 percent of those in their 20s-30s are considering emigration. In fact, many of the visitors at the emigration fair were those in their 30s-early 40s.

"The number of visitors has greatly increased from last spring, and, especially this time, we have seen many young parents aged in their 30s-40s," a staff of the organizer Korea Trade Fair Ltd. said.

According to visitors, the factors that drive them to want to leave for foreign countries: *a collapsed public education system that does not play its role, severe competition children have to endure *in aiming for prestigious schools, and the nation’s sluggish economy that does not seem to recover easily.

"Education for my children is the biggest reason in deciding on emigration," said Son, a 40-year-old businessman. "It is too expensive to raise and educate them in Seoul, but I can’t move to the outskirts either for fear that they may not enter good colleges with the lower quality schooling there," he said.

Characteristically, with young parents dreaming of a better education for their children these days means the emigration of the whole family, not just the children being sent to study abroad alone.

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1. Have you ever seriously considered emigrating from Korea to another country permanently? If so where would you like to live? Why?

2. What advantages exist in other countries that can not be realized in Korea? Why?
What disadvantages are there to living in a foreign country? To the advantages outweigh the disadvantages?

3. What is your opinion of the Korean education system? Is it worth sending children overseas and splitting up families in order to receive a Western education?

4. Is a Western education worth a child losing his or her cultural identity?

5. What is to blame for the deterioration of opportunities for Korean people to lead prosperous lives in their homeland? Does it ever frustrate you that there are often more opportunities in Korea for foreigners than for Korean people?