South Koreans clearly don’t want Muslim refugees in their country, a poll shows. While half the respondents say they have a favourable view of refugees, this changes when they are asked how they think about Muslim refugees.
An overwhelming majority say they oppose the idea of their country accepting Muslim migrants and they cite the dangers associated with them.
Two-thirds, (66.6 per cent) of the survey’s young subjects said they don’t want any Muslim refugees: Of those, 74 per cent are women and 60 per cent are men.
The poll is very timely as Muslim refugees have asked to enter South Korea. This caused unrest and led to protests as 1,000 Yemeni refugees used the visa programme to enter South Korea’s Jeju resort island.
Commenting on the results, Kim Dae-keun, a research fellow at the Korean Institute of Criminology, thinks younger women are more hostile to refugees because most of the Yemeni asylum seekers are men.
The arguments against accepting Muslim migrants are that they are seen as a threat to public safety, they could bring terrorism, and there are cultural differences.
South Koreans have started protesting against refugees since June this year as they think that Muslims threaten their cultural heritage.
“Local people here are worried, we have all read about the problems that immigrants have caused in Europe — in Germany and France in particular — and we do not want that to happen here,” Hank Kim, owner of the Core Travel Agency says.
There was also a protest in Seoul’s City Hall against the visa-waiver program in which hundreds of people participated. “We urge the government to put Korean citizens before refugees,” a rally organiser says.
“We are not against all refugees. But we should not accept foreigners who try to exploit the policy as a means of seeking economic interests and dodging the draft in their countries,” he adds.
He continues: “We are also worried because of their religion. We have had no contact with Muslim people before, but we know that they all have big families and they bring their own culture instead of trying to adapt to the place where they live.”
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