The Conflicts Between Legal Status and Cultural Membership of North Korean Migrants in South Korea

Abstract

본 논문의 목적은 남한 사회가 규정한 북한이주민의 초기 통합 과정에 대한 연구를 통해 그 안에서 드러나는 북한이주민의 법적 지위와 사회문화적 정체성간의 간극에 관해 알아 보는 데 있다. 이 연구는 2006 년부터 2007 년까지 북한이주민 아동을 위한 방과후 교실의 자원교사 활동과 공릉새터민 정착지원센터의 정착지원도우미 활동을 통해 이루어졌다. 북한이주민은 그들에게만 규정되는 특별한 과정을 통해 남한사회에 통합된다. 남한에 도착해서 이들은 ‘북한이탈주민정착지원사무소(하나원)’에 입소해 두 달의 남한사회 초기적응 교육을 받는다. 그 후 대한민국 국민을 상징하는 주민등록증을 발급 받고 초기 정착에 필요한 정착금 일부와 앞으로 살아갈 거주지를 배정 받게 된다. 남한 정부가 북한이주민에게 특별한 법적 지위를 주는 배경에는 남한 사회의 한민족 담론과 통치권의 범위를 한반도 전체로 규정하고 있는 대한민국 헌법이 있다. 이로써 이들은 ‘공식적’으로 남한 사회 구성원으로서의 법적 지위를 부여받게 되는 것이다. 하지만 이들은 대한민국의 국민이 되었음에도 불구하고 여전히 ‘북한에서 온 사람들’로 인식된다. 북한이주민은 민족 분단이라는 현실, 또 지배적인 단일민족 담론으로 인해 모호한 위치를 갖게된다. 이들의 이러한 위치는 남한사회 멤버십의 경계의 임의적인 특성과 국가 정체성의 과도기적인 성격을 보여 준다고 할 수 있다. 이 연구는 북한이주민들의 사례를 통해 대한민국의 민족적 국민국가로서의 성격을 살펴 보고 초국가적인 이주가 늘어나는 시대에 남한 사회의 민족 경계와 국민국가 담론에 대한 새로운 차원의 연구의 필요성을 제시한다.; North Korean migrants are one of the most exclusively categorized groups of "Korean newcomers" who most critically display the current trends of transnational movements; Korea's past of national division; and issues of boundaries of legal and cultural membership in South Korea. Moreover, their presence embodies the politics of sovereignty over the Korean peninsula and its hegemonic discourse of homogeneity. This thesis explores two main dimensions of North Korean migrants' conditions vis-a-vis their relation to the South Korean state. The first dimension examines their process of obtaining legal membership; and the second dimension explores their cultural membership through their experiences and narratives of how they consent and dissent their process of incorporation into South Korean society. The study's fieldwork is based on long-term participant observation as a volunteer English teacher at Hanuri (a non-profit after school program for North Korean migrant youths) and as a settlement assistant at Gongneung Saeteomin Service Center (a local public welfare office) from 2006-2007. North Korean migrants go through a very specific process of temporal and spatial incorporation into South Korean society. Upon arrival they are immediately placed in a secluded state settlement education center for two months of social education and become legal members of South Korea. On the day of their release, they are allocated residence all across South Korea (mostly in Seoul), and presented with local resident registration number (which is equivalent to the U.S. social security number and signifies their South Korean citizenship), settlement funds and housing in rent-controlled apartments. Nonetheless, North Korean migrants' socio-cultural membership remains limited despite their legal status as "South Korean citizens." The sanction for the presence of North Korean migrants in South Korea is founded on its discourse of ethnic homogeneity and reunification. However, while they are embraced as part of the greater Korean ethnic community, they are received as particular kinds of "Koreans." Further, although their presence in the past was propagandized to strengthen its sovereignty and legitimacy against the communist North Korea, their current presence supports its discourse of peaceful reunification. The ambivalent dispositions of the South Korean state toward North Korean migrants bring about questions of what citizenship is to South Korea. The combination of these factors addresses an arbitrariness (or the transitional nature) of South Korea's boundaries for legal and cultural membership, and raises questions about its national identity and future responses to growing transnational movements. The direction of South Korea as a nation state especially in times of transnational movements is unclear. Thus, an evaluation of notions of citizenship, nationality and ethnicity - with increasing communications with North Korea, national global participation as well as increasing border crossers in and out of South Korea - is imminent in further defining its national identity and conditions of those residing in South Korea.