Mr. Kim came to Canada; he had dreams; did he realize them?
(지난 호에 이어)
The settlement stage is the one in which the immigrants settle down. The most urgent need during this stage is the physical survival. You need a job or a business to support your family. You need a place to stay. You have to find a good school for your kids.
The second stage is one of adaptation. During this stage, you as immigrant have to adapt yourself to the host society’s way of thinking and doing; for this, you have to modify to some extent your old way of thinking and doing. This stage is one where your kids start to get into the local labor market.
During the third stage of integration, your adaptation is wide enough and deep enough to feel comfortable in the host society and most of the community members have good jobs and social positions; you do feel no more that you are marginal people. This is the stage where the second generation becomes parents and the third generation begins to get into the local labor market.
Finally during the fourth stage, you are no longer immigrants. You become a part of the mainstream of the host society.
The period needed for each stage depends on the culture distance; the greater is the culture distance, the longer the stage duration is. In the case of West Europeans who share the common Christian values as Canadians, it may take less than hundred years.
In the case of Koreans who have values very different from the Canadian values, it may take much longer. Moreover, even if the culture distance is the same, the duration of the process may differ depending on the efforts of the community.
The Korean community of Montreal was better structured in 1978 when it was registered by virtue of Quebec law as non-profit organization. However, according to Professor Hong, the Korean community has just ended its settlement stage and it is getting into the next stage of adaptation.
Kim thought that the Korean community of Montreal has done well for the stage of establishment. Most of the households have succeeded in assuring reasonable income, buying a house and above all sending their kids to good schools. During the stage of establishment, the community was relatively united and helped each other.
Moreover, the church played a big role; it went to the airport to welcome the new immigrants, helped the new comers in finding house, acquiring business, selecting school for children. The Association of Koreans of Montreal also provided assistant to new comers.
Various voluntary service organizations sprang up to meet various specific needs. There were many associations: the association of senior people, the association of business people, golf association, literature group, traditional dance group and many others.
As the community had solved the problems of basic needs, it became interested in making a bridge between the Korean community and the Quebec society.
Some of the presidents of the Association organized a series of seminar to initiate Koreans to the Quebec society; participated in collective activities sponsored by the Quebec government and other public and semi-public organizations. Many of these activities were funded by government grants. These activities helped in creating a favorable image of Koreans in Montreal.
The Korean community of Koreans in Montreal is now entering the adaptation stage of its evolution. This is a crucial stage, because it is a stage where the next generation comprising the 1.5th generation and the second generation people are getting into the job market. Many of them have finished reputed universities. Unfortunately, many of them are having difficulty in securing a good job.
The key to the success of the stage of adaptation is the adaptation of the youth to the Quebec society. It is just impossible to expect the adaptation of the first generation people. In other words, the next generation people have the responsibility of the process of adaptation of the community as a whole.
The precondition for adaptation is the job. Unfortunately, the Korean youth are having difficulties in finding suitable jobs. There are several reasons for this reality. To begin with, in Quebec, more than sixty per cent of jobs are obtained through links and networking.
This explains why there are so many immigrants who are qualified but who cannot find the job. Second, more than 95% of Korean youth go to English speaking universities in Montreal, where great majority of firms are French speaking. Very few Korean youth go to French speaking universities.
One solution would be the creation of jobs by Koreans. But, most of Koreans run small-scale retail business and cannot offer jobs to Korean youth.
Most of Korean parents prefer McGill University and this is quite understandable; it is one of the world class universities. But they do not know the political reality of Quebec. For great many French Quebecers, McGill is the symbol of English domination in Quebec and some French speaking firms are hesitant to hire immigrants with McGill degrees.
Korean parents should know one important fact; it is much easier to find jobs if their children go to the Universite de Montreal or the Universite du Quebec a Montreal.
The difficulty of finding jobs in Quebec leads to the departure of many young Koreans from Montreal; it is so bad that for last ten years, the population of the second generation people had declined.
This is a big contrast to other visible minority communities including African community where the population of the second generation has increased.
If this trend continues, the Korean community of Montreal will have a very bleak future. Thus, one has to find solutions. Kim participated at one of the hot debates on the problem of Korean youth employment.
The debate took place in Tim Horton cafe on one of Sundays in July 2011. There were ten people consisting of three senior men, two ladies of the fifties, three men of forties and two university students. The debate was focused on the best way to find jobs for the Korean youth.
(다음 호에 계속)
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