It's a drag on Koreans with two nationalities. I was born as an American, and I lived in the US for a long time. I don't want to throw away my American nationality, especially when it's hard to get one these days. Unfortunately, Koreans consider people with two nationalities as law-breakers. They also think Koreans who drop their Korean nationality do it to escape the army. Actually, with Koreans who are from another country, it has nothing to do with the army. I'd go to the army if it was possible to do so. But if I did, I would've been an illegal immigrant, because non-Koreans are not allowed to stay in Korea for more than 90 days (and you know how long you have to be in a Korean army). Now I can stay in Korea without leaving because I have proven myself to the immigration department that I don't have a Korean nationality. Why can't Korea allow dual citizenship?

Because its korea duh. We koreans have strong pride.

It's probably the best policy for now IMO. If Korea liberalized its citizenship laws, that would potentially open up a lot of unexpected legal complications that I don't think Korea is capable of dealing with at the moment.

i also have american citizen ship even tho i'm living in singapore, duh i was born there.... i will be switching to korean citizenship in 5 years time and will go to the army!

come on show some national pride!

Would that be necessary if you're not going to live in Korea? It's very difficult to get your US citizenship back.

Military service is a very important element for being "Korean", especially expatriots. Just look at how people treat "Steve" Yoo(유승준). But then again, that dubmass branded himself as the model teenager.. someone that Korean teenagers can look upto. So that would've put more responsibility on his part, making his choice even more reprehensible.

If you ask me, even if you don't do your military service or give up your Korean citizenship, you'd still be a Korean as long as you accept its cultural legacy, heritage and most importantly, identity. As long as these conditions are met, I don't think Koreans would mind.

Overseas Koreans can apply for the F-4 visa which is basically permanent residency. It's not citizenship but it is a potential alternative.

If you apply for it first make totally certain that your Korean nationality is totally dropped, otherwise you might be drafted out of the blue.

Although I don't know who Steve Yoo is, if he had a Korean cultural legacy, heritage and identity, then I guess Koreans wouldn't have minded if he didn't do his military service. So I agree with you. But if he already had those, then you're contradicting yourself.

Frankly, I think most Koreans are accepting of other cultures, but they need to change their old laws.

- Sorry, double post.
Normally, I could add this post to my previous one without having the edit message.

what's the problem then? you seem to have an understanding with the immigration people. Keep in mind thought that korea is still in a state of war with NK so we still need people to put on the uniform.

I mean this guy:



Did he carry on the Korean cultural legacy, heritage and identity? I don't know, since I don't know him in person. But what I DO know is that he branded himself as the "tough" guy, and has been socially active, sponsored by the government, as a role-model for Korean teenagers. And the fact is that a lot of Korean teenagers did look up to them. And this guy's been telling us that he'll do his military duties. Then suddenly, on the last minute, he changes his citizenship to escape conscription. Not only was he abandoning a part of his Korean legacy/identity just to escape conscription - he was also an important figure to his fellow Koreans.. and he betrayed them. So I'd say it's a special case, to some extent.

I never said anything against the recruitment. What I meant was that if Korea allowed dual citizenship, then Korean-Americans would be able to go to the Korean army. You can't do that right now because Korea doesn't allow Korean-American adults to stay in Korea for more than 90 days. If you have a foreign registration, then you can stay in Korea continuously, but in order to do that, you need to prove that you're not Korean. Now if you get into the Korean army without a foreign registration and if you can only stay in Korea for 90 days, then you'll become an illegal immigrant because you can't leave the army. Korean-Americans don't go to the Korean army because they shouldn't, not because they don't want to. There are some who don't want to, but I'm sure most of them are willing to if Korea won't penalize them for staying in Korea for too long.

I don't know how it was with Steve Yoo.

@SK,
I see. I recognize that guy as 유승준. I didn't know that he had another name.

oh I see what you're saying. Don't they issue you a different kind of visa if you have to serve in the korean military?

Also, just curious but does the US let its citizens join another nation's military? Can the US revoke your citizenship if you join the South Korean military? US law says that you can't swear allegience to another country.

I think americans are barred from serving in the military of another country. Anyway, it can be one reason, maybe not enough in itself, to take away your citizenship.

as for steve yoo 유승준, I didn't like the fact that he kept on saying how korean he was and that he would join the military, taking his profits as he said this, but then when it got down to actually doing his duty he bailed. That's not good.

No they don't. Even if they did, then they would realize that the person has dual citizenship, which isn't what that person would want to happen, especially while being trapped in the army. Whether they go to a Korean army or not, if they stay in Korea, then they're life gets screwed.

Right now, the best choice for a Korean-American who is in the enlistment age is to not stay in Korea for a long period of time.


Yes, but the US government doesn't have to know about who is going to an army of another country.

I was told by the local Immigration office that I now qualify for citizenship. I would like to get it and would be willing to do some type of service (but I am getting kind of old). The thing is though, I'm not willing to give up my Canadian citizenship. Personally, I look forward to the time when they allow for approval of both.

It says in your passport that you are in jeopardy of losing citizenship if you join another country's military, vote in a foreign election, or swear allegiance. but it also qualifies it by saying it will only happen if you take those actions with the specific intent of giving up your US citizenship. There are US citizens who served in the SK military without losing citizenship, but n those case they were draftees rather than volunteers.

Anyway, the way to know is probably to contact the embassy.


Also, don't most countries disallow dual citizenship? I don't think this issue is one where Korea is behind the rest of the world.

Hmm. I never heard of that. So how did they deal with that 90 day limit issue? Before I had a foreign registration, I had to pay a fine because I stayed four more days than the time limit. Every 90 days, I went to Japan and came back to Korea.

Now I remember. I have heard of Korean-Americans who got caught in the Korean airport and sent to the army. It's really unfair because the Korean-Americans didn't realize that they were breaking the Korean law. That's a very undesirable way to get into the army when they're being treated like criminals. I remember seeing a warning sign about this in the Korean consulate in San Francisco.

In at least one case, a guy unknowingly still had Korean citizenship, and had actually been issued an F-4 visa and alien registration card. Immigration didn't do a thorough enough check and it turned out that when he was born, his granddad had put him in the family registry without telling the parents. He was from Seattle, I'll try to dig up the article later.

What I don't like about people who work in Korean immigration is that they jump to the conclusion that a Korean-American is leaving Korea to avoid the army. In most cases (I would say 99.9% of the time) it has nothing to do with the army. Actually, I think the people at Korean-immigration might become the first Koreans to realize this, since they're the ones who witness these things the most. There are quite a lot of other Koreans who think every Korean-American dude they meet is breaking the law and avoiding the army. It takes a while for me to make them realize that we have a life in the US.

korean imigration laws are the toughest in asia. korea has foreigner populations of around 1% of its total population (long term residance i.e. more than 6months). This is very very homogenous and is the most homogenous in east asia. There are increasing number of chinese and vietnamese immigrants and a decline of americans (good thing). I dont mind asians mixing with other asians, not that noticeable. In the future we need immigrants in korea (most likely other asians) unless there is an unexpected boom.

there is currently nearly 50,000 people in korea and around 200,000 of them are long term residants (visa waiver is only 6months and makes up 450,000). 30,000 americans, 100,000 chinese and the rest vietnamese and other tiny minorities. korean immigration laws are fine because its still a 99% homogenous society with some immigrants to boost the labor force.

why is that? are you a racist? anways ,most immigrants will come from asia since labour workers will come from those areas. expect people from south asia too(india, pakistan, bangladesh)

You wish our country become Chinese eventually.





BTW, I KNOW HOW these Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis really are.

Dual citizenship is bad; it allows people of dual loyalty to become citizens. That's a major problem in America.

they're pretty nice.

Yeah, they tend to very pleasers and adulators to get what they want.

Really? I don't believe that at all.

Where are you getting these numbers from?

Much easier to understand if you understand what's going on in Europe.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/st...2072233,00.html

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/norman...eader_song.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/South_korea#Demographics

go look at that website. OFFICIALLY there are ~400,000 foreign workers from southeast asia, south asia, europe and america (including military and expat english teachers. This is just under 1% of South koreas total population (0.8%). This is not including ethnic chinese, though it includes chinese foriegn laborers. Ethnic chinese are people who lived in korea for decades. Ofcourse if we add ethnic chinese to this then total foreign pop will be at least 1.5%. BTW this statistic is including the small number of illegal foreign worker immigrants mostly from south east asia that sneak in through south korea.

btw i dont see why chinese people in korea is a big issue. Most likely they will be assimilated and speak korean language as well as chinese. also they will mix with the korean population, which really isnt an issue since we are basically the same RACE. What will be a problem is when you see white people in korea being the same population of chinese in korea. This will mean korea will lose its culture, but this wont ever happen because of current immigration laws.

well i dont want white people interbreeding in korea. I want to see koreans in korea, at least ASIANS. Because us asians can be assimilated more easily than whites who think their culture is superior to ours. We dont want a cultural revolution taking place in our country.

frozen korean, you do realize that Asians generally DON'T all see themselves as being the same race. And that many Koreans see themselves as having the world's superior culture and purest blood. Kind of shoots a few holes in your argument.



Excellent choice of words.

?





And don't these words contradict the words highlighted above? Why don't you stop spewing your ignorance?

i meant asians are the same race. ie.chinese, japanese, vietnamese, korean, mongolian,etc. human race is the broad term which im not using.

Yeah, race is a broad term as well. Koreans and chinese and SE Asians are NOT SAME RACE.

new korean they are korean nationality

Nice picture but immigrants are not the answer. The answer is in increasing the birthrate.

Korea's birthrate is about 1.1 births per woman. That's the lowest of the OECD countries. That means korea is going out of business, like daewoo or hanbo steel.

Immigrants have a higher birth rate and will just REPLACE koreans. Immigration does not help the exporting countries.

Wanting more immigrants is ignoring the REAL problem, which is the genocidal/suicidal birth rate. Korea is committing suicide.

How do we raise the birthrate?