From Overt to Covert Racial Discrimination in Australia:the Experiences of Korean Migrants

From Overt to Covert Racial

Discrimination in Australia:

The Experiences of Korean Migrants

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Gil-Soo Han*

Abstract: Analyzing the interview data generated from three groups of Korean migrants, i.e., amnesty, skilled and business migrants, this article documents how racial discrimination against non-Anglo-Celtic migrants has shifted its characteristics. The comparison of the experiences of the three groups, who have arrived in Australia since the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s respectively, shows that racism has largely changed its nature from overt to covert although overt kind has not completely disappeared in the 1990s. Whatever form of racism may be prevalent, its impact on the life of immigrants is always serious.

Introduction

Australia has received a large number of immigrants from numerous countries since the end of World War II, the use of migrant labour being crucial for Australian capitalist development. At various times in the post war period, the main areas of origin and the criteria for determining

* Monash University.

Korean Social Science Journal, Vol. 29, No. 2 (2002): 1-13 No 2002 by the Korean Social Science Research Council

2^• Gil-Soo Han

migrant entry have changed. In different phases, unskilled migration was permitted; at other times preference was given to those possessing skill. Some have entered as a result of amnesties offered to those entering illegally. Others have entered as business migrants. Regardless of the mode of entry, many experience racism, despite the end of the 'White Australia' policy. This article documents changes in the characteristics of racial discrimination in Australia since the 1970s as experienced by Korean men. It will be argued that there has been a shift in the experience of racism from explicit and overt manifestations to more subtle, implicit and covert forms.

Koreans make up one of the rapidly increasing Asian ethnic groups in Australia. There are currently about 37,000 Koreans in Australia (cited in The Australian 15 Aug. 1996). More than 80% are residing in the Sydney metropolitan area, the rest having settled primarily in Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth. The main thrust of Korean migration to Australia started with the coming of about 500 Koreans as tourists in the early 1970s, many of them having worked in the battlefields of Vietnam War (Han 1994). The majority of them were drawn from lower socio-economic backgrounds in Korea. They left for work overseas because they wanted to escape unemployment in the 1960s, when the Korean economy was poor. They became permanent residents in Australia as a result of the amnesties in 1974, 1976 and 1980. Within the Korean community they are known as 'amnesty migrants'. By comparison, most Korean immigrants who arrived in Australia in the 1980s were from middle class and professional backgrounds (skilled migrants); those arriving in the 1990s tended to come from small entrepreneurial backgrounds and entered as business migrants (Coughlan 1995; Han 2002a).

This period during which the three groups of Korean migrants entered Australia is one of increasing cultural diversity. The abandonment of overtly racist national boundaries since the 1970s coincided with the increasing economic and political importance of the Asian region for Australia, leading to a non-discriminatory entry policy (Castles 1992: 45). Following the adoption of an official policy of multiculturalism and the beginnings of legal moves outlawing racial discrimination, the way in

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which racism is practised has undergone subtle shifts. However, racism is still deeply embedded in Australian society and forms a key parameter of the everyday experience of Korean migrants.

Methods

Data for this study were generated from interviews with the three groups of Korean men: 17 amnesty, 14 skilled, and 9 business migrants, using an open ended semi-focussed interview schedule. In addition a number of other Korean informants provided informal interview data. Over one hundred Koreans altogether participated in the study. Respondents and other participants were recruited for inclusion in the study after a pilot study in Sydney focussing initially in a suburb of high concentration of Korean migrants. During this period of field work a deliberate effort had been made to sample across different contexts and social sites and to identify key informants and potential study participants through snowballing. Eventually the 'modes of being admitted to Australia' were utilized as the basis of 'theoretical sampling' strategy (Wadsworth 1984) for two key reasons. First, the different mode of permanent entry was the common way of differentiating Koreans amongst themselves in the Korean community, i.e., 'mode of entry' was highly pertinent in the subjective definition of the major groups in the Korean community. When Koreans in Sydney refer to one another they often say that he is a computer migrant or he migrated as a cook; he is a business migrant; he worked in the Vietnam War before coming to Australia; or he was a migrant to Mexico before. Secondly, it was suspected that the subjective terms used to categorize Koreans had much to do with their class backgrounds. Pilot study proved that this is true. I thought that through including class differences in backgrounds and tracing the impact of class of origin on their immigrant life this would enrich the analysis of the findings of this study.

Interviews were conducted in Korean at the places of choice by the interviewees. Through the constant use of inductive and deductive logic

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and a concern with verification, the data collected from respondents and informants has been systematically coded and analysed, according to the principles of grounded theory methodology (Strauss and Corbin 1990: 111).

Amnesty Migrants

Before coming to Australia, amnesty migrants had already experienced and also exercised racism against others when working overseas or catering for American soldiers in Korea. Australia was known as 'the White Australia' amongst Koreans even in the 1980s. Thus, it took courage for them to dare to enter Australia and they were determined to 'put up with' harsh racism. The character of racism that the amnesty migrants experienced in the 1970s was often crude and overt. For example, when Ch'oe Ki-sang was walking in a street, looking for a flat to rent in 1974, somebody upstairs poured a bucket of water on top of his head. He walked up to the person's residence and faced him. But, he did not know what to say. People came around the scene only to say 'Why don't you go home?' The incident remains vivid in Ch'oe's mind and is still hurting him. While some amnesty migrants felt that the nature of racism has changed from overt to covert, others dissented:

When I arrived in 1973, I felt a rather low degree of racism. Since then the coming of a large number of boat people from Asia seems to have clouded the image of Asians. Thus racism has gone from bad to worse. ... Personally, I can't care too much about racism as it doesn't directly influence my everyday life. I've been told that Asians in the public service have terrible difficulties obtaining promotion (Song Chu-p'yo, amnesty migrant).

It is not that racism does not affect his everyday life, but that he cannot afford to be bothered by it. The obvious increase of Asian migration to Australia seems to have contributed in popular consciousness to the mistaken notion that Asians are taking jobs from Euro-Australians and are contributing negatively to the Australian economy. Such beliefs

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have tended to become more pervasive especially during times of economic recession. Indeed, multiculturalism seems to have brought about little change to racism. The emotional toll caused by racism still persists in Australia.

Na Kang-jin (another amnesty migrant) is a law graduate from a Korean university and had worked as a manager of overseas branches of a few Korean companies in the Middle East and South Vietnam till the early 1970s. His intention to make a trip to Australia after the collapse of South Vietnam eventually led him to settle in Sydney. The way in which he, as a fluent English speaker, dealt with racism differs from that of many other Koreans. One of his experiences occurred in the early period of his life in Sydney as a taxi driver. One day he admitted a Euro-Australian woman into his taxi. According to him, the conversation Na had with her is as follows.

Na: Where shall I take you?

She: Dee Why.

Na: Which way would you like me to take?

She: Don't you know how to get there?

Na: I know, but I should ask you and take the way you prefer.

She: I don't know why you're so troublesome. Do you have a taxi driver's

licence?

Na: ... (jokingly) Well, well, I corrupted the supervisor for the driving test. She: Australia is getting polluted everyday due to the continuing incoming

migrants. It was a much better country before.

Na went on to say,

She soon started to be explicit in her racist attitude. I couldn't bear the attitude. At last, I pulled up the car in front of a police office. I reported how I was abused. She completely denied what happened, with a smile. The way she behaved and talked was decent and different from when she was in the car. I decided to forget about what happened, I started to drive the taxi, wanting to take her to Dee Why. However, as the taxi moved, her racist attitude became even more explicit, using all the dirty words to blame Asian migrants in particular. I started to blame her as well, also using dirty words I

6• Gil-Soo Han

hardly used before. As the argument kept going on, she might have felt she was losing the battle. Then she got hold of the microphone in the taxi and threw it to my face. I looked at the mirror and saw the blood running off my lips. I didn't wash it off and drove the taxi to another police station. I reported again what happened. Two police officers came and asked her to come to the office. She refused, but she was dragged out of the taxi.

The incident achieved nothing. The unpleasant memory still bothers Na. In this case, Na was somewhat prepared for argument or had sufficient intelligence and English language ability to know what to do in such a situation. However, Na's capacity to be able to cope better with structural racism does not mean the end of it (cf. Castles et al. 1988: 82). The very reason he had to drive a taxi, which is incommensurate with his qualifications and work experience, was primarily because of an underlying social structuring mechanism sustained by a Euro-Australian dominated capitalist development process, which especially disadvantages Non-English Speaking Background (NESB) immigrants in the labour market. Unlike Na, most other drivers interviewed mentioned that they often have to put up with racial discrimination, adversely affecting their mental health. Kim Chong-su, now driving his own taxi, said that he drove a taxi for a company for many years, but he always had been treated as a beginner driver with no experience at all until the day of resignation. However, he considered that driving a taxi in Australia is much better than in Korea where a taxi driver is regarded as no more than dirt. Nevertheless, his stressful life largely attributable to racism, in addition to other work-related stress, continued. As Koreans have experienced racism frequently, they often try to forget about it.

I've experienced racism but I don't want to see it as racism. If I think I'm racially discriminated against, I get angry. For my own sake, I should control my temper. It helps me overcome the problem (Kim Ki-ch'un, amnesty migrant).

Despite Kim's effort to forget about racism, he had to face it and seemed to have overcome it in an active way.

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I was working as a clerk in a supply company. One day three Australian workers were busy talking even though it was a busy day. I wished I knew how to drive a fork lift. As soon as I sat on one of the lifts, one bloke shouted, 'Get out of there you son of a bitch.' ... I decided to get a licence to drive one. Investing 30 minutes or an hour a few times a week for the lessons I obtained the licence in 3 months. Then I looked for another chance to sit on the seat of a lift and I did one day. As if they owned the lift one of them shouted, 'Why don't you get out of it, you f...ing bastard?' Two others joined him. I remained sitting there. As they approached me I showed them my licence. They had nothing to say. ... I didn't really need a licence. Only reason I got it was to overcome racism. The licence has been useful from time to time (Kim Ki-ch'un, amnesty migrant).

Being a wage earner is often alienating and hard enough for anyone, because the worker has little control over work. However, Koreans have to cope with the extra burden of racism. They feel it has adversely affected their mental health.

Skilled and Business Migrants

Unlike the amnesty migrants' experiences of overt racism those of skilled migrants have been subtle ones. Racism is subtle in the sense that it is not as explicit as pouring water on a person or verbally abusing them. It takes the form that, for example, an immigrant computer worker may never get called for a job interview or may feel guilty for not being fluent in English at work, which may lead to his/her resignation.

Amongst many people in my company there was one person with a British background. He was a character. He worked for the company for 35 years but he's never been abroad. He had travelled by air only once when he went to Tasmania. I wanted to offer him a cup of tea many times. He wouldn't respond. He was a kind of headache for me. I sometimes jokingly abused him in Korean. He asked me what I said. I told him, 'I said, you're the son of a bitch'. As time passed we became friendly with one another. When I gave him a birthday card, he was so happy and hugged me. ... Educated and intel-

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From Overt to Covert Racial Discrimination in Australia • 9

ligent persons wouldn't discriminate against people on the basis of birthplace. He had received only 6 years of education (Yi Yun-se, skilled migrant).

Yi has put an extra effort into overcoming structural racism manifested by his colleague at work. It would be inconceivable that every migrant worker could continue to be so co-operative and maintain a friendly stance at their workplace. Although I note Yi's methods for gaining acceptance I am concerned about his continuing proneness to adopt a 'the victim bashing' attitude.¹ Although Yi's constant effort to create and maintain a friendly relationship with the dominant group is impressive, I am concerned about racial discrimination which is deeply embedded at the level of structure, which determined, for example, how Yi and his Euro-Australian colleague would interact at work. There seemed to be an expectation that the maintenance of 'a friendly climate' at work must be created by NESB workers rather than by Euro-Australians. It was hard to explain how a primary educated person survived as a computer technician for 35 years. Many university educated and experienced Korean workers could not tolerate a similar job for more than a few years, although the amount of formal education was not necessarily the only significant operating factor.

In the Korean community, it is a widely accepted view that racial discrimination as well as lack of English sufficiency disadvantages skilled Korean immigrants and even second generation Koreans in the task of finding jobs or promotion (Han'guk Ilbo 7 Feb 1997: A4). Skilled migrants working as professionals found it hard to find a prospective employer and those already working see minimum opportunity for promotion.

I have a friend with an MBA degree. He was called for interviews numerous

1. In another part of the interview with Yi Yun-se, he said he helped his children overcome racism at their schools. Whilst he coped well with racism he seemed to have been under distress because of racism.

I sometimes visited my children at school and observed them from a distance. I wanted to make sure they weren't under stress and their school life was okay. My eldest son was good at t'aekkwфndo and won many prizes from competitions. One day, I put a trophy in his school bag. When his class mates saw the trophy they were reluctant to tease my son (Yi Yun-se, skilled migrant).

times but never selected. He and I think that had he been an Australian with his qualifications and experiences, he would have been welcomed by many companies. My friend got sick of the rigid system which doesn't welcome non-Anglo Australians. He ended up doing an Associate Diploma in Accounting and managed to find a teaching position at an institution of TAFE, for which he was over-qualified but it was his only option (Kim Tong-gwan, skilled migrant).

One of my friends worked for the Australian and New Zealand Banking Co. for a few years and quit the job to be a liaison officer for a Korean Ethnic Newspaper company. As he has grown up in Australia, his English is as fluent as that of an Australian. He said he didn't see any prospect for promotion (Ch'oe Chin-bom, skilled migrant).

Similarly, Yang Chin-u, who worked as a computer programer for a few years in Australia, said,

Promotion at work is almost impossible. The longer they work the higher the level of communication skills required, which may have nothing to do with computer work. ... Chances appear to be open for non-Anglo-Celtics. In reality, they aren't. ... Australians would smile in front of you but they'll stab you in the back (Yang Chin-u, skilled migrant).

To the questions regarding racism, all business migrant respondents had little to say about their experiences. Although they experienced racial discrimination occasionally, they tended not to take it as seriously as the other two groups did. This is not only because the characteristics of racism have become more subtle since the time of their arrival but also because it has been the Australian government that has wanted business migrants more than vice versa. According to the informants and respondents, the majority of Korean business migrants live on the interest of the capital they brought. When they experience difficulty establishing a business they tend to give up relatively easily because they, unlike other groups, have money to live on (Han 1996). An obvious result is that there are fewer opportunities for encountering racial discrimination. At the start of their initiating an application for immigration, they felt they had

10 • Gil-Soo Han

been treated with care and consideration. The 'special' care continued during their initial trip to Australia which has been well designed for them to assess the opportunities for business migration.

Other factors which discourage business migrants' involvement in business activities are as follows. Korean business migrants have a lack of understanding about Australian business conditions including its wage structure and union issues. Unlike in Korea, there is little access to cheap labour in Australia. While the success rate is generally low for small business, Korean business persons run a particularly high risk of failure because of the small size of the local Korean market and the limited opportunities for networking which are crucial for success. Many Korean business migrants appeared to have insufficient capital to run a business after buying a house, a car, and other goods (Han 2000b).

Discrimination Amongst NESB Migrants

Racial discrimination is practised not only between Australian-born Euro-Australians and NESB migrants but also between NESB migrants themselves. Koreans generally have a favourable opinion of Euro-Australians but are less favourably inclined towards other ethnic workers.

I've been a migrant in Australia for 15 years. Briefly, I think people [Euro-Australians] in this country are fair. Let's see how overseas workers suffer in Korea. That can't happen in Australia. The supervisors at my production work are [Euro-]Australians. When I have trouble understanding anything about my work they're always prepared to explain kindly to me. Kindness is part of their everyday life. Even when I make a mistake sometimes, it's they who say first 'Sorry.' That makes me feel so guilty that I quickly say, 'Sorry, it's my mistake.' The advancement of the Australian culture in general is incomparable to that of Korea. Even at work, it's not Australians who are bothering me but immigrants such as Italians, Yugoslavs and Lebanese (Hwang Chae-song, amnesty migrant).

I find it hard to put up with that. I work in a factory, located in Auburn. It

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has many immigrant workers from Korea, China, Lebanon, Vietnam, etc. I happened to hear a Lebanese chap talking to an Australian supervisor blaming Chinese workers. What does the Lebanese chap have to say as a menial worker? I told him, 'Leave Chinese alone. I'm a bloody Chinese myself. What's wrong with Chinese? Where the hell are you from? How is Lebanon, your home country?' Chinese workers at my work haven't got much English and seem to think, 'The Lebanese bastards are taking advantage of having been here for longer' (Yi Kil-bok, amnesty migrant).

The NESB ethnic groups, such as Italians, Yugoslavs and Lebanese, experienced racial discrimination in the past, as they had arrived in Australia prior to most Asian migrants. There appear to be conflictual relations amongst non-Euro-Australians, which for many Asians including Korean migrants means that they are suppressed or unnecessarily 'supervised' by other NESB immigrants such as Italian and Lebanese. In this context, it is only the employer who benefits.

The [Euro-Australian] employers here don't generally care about where I came from, as long as I'm a diligent worker. They treat you okay if you're good at what you're doing. They won't interrupt your work (Hwang Chae-song, amnesty migrant).

Productivity or efficiency appears to be the first priority for employers. In pointing to Euro-Australians, Koreans used terms such as 'yellow hairs,' 'British background Australians,' 'people in this country,' and 'Australian blokes'. Although they are no more than words on the one hand, they are also the words dividing the Australian people generally into oppositional groups. The words reflect many underlying emotions which indicate that discrimination against certain groups is rife.

It is worth noting that Koreans in Korea and overseas also tend to have racist attitudes and discriminate against other NESB migrants. This is largely because of the increasingly affluent economy of Korea and the mono-racial background of the people. This has long led Koreans to discriminate against workers from other developing countries in order to maximize their economic benefit. Similarly in Australia, Korean migrants are not only the victims of racial discrimination but are also exercising it,

12 • Gil-Soo Han

e.g., Korean small business persons employing recent NESB migrants at lower rates of pay than those earned by Korean workers.

Concluding Remarks

Although the characteristics of racism in Australia have significantly shifted from overt to covert, the hidden injuries of racism still reap their toll. In terms of public discourse Australian society has become relatively more tolerant since the abolition of the White Australia policy. Yet the Pauline Hanson phenomenon of extreme nationalism or racial conflict between Euro-Australians and ethnic minorities since the September 11 illustrates that underneath the discourse of multiculturalism lie deep racist currents that continue to have resonance and form the basis of a populist backlash against the civilizing thrust of racial tolerance. Continuing educational programmes to enhance mutual understanding between different ethnic groups are only one aspect of what is required to cement a civilized tolerance. More important are anti-discrimination policies and programmes which try to overcome the structural divisions within the labour market which, divided on ethnic lines, work against those whose 'difference' places them at a structural disadvantage despite often high levels of education and qualifications. As Castles et al. (1988) and others have argued, the recognition of the productive efficacy of diversity requires changes in the work environment which benefit all workers, not just those with Anglo-Celtic backgrounds. Given the economic importance of Asian economies to Australia's own economic future, maybe the structural conditions are being established for an underpinning to multiculturalism which will in time put an end to the deformities of racism, whether overt or covert, experienced by the Koreans in my sample.

From Overt to Covert Racial Discrimination in Australia • 13

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Castles, Stephen, Mary Kalantzis, et al. 1988. Mistaken Identity: Multi -culturalism and the Demise of Nationalism in Australia. Sydney: Pluto Press.

Coughlan, James E. 1995. 'Korean immigrants in Australia: the characteristics of recent Korea-born immigrants to Australia and a socio-demographic and economic profile of the Korea-born community from the 1991 Census.' Korea Observer 26 (3): 379-417.

Han, Gil-Soo. 1994. Social Sources of Church Growth: Korean Churches in the Homeland and Overseas. Lanham, MD.: University Press of America.

__. 1996. 'Korean business migrants in Australia.' Asian Migrant 9 (3): 80-85.

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Koreans in Australia.' Korean Social Science Journal 27 (2): 197-
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Immigrants In Australia. Madison & Teaneck: Fairleigh Dickinson

University Press and London: Associated University Presses. Han'guk Ilbo. 1997. 2 February (a Korean ethnic newspaper published in

Sydney) Strauss, Anselm Leonard and Juliet Corbin. 1990. Basics of Qualitative

Research: Grounded Theory Procedures and Techniques. New-

bury Park, Calif.: Sage Publications. Wadsworth, Y. 1984. Do It Yourself Social Research. Collingwood, Victoria:

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From Overt to Covert Racial Discrimination in Australia:the Experiences of Korean Migrants