Integration

A German village in South Korea that wishes to stay German – target of herds of South Korean “tourists” visiting the village, taking pictures of houses and inhabitants, invading ‘private grounds’. The garden dwarfs have been put into protective shelter, barbwire has been put up – but German smoked ham is being produced and sold to South Koreans who are willing to pay for it. It must stay German – so the consensus of the German inhabitants (with their South Korean wives) – but more and more South Koreans arrive to settle down and the authorities will not stop the influx, much to the annoyance of the Germans.

The idea behind it is notable (read: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/08/09/news/korea.php) but it still throws up the question of whether and if so how much freedom should be given to immigrants – no matter who is moving and where to.

Let’s take this German situation – isn’t it funny that Germans in Germany keep insisting on immigrants to adapt to the life in Germany, to mix and mingle, to become part of the society and not to be ‘outsiders’ keeping their own traditions and way of life. But this does not seem to be true for the Germans in South Korea i.e. they wish to keep to their German way of life – even so far that any building material is being imported from Germany – and see their village to be theirs i.e. German.

Somehow this makes no sense – and then again it makes loads of sense. Majorities see minorities not interlinking into the ‘common’ way of life as a danger to their national identity. Minorities see the need and force to adapt to the majorities way of life as a threat to their national identity. So there’s no answer, no solution that can be formulated and applied generally across all situations and countries. And as can be see with the Germans in South Korea situation – although preaching needed integration at home in reality when it comes down to it – they don’t live it either.