This year, I spent my summer researching for my thesis about the integration of North Korean refugees in South Korea. My work adopts a qualitative approach and tries to identify short and long-term challenges that prevent North Korean refugees to fully integrate into South Korean society after going through the 3-month long residential integration program in Hanawon. I furthermore am interested in seeing whether I can draw any conclusions from the long-term consequences of former East German Escapees who managed to flee to Germany during the German division.
Expecting not to conduct in-person research in South Korea due to the ongoing pandemic, I focused my efforts in the first half of my summer on conducting theoretical and archival research about the topic. Since I initially stayed in Germany during the past year, I organized multiple interviews with former German Escapees to try to understand their motivations and concerns about fleeing and document any possible long-term consequences of their experience.
Halfway through the summer - due to improving Covid numbers and an increasing vaccination rate - Harvard deemed it safer to travel for research. After being fully vaccinated, I obtained a visa to conduct thesis research in Seoul for a month. I was excited to dive into four weeks of opportunity but quickly realized that even being in a country physically did not eliminate all other challenges which a pandemic causes. While I was hoping to conduct multiple - if not all - of my desired interviews with people in South Korea during these days, a level 4 lockdown made things more difficult. Nevertheless, I was thankful for the few interviews I could conduct, specifically with one NGO targeting the successful integration of North Korean refugees. This specific interview was crucial in shaping my general understanding of the issue and offered me insight into the challenges and opportunities and the social taboos surrounding questions like personal trauma, suffering, and mental health resources. It also emphasized how important it is not to overgeneralize everything but truly listen to people's stories, which are incredibly diverse and individual. Thus, it was particularly remarkable to experience the trust that the employees of this NGO held in each other and the trust they offered the refugees. The relationships they formed with their clients and amongst themselves were one of the building pillars of their success and underlined the importance of empowering these voices individually.
Beyond the formal interviews, I realized how important it was to explore South Korea in person. As it was my first time, this trip enabled me to finally experience the things I had previously learned in class and read in books over the last couple of years. It showed me how theoretical knowledge could provide vastly different angles to reality and emphasized the importance of gaining a personal understanding of the rich culture and history of the two Koreas. Moreover, conducting research alone forced me to come out of my comfort zone, which helped me create meaningful interactions with locals and improved my Korean speaking skills and confidence.
Researching a global pandemic has taught me to take nothing for granted and stay flexible and open-minded. Nevertheless, this year's research has made me more passionate about my thesis topic despite all challenges. Moreover, it has made me incredibly excited about exploring different types of research and continuing to listen to people's stories in the future. I am truly grateful for all the support the Korea Institute has provided me with, without which this fantastic experience would not have been possible.