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The Cognitive Dissonance on Refugees in South Korea: The Case of the Influx of Yemeni Refugees on Jeju Island

  • The Journal of Northeast Asia Research
  • Abbr : NEA
  • 2022, 37(1), pp.75-108
  • DOI : 10.18013/jnar.2022.37.1.003
  • Publisher : The Institute for Northeast Asia Research
  • Research Area : Social Science > Political Science > International Politics > International Relations / Cooperation
  • Received : June 30, 2022
  • Accepted : August 23, 2022
  • Published : August 31, 2022

Sukyoung Myung 1 Won Geun Choi 2

1University of Hawaii at Manoa
2경희대학교 국제개발협력연구센터

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The influx of Yemeni refugees on Jeju Island sparked controversy in South Korea in 2018. Considering the remarkable contribution to UNHCR from the private sector, it was a completely disappointing response discouraging refugee protection. This research emerges from the point that Koreans showed contrasting attitudes to the influx of refugees in 2018. How can we explain this disparity, and what explains the strong and massive public resistance against the acceptance of refugees? This research argues that the Yemeni refugee crisis was rapidly politicized and spread out to society with crafted fears from social security threats and hysteric multiculturalism backlash caused by the cognitive dissonance between what is real and what is imagined for refugees.

Citation status

* References for papers published after 2023 are currently being built.