Nghe An people in the land of Kim Chi

(Baonghean) - Nghe An is the leading locality in the country in terms of the number of workers working in Korea. In a foreign land, a miniature society with a variety of life is taking place, which still bears the imprint of the daily life and culture of the homeland...

Nghe An labor community participates in multicultural festival in Changwon City, Korea.

Community Responsibility

Nghe An workers in Korea are concentrated in the provinces of Gyeonggy; Incheon; Gyeongnam; Busan. Through labor export companies, Nghe An people have been present in Korea quite early. Since the early 90s of the 20th century, Nghe An people have been present in Korea as crew members working on fishing boats or as trainees.

Since 2004, with the form of working under the Korean foreign worker employment permit program, the number of Nghe An people in Korea has increased. There is an interesting comparison: if Vietnam is the leading country among 15 countries sending workers to Korea to work under the EPS Program, then domestically, Nghe An is the leading locality in the number of workers sent to Korea. According to statistics in 10 years (from 2004 to 2014), Nghe An people going to Korea to work under the EPS Program were 6,273 people, not including those who registered through vocational schools and units of the Ministry of National Defense.

From Korea, the feelings of the children living far away from home are always looking back to their homeland, information about natural disasters and floods are shared and visited by brothers. The money earned by labor in a foreign land is not easy, but they still do not forget to remind each other of their feelings and responsibilities towards their homeland. Talking to me, Mr. Tuan - who has been in Korea for 3 years under the EPS Program - administrator of the Choa Dan 37 Fanpage in Korea, said: "Our people in our homeland are still facing difficulties, every year there are natural disasters and floods, although we have a hard time, we want to share the difficulties of our hometown with all the feelings and hearts of children living far away from home".

During storms No. 10 and No. 11 in 2013, the Nghe An community in Korea raised more than 150 million VND to support flood victims in Hoang Mai Town. The Vietnamese community in the Busan area still recalls the horrific accident of Thanh and his fiancée Mai, both from Nghe An. After participating in a community activity, on the way home, the car driven by Thanh unfortunately had an accident, Mai died on the spot, Thanh was on the verge of death. The Nghe An Association, Choa Fanpage, a 37-year-old citizen in Korea, and friends took steps to handle legal issues, raise funds, and support the victim's family with more than twenty million won (equivalent to about 20,000 USD) to treat Thanh and bring Mai back home. "Wandering in a foreign land, the love of fellow countrymen is the root connecting us to our homeland, making us more steadfast when facing difficulties and hardships," Tuan confided. Currently, many activities towards the homeland and sharing with difficult circumstances are still being maintained regularly by the fanpage.

When it comes to Nghe An people in Korea, almost everyone knows about Vo Trong Kien, a native of Nghe An with many volunteer activities for the community. His free Korean classes have helped many Vietnamese workers and brides overcome their initial language confusion to quickly adapt to their new life. What is admirable is that in order to have the knowledge of Korean to impart to learners, Kien, who started out as a worker like many others, has researched and prepared lesson plans to suit the work and life of workers.

Ms. Lan, from Vinh City, came to Korea to get married and currently has a happy family in Korea. Working at the Support Center for Foreign Workers in Incheon City, for many years, Ms. Lan has supported and provided legal advice to workers, claimed unpaid wages and insurance, and mediated and resolved conflicts between workers and companies. There are many people who are still "carrying the burden of prison and the whole country" like Tuan, Mr. Kien, Ms. Lan... who are contributing to building a positive image of Nghe An people in the land of Kim Chi.

Passion for football

When talking about the “Hometown” people in Korea, we cannot help but mention their passion for football. From Incheon to Busan, wherever there is Nghe An, there are football clubs. These clubs winning community tournaments is a “daily occurrence”. Among them, the most famous is the Song Lam Nghe An Korea football team. This is a team that gathers many excellent players and has won many championships at sporting events of the Vietnamese community. They are well-organized and their strength is not surprising when the team has a number of players who used to train at the Song Lam youth teams. I asked Mr. Hung - the coach and the owner of the football team about the reason for the birth of the team, he said: "Nghe An Association has many people who are passionate about football and good at it, the birth of the football team satisfies the passion of the brothers for the round ball, strengthens solidarity in the community and creates a healthy playground for the brothers to exercise, not to waste time on useless entertainment and social evils".

Song Lam Nghe An Korea football team won many championships at sporting events of the Vietnamese community in Korea.

During my working trip to Korea, I was invited by a friend who was working at the Embassy to watch the football match between U23 Vietnam and U23 United Arab Emirates within the framework of the Asian Games. There were quite a few Vietnamese fans who came to watch and cheer for the home team. What surprised me was that on the stands, there were many traditional yellow shirts of Song Lam Nghe An Football Club with the words "Que choa" on the back of the shirts. Without asking, I knew that they were loyal fans of Song Lam Nghe An Football Club. Also from Nghe, I understand that, wherever you are, the love for football, the love for the homeland of Nghe people always has its own color, not easily mixed, something... very Nghe.

Talking to a friend who works in labor management about the situation of Nghe An laborers in Korea, my friend, who is usually tactful, half-jokingly said, “Nghe An is the best in your country.” The statement, which seemed to be a bit of praise, but also contained a hidden meaning that was difficult to explain, aroused a lot of curiosity in me, so in my journey in Korea, I had an additional mission, to find the “best” according to my friend about his fellow countrymen.

Sad - happy job opportunities...

The writer of this article is working to monitor and manage Vietnamese workers in Korea. During our work, we have noticed that many Nghe An people in Korea are contributing to the development and solidarity of the Vietnamese community every day, gaining the respect of their Korean friends. There are also young people from Nghe An who have returned on time with their contracts and have successfully established their careers in their homeland, because they have determined that success in life does not only come from money, the economy accumulated in Korea is just a support, sustainable development can only be achieved in their homeland. However, there are still people who have gone against their commitment to return before leaving, they are taking away the hope of young people in their homeland who are waiting for the day to go to Korea to work, like their own dream 5-7 years ago.

There are also stories of deep thoughts from fellow Nghe An people that I met in Korea. Manh and Loan in a town near Kimhe City - South Korea, both are from Nghi Loc, Manh is a worker under the EPS Program who has escaped to work illegally for 3 years, Loan came to Korea under a fake marriage, the two met and fell in love in Korea. When I met them, they were both happily welcoming a new member of the family. I was concerned about the legal status of the baby when both husband and wife were living illegally and had not registered their marriage. Manh shared that because of the current situation of the couple, they could not register the birth of their child, so when Loan was hospitalized to give birth, she had to use a fake name and documents of her younger brother (who was working legally), this was also for convenience so that later on, the younger brother and his wife could take the child back to their hometown and ask their grandparents to look after them. I felt a little sad because without legal status, they could not enjoy the most sacred and precious thing of being a parent, which is to register the birth of their child.

Following an officer of the Vietnamese Embassy in Korea, we met a number of illegal workers being detained at the Immigration Department's detention center in Deagu. Among them was Quan, a native of Dien Chau, who was waiting for his employer to pay his salary and his friends to bring their belongings to return home. Quan said he had just been arrested in a raid the other day at a factory with a number of Vietnamese people. I asked: Why didn't you return home on time to enjoy preferential policies? Quan replied: "My friends said to stay, some said to go home. I just built a house in my hometown and ran out of business capital. I thought I could stay for a few years to earn some more capital and then return to start a business. Who would have thought that after only a few months, I would have no way back to Korea. If I had known this, I would have gone back to take the Korean language test."

There are many people like Quan, who after more than 4 years in Korea can accumulate about one billion VND, however, the problem of managing and using this money effectively, creating a premise for a stable life and developing a career when returning home, not many people can do it. The income sent back from Korea is still mainly spent on building a big house and buying expensive amenities for life and in the blink of an eye, the contract has expired, the balance in the account is not much, that has pushed many workers to stay illegally after the contract expires... According to the Korean Immigration Law, illegal workers like Quan will be fingerprinted and banned from entering Korea for 5 years in any form. And the most regrettable thing for Quan is that instead of returning on time to seize the opportunity to return to Korea to work, he chose to stay illegally and was arrested for a short time.

What is worrying is that the awareness of workers on this issue is still simple, continuing to stay after the contract expires seems to be just a simple choice without much consideration and calculation of the pros and cons of immediate material benefits and long-term, sustainable benefits as well as personal responsibility and the image and reputation of the community. In the vortex of making a living, seeking a better future without a legal identity has pushed them into unfortunate consequences. The initial dreams may not be intact over the years, the paths that seemed close suddenly become far away because of miscalculations.

In the 2011 Korean language test, Nghe An was the locality with the largest number of candidates, with 13,028 candidates, accounting for nearly 20% of the total number of candidates. That number reflects the great demand of Nghe An youth who want to work in Korea. However, with the current increase in the number of workers whose contracts have expired and who do not return home, it will be an obstacle for Nghe An in sending workers to work in Korea in the coming time. Reducing the rate of Nghe An people working illegally in Korea is a difficult problem for the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Nghe An province and other localities if there are no specific, drastic and thorough solutions. The return of workers whose contracts have expired to wait for the opportunity to continue working is not only the responsibility of each individual worker, but also demonstrates responsibility to their family and society.

Phung Quang Trong

Vietnam Labor Management Office under EPS Program