Migration Experiences of North Korean Refugees: Survey Evidence from China

Yoonok Chang (), Stephan Haggard () and Marcus Noland
Additional contact information
Yoonok Chang: Hansei University, Foreign Language Education Center, Department of Graduate Education
Stephan Haggard: University of California, San Diego Graduate School of International Relations and Pacific Studies

No WP08-4, Working Paper Series from Peterson Institute for International Economics

Abstract: Chronic food shortages, political repression, and poverty have driven tens of thousands of North Koreans into China. This paper reports results from a large-scale survey of this refugee population. The survey provides insight not only into the material circumstances of the refugees but also into their psychological state and aspirations. One key finding is that many North Korean refugees suffer severe psychological stress akin to post-traumatic stress disorder. This distress is caused in part by their vulnerability in China, but it is also a result of the long shadow cast by the North Korean famine and abuses suffered at the hands of the North Korean political regime: first and foremost, perceptions of unfairness with respect to the distribution of food aid, death of family members during the famine, and incarceration in the North Korean gulag, where the respondents reported witnessing forced starvation, deaths due to torture, and even infanticide and forced abortions. These traumas, in turn, affect the ability of the refugees to hold jobs in China and accumulate resources for on-migration to third countries. Most of the refugees want to permanently resettle in South Korea, though younger, better-educated refugees prefer the United States as a final destination.

Keywords: North Korea; China; refugees; migration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: F22 P2 P3 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008-04
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cna, nep-mig and nep-tra
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.piie.com/publications/working-papers/m ... urvey-evidence-china (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:iie:wpaper:wp08-4

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Paper Series from Peterson Institute for International Economics Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Peterson Institute webmaster ().