Koreans in Germany
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 31,248 (2009) | |
| Languages | |
| Korean, German | |
| Religion | |
| Mahayana Buddhism,Christianity | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Korean diaspora |
Koreans in Germany numbered 31,248 individuals as of 2009[update], according to the statistics of South Korea's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Though they are now only the 14th-largest Korean diaspora community worldwide, they remain the second-largest in Western Europe, behind the rapidly growing community of Koreans in the United Kingdom. As of 2010, Germany has been hosting the second largest number of Koreans residing in Western Europe if one excludes Korean sojourners (students and general sojourners).
The biggest community of Koreans are situated in the Frankfurt-Rhine Main Area, with 5,300 residents. This area also contains German and European headquarters of large Korean companies such as Kia Motors, Hyundai, Samsung Electronics, LG International, SK Network.
Some students, nurses, and industrial trainees from South Korea had already been in West Germany in the late 1950s. However, mass migration did not begin until the 1960s, when West Germany invited nurses and miners from South Korea to come as Gastarbeiter; their recruitment of labourers specifically from South Korea was driven not just by economic necessity, but also by a desire to demonstrate support for a country that, like Germany, had been divided by ideology. The first group of miners arrived on 16 December 1963, under a programme paid for largely by the South Korean government; German enterprises were not responsible for travel costs, but only for wages and language training. They had high levels of education compared with other Gastarbeiter of the same era; over 60% had completed high school or tertiary education. Nurses began arriving in large numbers in 1966. Koreans were one of the few non-European groups recruited; West German migration policy generally excluded workers of African and Asian origin during the 1950s through 1970s. After living in Germany, some Koreans migrated onwards to the United States under the relaxed entrance standards of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Though the South Korean workers came on limited-term contracts and most initially planned to return home, in the end, half of workers enlisted ended up remaining in Germany. Throughout the 1970s, they staged protests demanding the right to stay, citing their contributions to the economy and health care system; in the end, the West German government refrained from expelling those whose work contracts had expired, instead letting them move on to other work.
...
Wikipedia