This year, all of the American Nobel Prize winners turned out to be immigrants or offspring of immigrants. According to the Huffington Post, Fraser Stoddart, a professor in Northwestern University, said, “An open border is a strong point of America. We should not turn our backs on immigrants in order to maintain a strong American science community.”
  Through the American Nobel Prize winners, we can comprehend immigrant and refugee problems, which are still unsolved, from both a positive perspective and from a different point of view from the past.
  According to the U.N. refugee agency, refugees are people who leave their countries because they cannot or do not want to reside in their motherland due to racial, religious, political or ideological differences. On the other hand, immigrants, especially economic immigrants, are the people who left their homes and decided to emigrate for a better future for their families. However, refugees, contrary to immigrants, are persecuted by their nation, so they move to maintain their lives. If a foreign land does not accept refugees, it may be hard for refugees to live there.
  However, refugee problems still exist, and the people of treaty powers are frowning upon an influx of refugees. If other nations accept them, security, social problems and, by extension, terrorism can occur, so there are a lot of negative perspectives towards immigrants. A CBNU student, Ryu A-reum(’15, Dept. of French Language and Literature), said, “Some immigrants are not different from refugees in terms of their poverty. Thus, the national taxes are being consumed, and social problems of all kinds are happening as a result.”
  On the other hand, some analysis came out that accepting immigrants and refugees can be beneficial to an economy. In the long term, the burden of taxes on refugees will be offset by the refugees. That is because they have strong desires for success and they work industriously, so it contributes to tax reduction. In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal, 800,000 immigrants in Australia paid about 31 trillion won taxes in 2010. Refugees have supported their families by working several jobs and founding private businesses. Through this process, there has been an effect of new job creation.
  Korea is not an exception of the problems caused by refugees and immigrants. A CBNU professor in the Dept. of Political Science, Jung Tae-il, said, “The positive effects of immigrants in Korea are that we can solve the chronic problems of a low birth rate and an aging population. The government should provide alternatives to remove discordant factors in Korean society caused by the acceptance of North Korean defectors. Meanwhile, we should change our perception of foreign immigrants including refugees. We should throw away the hatred toward foreigners, and we should coexist as humans.”
  Problems with refugees and immigrants are not limited to foreign countries. In Korea, the numbers of immigrants and refugees are consistently rising, and the resulting problems are occurring. There are lots of people who shake their heads at the problems. However, if we consider some advantages and look at the positive aspects, then the problems of refugees and immigrants may decrease.

By Kim Hyo-seon
hs37@cbnu.ac.kr