KAs March for America
A great Huffington Post piece by Minsuk Kim, youth organizer at the Korean Resource Center, on the need for immigration reform.
“Undocumented Korean American college students have been especially vocal in the fight for immigration reform. The stories of the measures taken by these students and their families to support a college education give the push to pass reform a special sense of urgency. Their hardship extends well beyond their ineligibility for financial aid. A huge question mark looms over their post-graduation plans – without a Social Security number, how are they to find employment?”
This past Sunday, Kim joined more than 100,000 people from every corner of America who came together in Washington D.C. for “March For America,” a march to demand immigration reform and economic justice for all Americans
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Back to School
Photojournalist Mark Edward Harris visits a Korean school in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, one year after the devastating earthquake and tsunami that triggered a nuclear disaster in the country.
Story and photographs by Mark Edward Harris
There are a number of reasons students change schools, such as a family moving to a different neighborhood, but for the children at Woori Hakkyo (“Our School” in Korean) in Koriyama, in the Fukushima Prefecture of Japan, it would be nuclear fallout that spurred their en-masse transfer.
This unlikely scenario became stunning reality soon after a 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck the Pacific coast of Tohoku on March 11, 2011, killing more than 15,000 people, injuring some 6,000, and destroying tens of thousands of buildings.
The earthquake also triggered powerful tsunami waves, reaching upwards of 40 meters, that severely damaged the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant on the coast, located less than 40 miles from the Koriyama Korean school. When the escaping nuclear material created a real and present danger, the students were relocated to a Korean school in neighboring Niigata Prefecture. Students lived in a dormitory while their parents remained in Koriyama, where many had their businesses, according to school principal Goo Yong Tae.
Last December, the school’s 16 students and eight teachers were allowed to return to their original campus, and last month, I had the opportunity to spend the day with them, along with Goo and Shim Ryong Han, the chairman of the school’s board of education. One year after Japan’s strongest earthquake, all appeared resolved to move forward and focus on their educational goals, though ominous reminders of the disaster were ever-present and contrasted starkly with the handmade “welcome back” signs from well-wishers: A government-mandated radiation monitor was installed at the school, and a huge mound of radioactive topsoil—that had been scraped off the school grounds—was piled up on the far side of the school’s soccer field and covered with a tarp. Goo said the government hadn’t decided what to do with the pile yet.
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Steven Kim, a Washington-based prosecutor, is tapped by the South Korean government to help reform its criminal justice system.
by Vivien Kim Thorp
As an undergraduate at the University of Washington, Steven Kim was looking for direction. He wanted to make a good living, but knew he wasn’t built for medical school. The child of Korean immigrants, he’d been sent to Korean language schools on weekends and often served as an informal translator for his parents, so he thought: Why not put those summers spent translating the Lord’s Prayer in the backseat of the car to good use? He decided to become an international business lawyer.
Kim signed up for advanced Korean language classes, memorized Chinese characters and watched Korean dramas for practice. He was accepted and enrolled into law school at his alma mater when a small hiccup occurred. “Turns out I can’t stand international business law,” Kim says, with a laugh. Instead, he fell in love with being a trial lawyer. “When you go into a career with the motivation of making money, it never works out,” he says. “I realized maybe studying Chinese characters and upper level Korean had been a bad decision.”
Or so he thought. In January, Kim, a longtime prosecutor in King County, Wash., departed for Seoul, where he has been tapped to help the South Korean government remodel its judicial system. The goal is to cultivate a grand jury system much like the one in the U.S. and foster a greater sense of public trust in Korea’s criminal justice system.
Turns out all those Korean language lessons are coming in handy, after all.
Korea’s current criminal justice system uses three judges per trial, with majority rule determining the case. The government has been working toward implementing an advisory jury system since 2007. But its initial efforts were cause for some embarrassment, as judges felt free to ignore the jury’s suggestions, sometimes handing down an opposite ruling. The current system is also prone to cronyism. Judges tend to represent the views of the elite class they come from. The result is a justice system that the average Korean citizen doesn’t trust.
Now the Korean government is hoping to alter these attitudes. And for the next six months to a year, Kim, who has brought his mother, Yong Kim, and 3-year-old son, Hugo, along for the trip, will be teaching Korean prosecutors the trial lawyer skills he has honed during his career. His wife, Lina Kim, a dentist, and their 5-year-old daughter, Hailey, will stay in Seattle, making trips to South Korea for spring break and summer vacation.
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An open letter to our nation’s legal newcomers
By Oliver Saria
Illustration by Noah Dempewolf
Dear humble Immigrant,
It’s been a rough couple of months for you. First, Arizona Governor Jan Brewer signs a state bill in April that makes the failure to carry immigration documents a crime and allows police to question and detain suspected illegal immigrants. Pegged as the toughest bill on illegal immigration in generations, it requires law enforcement to racially profile—ahem—determine whether a person is undocumented. A month later, Brewer signs another law banning particular ethnic studies courses in elementary and high school curricula. Now, a slew of other states have pushed for similar nativist legislation, including English-only ordinances and restrictions on who can apply for drivers licenses. With anti-immigrant sentiment boiling over, it’s no surprise if you, humble Immigrant, feel embattled, confused and frightened. Well, you’re in luck because I’m here to offer you tips on how to navigate through the myriad laws and come to the realization that America still loves you!
First, let’s take a look at the bill that vaulted immigration back into the forefront of American political debate: Arizona Senate Bill SB 1070. If you actually read the bill you’d realize that it’s not so scary after all. (Don’t speak English? I’m sure Arizona’s state legislature had the common sense to at least make it available in Spanish—the language spoken by the vast majority of the people who will be affected by the new law. OK, just checked the Arizona state legislature’s website and sent them an email. The bill is not available in Spanish or any other language for that matter. Anyhoo, all the more reason to learn English already). So…
Tip #1: Speak English.
Look at it this way: The English-only ordinances that are cropping up in various burbs and hamlets across this great nation are saving you money. You get to experience a full-immersion English-only environment for free! Rather than spending thousands of dollars to experience this in say, Scotland or Australia, the good ‘ol U.S. of A. is offering it up at no cost.
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Featured Event
One of the the biggest Asian cinema events to hit Southern California opens on May 10. The Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival, presented by Visual Communications, features the latest works by established and emerging filmmakers, along with seminars, panel discussions and symposiums on topics relevant to Asian Pacific cinema.
Opening Night features “Shanghai Calling,” directed by Daniel Hsia and starring Korean American Daniel Henney, who plays a Chinese American expat lawyer navigating his way through the mean streets of Shanghai (the picture above also indicates he is a raisin smuggler). But does he take off his shirt? Go watch the movie to find out! read more
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What are they supposed to do without SSNs? Go back to Korea of course. Why can’t they follow the rules and immigrate legally?