The Long Way to Refugee Status Acquisition and Mental Health in Post-Migration: Based on Asylum Seekers and Refugees in
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The Long Way to Refugee Status Acquisition and Mental Health in Post-Migration: Based on Asylum Seekers and Refugees in South Korea Myeong Sook Yoon 1 & Israel Fisseha Feyissa 1
& Eun Hye Jung
1
# Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2020
Abstract
Apart from North Korean defectors, South Korea is becoming a destination for Asylum seekers from all over the world. However, 1 out of 220 asylum applicants receives recognition through long and arduous administration and litigation process while being underrepresented in any kind of support services. This particular study comparatively tested the mental health status of recognized refugees(n = 45) and Asylum applicants (n = 55) to determine if the acquisition of refugee status could make a difference in their overall quality of life. We first employed the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Test and then applied an independent t-test using SPSS 22 software. As a result, there is a statistically significant difference in the mean scores of depression and anxiety. However, the stress scale did not show a statistical significance–indicating there are still lingering stressing factors even after the acquisition of refugee status. Ways and preconditions to improve the mental health service for asylum seekers and refugees are suggested at the end of the paper. Keywords Post-migration . Refugee status acquisition . Mental health . Recognized refugees . Asylum seekers
Introduction According to the UN refugee agency, 70.8 million people are forcefully displaced worldwide. These people are either refugee, asylum seekers, or internally displaced across the globe [1]. In recent years there has been a progressive rise in the number of asylum seekers and refugees displaced from their country of origin and asking refuge in South Korea. Korea joined the UN
* Israel Fisseha Feyissa [email protected]
1
Department of social welfare, Jeonbuk national university, Jeonju City, South Korea
Psychiatric Quarterly
Refugee Convention in 1992 and became the first Asian country to enforce the Refugee Act in 2013, which aims to provide international refugees with social protection and residence. Since 1993 then, the refugee applicants have dramatically increased. With the expectation of protection, South Korea become one of the destinations for asylum seekers around the world. Especially after the enactment of the refugee act, the number of applicants rose from 1574 applicants in 2013 to 16,173 applicants in 2018 [2]. In recent information, from 1994 up to 2018, a total of 48,906 refugee applications have been filed nationwide [3]. Out of this number 1988 people have been recognized for refugee status. The refugee recognition rate is also among the lowest in the world, hitting 0.8% and 1.51% in the recent year of 20 l6 and 2017 respectively [4, 5]. It’s only about 1 out of 220 refugees who receive refugee recognition through the administration and litigation process of the Korean government [4]. Not only a high rejection rate but the country is mentioned for minim
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