Determinants of National Identity among North Korean Refugees
Authors:   Asia-Europe Perspective Association, Kim Hee Jin , Yoo Ho Yeol 
Published: June 2018

The purpose of this study was to examine influential factors for the national identity of North Korean refugees living in South Korea. The subjects in this study were the selected male and female North Korean adult refugees who resided in Seoul, Gyeonggi Province and Incheon and were aged between 20 and 69. After a survey was conducted, the answer sheets from 405 respondents were analyzed. Since probability sampling was impossible to do due to the characteristics of North Korean refugees, snowball sampling was utilized, which is convenience sampling. A sense of belonging as a Korean was defined as national identity in this study, and the selected variables were inputted in three stages by using a hierarchical regression analysis. In the first stage of Model 1, gender, age, education level in the North, education level in the South, monthly income, marital status and regular participation or non-participation in religious practices were inputted as socio-demographic variables. In Model 2, self-rated global health level and an intention of permanent settlement in the South were inputted as personal awareness variables along with the socio-demographic variables. In Model 3, which was the full model, experience of public welfare service usage, trust in social relationships and perceived discrimination experience in the South were inputted as experience variables in the South along with the socio-demographic variables and the personal awareness variables.
As a result of analyzing the collected data, age(β=.171, p<.05) and regular religious practices(β=.117, p<.01) were identified in Model 1 as the variables to have a positive impact on national identity. Like in Model 1, age(β=.137, p<.05) and regular religious practices(β=.107, p<.05) exerted a positive influence on that in Model 2, and self-rated global health level and an intention of permanent settlement in the South that were additionally inputted as the major variables in stage 2 affected it in a positive way as well. In Model 3, which was the full model that every selected variable was inputted into, national identity was under the influence of age(β=.145, p<.05) out of the socio-demographic variables, of an intention of permanent settlement in the South(β=.286, p<.001) out of the personal awareness variables, and of welfare service usage (β=.114, p<.05), trust in social relationships (β=.171, p<.001) and discrimination experience( β=-.177, p<.001) which were all the experience variables in the South.
Age, an intention of permanent settlement in South, welfare service usage and trust in social relationships had a positive impact on national identity, and perceived discrimination experience exercised a negative influence on that. Finally, a stronger sense of belonging to the South were found in the respondents who were older, who had a more intention to settle down permanently in the South, who made more diverse use of welfare services and who had more trust in their social relationships. Their national identity weakened when they felt they had more discrimination experience in the South. As a result of comparing the relative influence of the variables on national identity based on β values, an intention of permanent settlement in the South was most influential, followed by discrimination experience in the South, trust in social relationships, age and public welfare service usage.
When it comes to the way of looking at the nation, North Korean refugees may be more sensitive than any other racial group, and the shifts of social environments are likely to throw them into confusion in regard to national identity. They kept receiving cramming ideological education from their childhood, and they were consequently bound to take a blind view of state without carefully thinking over it, asking any questions or having any critical mind about it, and their national identity was built just as the North Korean government intended.