Nowadays, there are many words which have the term such as 'multi-cultural', 'multi-ethnicity'. Those are usually representing diversity of one society. In reality, past 10 years, foreigners who reside in South Korea are rapidly increasing from 95,778 (1994) to 698,161 (2006). It changes Korean society a lot and it is time for changing attitude of Korean. At the same time, there are many academic papers which deals with the people who reside in South Korea, such as 'New settlers'(North Korean refugee defector), migration workers, woman migrants. However, most of the projects by government are limited to the 'labor' since they have to focus on support policies.
In reality, the reason that foreigners come to South Korea is not limited to 'labor'. Nowadays, not only goods and labor forces but also images, knowledge, and education can be the factors for the international migration. Especially, in the case of 'study abroad', from past to present, It was general that people go abroad to study from East Asia countries to Western countries, to the contrast that, there are influx of student migration to Asian countries nowadays. It is easy to see foreign student in and out of school and there are many ways to communicate with them.
'Student migration' is use as 'Yoo hak' or liuxue(留學) in East Asia. However, the concept of 'student migration' is focused on 'Hak'('學'), so it can not show the diversity of student migration fully. Also, 'Yoo'('留') means 'stay for a while' which is very ambiguous meaning. It makes people regard student migrants as just visitors so they don't pay attention to their life and adjustment. In fact, student migration takes at least 6 months to 5-6 years. In addition, some student migrants regard their migration experience as spring board toward their long term migration so student migration gives considerably strong impact on receiving country. Nowadays, Korea try to attract many foreign student by student migration project, 'Study Korea' to become a 'receiving country' instead of 'sending country. For that, countries have to change the concept of those students as a migrants, instead of visitors to become a receiving country.
This study aims to discuss about 'student migration' which is undervalued in East Asia. Also it aims to consider existing theory that based on 'Asia->Western country' pattern is available to explain this phenomenon. Most literatures of Asia and Western countries are focused on long term migration only. However, big differences between past and present are 'increasing number of short term migration' and big impacts of short term migration on receiving country and sending country. Still, student migration is not considered fully since it is not long term migration, but Western countries start to pay attention to the student migrants as receiving countries. Also, it considers student migration policies between Asian countries instead of 'Asia to Western' through focusing on the student migration between two Asian countries, China and Korea.
Full paper download: Song Y_chinese student in Korea.pdf