Ethnic Identity of Young Koreans Living in the Russian Far East

Abstract

Background/Objectives: Studies of ethnic identity of the Koreans residing outside their historical native land are usually of sociological, historical or linguistic nature. This research is the first one to analyze the identity of modern Korean youth in the Russian Far East from the perspective of ethno-psychology. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Comparative analysis was used to analyze ethnic identity of modern Russian and Korean youth. The investigation included 260 people: 130 respondents in each group. Findings: As a part of this study, the following facts have been discovered: - the major part of the representatives of modern Korean youth grown up in multiethnic society of the Far East of Russia have preserved mono identity (60% of the sample) with positive perception of their ethnicity; - according to the respondents, modern Korean family is still playing a decisive role in developing and preserving ethnic identity; - considerable part of the representatives of Korean youth (40% of the sample) possesses bi-ethnic identity; - prevailing positive type of ethnic identity among Korean young people, positive perception of the members of other ethnic groups, willingness to enter into interethnic contacts facilitate their effective integration into multicultural environment; - for a group of young Koreans, ethno-nihilism and undervaluation of their ethnic affiliation are a means for effective integration in titular and other ethnic groups living in the Far East of Russia. Application/Improvements: The obtained findings enable to forecast the development of ethnic identity of the Far Eastern Koreans for the purposes of regulating inter-ethnic cooperation, prevention of ethnic conflicts and extremism in the multiethnic youth environment of the Russian Far East.