As their ‘American dream’ sours, Koreans in the US eye a return home

For decades, South Koreans have seen the US as a land of opportunity, but many who emigrated there are now returning to the country of their birth

Rule changes around dual citizenship are one motivating factor, as is the cost of health care and the lack of a sense of community in the ‘land of the free’

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Kim Dong-ok came up with Songdo American Town, a housing estate in the port city of Incheon that aims to help Korean-Americans resettle in their home country, after living in the US for 50 years. Photo: Handout

Published: 5:00pm, 22 Nov 2020Updated: 3:17pm, 23 Nov 2020

Seok Jun-ho started living his “American dream” when he emigrated from South Korea to Los Angeles with his wife and two children in 2010. Aged 47, he started his own logistics company and soon had a highly sought-after American citizenship.

On the surface, it was everything he had imagined. He had a house, his own business, and the opportunity to live in the “land of the free” – but even though he was living in California, with the largest Korean-American population of any US state, Seok began to feel homesick.

“I could go eat kimchi-jjigae or Korean barbecue whenever I wanted in one of the many Korean restaurants in my neighbourhood,” he said. “But, it just didn’t feel the same as eating back home in Korea.”

Not only was there something wrong with the food, Seok also missed the sense of community back in South Korea and bemoaned the lack of social gatherings and clubs to join in the United States.

Another factor weighing on the minds of the couple, who were approaching their sixties by this time, was health care.