Koreans in Iran

Ethnic group
|group=Koreans in Iran
poptime=540cite web|title=중동/아프리카 재외동포현황 (Middle East/Africa Overseas Compatriots Present Status)|url=http://www.korean.net/directory/directory_sub.jsp?dCode=0107&nCode=010703&dName=%EC%A4%91%EB%8F%99/%EC%95%84%ED%94%84%EB%A6%AC%EC%B9%B4%C2%A0(Middle%20East/Africa)|publisher=Overseas Korean Foundation|date=2005|accessdate=2007-05-13]
popplace=Tehran and other major cities
langs=Korean, Persian, English
rels=Not known
related-c=Koreans

Koreans in Iran have a history dating back to the 1970s, when South Korean labour migrants began flowing into the country. [cite journal|last=Moghadam|first=Valentine M.|title=Gender and Social Policy: Family Law and Women's Economic Citizenship in the Middle East|journal=International Review of Public Administration|date=2005|volume=1|issue=4|pages=23–44|url=http://www.kapa21.or.kr/down/2005/IRPA/02_Valentine_M_Moghadam.pdf|accessdate=2007-04-22] South Korean migration to Iran grew at an average annual rate of 90% between 1971 and 1977, although the total number of migrants from Korea grew only by an annual average of 18% during that same period; South Koreans departing their home country for Iran composed just 0.2% of all officially-registered emigrants in 1971 (roughly 150 individuals), and only 177 individuals in 1974, but 1.8% (2,402 individuals) in 1975 and 3.4% (6,264 individuals) in 1977. The vast majority were male. ["Korea Statistical Yearbooks" for 1972, 1976, 1978. Quoted in cite book|title=Immigrant Entrepreneurs: Koreans in Los Angeles, 1965-1982|first=Edna|last=Bonacich|coauthors=Light, Ivan|publisher=University of California Press|location=United States|pages=105-106|date=1991|id=ISBN 0520076567] cite conference|last=Seok|first=Hyunho|title=Korean migrant workers to the Middle East|booktitle=Migration to the Arab World: Experience of Returning Migrants|editors=Gunatilleke, Godfrey (ed.)|pages=56-103|publisher=United Nations University Press|date=1991|id=ISBN 9280807455] Hyundai Construction signed their first contract in the Middle East in 1975, for the construction of a shipyard for the Iranian Navy near Bandar-e Abbas, and they and other "chaebol" quickly expanded their business in the region. Between 1977 and 1979, nearly 300,000 South Korean workers from two dozen companies came to work in the Middle East; the largest proportion of those went to Saudi Arabia, though Iran was also a major destination; at one point, migration to Iran made up 17% of all migration to the region. In total, in the decade following 1975, 25,388 South Koreans went to Iran.cite book|title=Made in Korea: Chung Ju Yung and the Rise of Hyundai|last=Steers|first=Richard M.|publisher=Routledge|pages=109-117|date=1999|location=United Kingdom|id=ISBN 0415920507] The country's sole school for South Korean nationals, the Tehran Korean School (also known as the Korean Embassy School), was established on 30 April, 1976; it uses Korean as the primary medium of instruction, with English used for science and computer classes, and Persian offered as a foreign language. As of 2002, it enrolled 29 elementary-school students. [cite web|title=테헤란한국학교 (Tehran Korean School)|publisher=National Institute for International Education Development, Republic of Korea|date=2002-03-01|accessdate=2007-04-22|url=http://www.interedu.go.kr/edu_net/overseas/sch_formal_inform.htm?no=30&page=1&key=6] [cite web|title=테헤란한국학교|publisher=Korean Education and Research Information Service|url=http://korean.edunet4u.net/hanmin/jsp/school/viewSchoolInfo.jsp?inst_seqno=1026|accessdate=2007-04-22]

The 1979 Iranian Revolution would have a negative effect on South Korean business in Iran, as well as proving dangerous for Korean workers in the country; on one occasion, revolutionaries attacked a construction site seeking to drive away "foreign devils"; five workers were killed and twenty others injured in a traffic accident that arose as they fled. The Korean Air Force had to be called in to evacuate Korean nationals. The number of South Koreans going to Iran fell from 7,418 in 1978 to 64 in 1979 and only 30 in 1980, though by 1985 the rate of migration had recovered to almost half of its pre-revolutionary level, with 3,669 migrants. However, due to the economic effects of the revolution and the Iran–Iraq War, as well as South Korea's rising labour costs, the practise of importing labourers from South Korea to work in the Middle East slowly became less wide-spread during the late 1980s; for example, the proportion of Korean labourers working on construction projects for Hyundai declined from 70% to only 20-30%, with the shortfall being taken up by local labourers instead. [cite book|title=The Chaebol and Labour in Korea: The Development of Management Strategy in Hyundai|publisher=Routledge|location=United Kingdom|last=Kwon|first=Seung-ho|coauthors=O'Donnell, Michael|pages=104-105|date=2001|id=ISBN 0415221692] As of 2005, only 540 South Korean nationals remained in the country.

North Koreans also have a presence in the country, mainly related to their assistance to Iran's nuclear weapons programme; according to "The Los Angeles Times", there is one hotel in Tehran and another on the Caspian Sea coast set aside for the use of North Korean diplomats. [cite news|last=Frantz|first=Douglas|title=Iran Closes In on Ability to Build a Nuclear Bomb|publisher=Los Angeles Times|date=2003-08-04]

ee also

*Chinese people in Iran
*Demographics of Iran

References