Seongnam’s “Working School” uncovers the polarization of a generation
|
By Narang
Published May 9, 2017
Translated by Marilyn Hook
When we hear that twentysomethings don’t
live with their families, we usually assume they’ve moved out to go away to
university or take a job in another city. But there are some young people who
unavoidably end up living apart from their families, with little or no
financial support from them. Their independence is not the kind that feels
voluntary and excitingly free. It is unstable and lonely.
Over a three-month period starting in
September of last year, the social cooperative “Working School”, based in
Seongnam [a suburb south of Seoul], surveyed 250 “independently-living youth”
about their lives and conducted in-depth interviews with 20 of them.
The survey team’s definition of “independently-living
youths” are not those who still receive financial support from their families
or who chose to live apart from them. They are “survival-type”, “eke-out-a-living-type”
youths who had no choice but to move out due to instability and poverty in
their family lives, and so have to take care of everything on their own.
Among the survey participants, 79.2%
were between the ages of 19 and 29, 7.7% were under 19, and 13% were over 30.
As a comparison, we also surveyed 60 “normal” youths who live outside of their family home.
 |
Data from the survey. 100,000 won = approx. 90 USD. ⓒWorking
School
|
Unexpected independence leads to low
satisfaction with life
Survey team member Park Gyeong-ran said,
“Most of the independently-living youths that we met were in their teens or
early twenties, they started their unstable independence a little earlier than
others, and in many cases they chose to quit school and go to work in order to
support themselves. Because of that, most of them have little schooling and are
stuck working long hours in low-paying jobs. They’ve suffered hardships.”
Many moved out and began economic
activities at a young age because of their parents’ divorce or death, family
conflicts, or because their parents lost their jobs or otherwise became
financially unstable.
Ms. Park said, “The survey shows that
there is a big difference in life satisfaction depending on the reason for
independence.” When the participants were asked about their levels of
satisfaction with their current lives, the group who voluntarily moved out to
live nearer to school or a job averaged a rating of 67.5 out of 100. On the
other hand, those who had no choice but to move out due to financial
difficulties or family strife rated their life satisfaction at an average of
58.7 – a clear difference of nine points.
Tteokbokki and ramen becomes
staples... life without real food
One of the difficulties facing these
youths is that of food. Lee Jeong-hyeon, the secretary-general of Working
School, reported, “The survey shows that many of them can’t clearly say when
and what they eat.” Many satisfy their hunger with alcohol and snack food, or
don’t even have a concept of eating meals a regular time, except that which is
provided at their workplace.
The percentage of those who feed
themselves with instant or frozen food (28.9%) or who almost never eat after
work (20.3%) is as many as 49.0% of the total. Many of the youths “get a can of
beer and a snack from the convenience store on the way home (after work)”, “don’t
eat on [their] days off”, or “mostly eat gimbap, ramen, or frozen
food, and then a pork cutlet or bowl of black-bean noodles a couple of times a
week”.
 |
| Survey results. ⓒ Working School |
“If you’re counting every penny, there
are a lot of ‘one-meal days’... when I have a little extra I’d buy a dosirak, like that. When I get sick of
ramen after eating almost nothing else, I force myself to eat it. So I lose
weight and have a hard time. And feel fatigued.” (23-year-old man)
“They give you cooked rice [when you
live] in a goshiwon, as you know. But there are no side
dishes. So I just put some water in the rice and eat that every day. Then if I
get hold of some money, I buy one portion of tteokbokki, divide it up, and eat it for three meals. It was so
good when I was eating it, and then after finishing, I was sad.” (27-year-old
woman)
“I would agonize over the decision to
order food. I would think for three or four hours about ordering one fried chicken.
And I pitied myself... one real meal costs at least 5,000 won, but I could get
five ramen meals for that price.” (32-year-old man employed at a mall)
I don’t spend time with anyone... a life
without relationships
Another difficulty that independently-living
youths face is isolation. They complained that it’s hard to meet up with other
people because of their busy working schedules and the financial burden. Youth
who stopped school early report a particular lack of chances to form social relationships.
Secretary-General Lee explained, “You
might think that starting work at a young age means that you form diverse
social relationships, but in reality, it’s hard to form deep trust
relationships as a young person working with older adults. It’s true that it’s
hard to make friends with peers if you don’t go to university. And if you’re
working six or seven days a week, it’s hard to have the energy to meet up with
people.”
 |
Survey results. ⓒ Working School
|
To them, dating is also “something
preceded by careful cost calculations” or “something I don’t have the
confidence for”.
“I’m too busy working. I’m so busy that
I’m not lonely. I work on weekdays and on weekends. I want to travel and go out
for fun but I don’t have the luxury... Because going out costs money too.”
(23-year-old man who works at a distribution warehouse)
“(When I was dating) we met up once a
month. And I had to use vacation time to do that. It was so hard to get
together that I wondered if dating was worth it. So we broke up amicably. (...)
Even when we could meet up, it was for just a short time on a weekday to talk,
it seemed like there was no chance to drink together or anything.” (26-year-old
male sales representative)
Socially isolated, with no network of
friends their own age, they feel an “information gap” between themselves and
other youths.
“Apartments reserved for youth to
rent... the people who really need them don’t have info about them. University
students have time to find the info and are good at finding it quickly but we
(have to) work. We want to rest during the time we’d use to find it. The
government should step up and expand that kind of thing. Affirmative action for
high school graduates, that kind of thing is good.” (28-year-old male
construction dayworker)
“I haven’t been lazy” – poverty is a
structural problem
In addition to all this,
independently-living youth complain of problems with unstable jobs and housing,
debt, and the lack of time for leisure activities, saying, “Because I have to
support myself without any help, I can’t ever stop working, even if I am
treated unfairly or physically overworked,” “When my parents racked up huge
debts because of business failures, falling victim to fraud, or hospital fees,
I had to pay them,” and, “I’ve lived in motels, goshiwon, boarding houses, mokyoktang, and jjimjilbang.”
Ms. Lee pointed out, “Their poverty
doesn’t stem from their own laziness or inadequacy, it is a structural problem
inherited from their parents or their parents’ parents.”
“They haven’t lived lazy lives. Even
though they’ve put in sufficient effort, they are in a position that makes it
hard to escape from difficulties. They’re more like victims of poverty. Just
like the state or society help those who’ve been harmed by unavoidable
disasters like fires or storms, shouldn’t the poverty that these youth are
suffering be viewed as a social disaster and be addressed with financial
support?”
 |
| The “Presentation of the Results of a Study on the Lives of Independently-Living Youth” held by Working School (January 13, Seongnam City, Smile Café) ⓒIlda |
Impoverished independently-living youths
need society’s attention
Working School, which produced “A Report on the Living Conditions of Independently-Living Youths”, has long taken
note of the polarization of the young generation. Korean society’s problems of
income distribution polarization and labor market polarization have been
pointed out, and the young generation has been seen as the victim of those
forms of polarization. But the polarization within
that generation has not been recognized or addressed.
Ms. Lee said, “The polarization of the
young generation doesn’t stop with financial matters. Cultural resources are
also extremely divided, and it’s hard for impoverished youth to speak up in
sociopolitical movements as well. Most youth activist groups are centered
around college students and graduates, right? Independently-living youths who
are poor or don’t go to college are non-existent or marginalized in those
movements.”
“To impoverished independently-living
youths, the more pressing matters are the food and housing problems that would
make a difference to their life right away, the chance to take time off from
work and rest, and the opportunity for interpersonal relationships in which
trust can be formed long-term. But because [groups dealing with] youth issues
center around college students, these problems are treated as unusual and of
secondary importance.”
Ms. Lee complained, “The state’s and
society’s efforts to find and meet impoverished independently-living youths
have been terribly insufficient,” and emphasized that “just meeting and
speaking with them in itself can give them strength and help them discover
meaning in life”.
Park Gyeong-ran, a member of the
research team who has also been an independently-living youth, said, “Independently-living
youths, who worry not about college tuition but about surviving, are going
through a winter that is particularly harsh even among the N-po generation[1],”
and entreated, “Please listen more to their stories.”
*Original article: http://ildaro.com/sub_read.html?uid=7867
[1] The generation that is having to give up on an endless number of
typical life goals, such as marriage or buying a house, because of the country’s
economic situation.
No comments:
Post a Comment