Concept

Korean diaspora

Summary
The Korean diaspora consists of around 7.3 million people, both descendants of early emigrants from the Korean Peninsula, as well as more recent emigrants from Korea. Around 84.5% of overseas Koreans live in just five countries: China, the United States, Japan, Canada, and Uzbekistan. Other countries with greater than 0.5% Korean minorities include Brazil, Russia, Kazakhstan, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia. All these figures include both permanent migrants and sojourners. There are currently a number of official and unofficial appellations used by the authorities of the two Korean states as well as a number of Korean institutions for Korean nationals, expatriates and descendants living abroad. Thus, there is no single name for the Korean diaspora. The historically used term gyopo (교포/僑胞, also spelled kyopo, meaning "nationals") has come to have negative connotations as referring to people who, as a result of living as sojourners outside the "home country", have lost touch with their Korean roots. As a result, others prefer to use the term dongpo (동포/同胞, meaning "brethren" or "people of the same ancestry"). Dongpo has a more transnational implication, emphasising links among various overseas Korean groups, while gyopo has more of a purely national connotation referring to the Korean state. Another recently popularized term is gyomin (교민/僑民, meaning "immigrants"), although it is usually reserved for Korean-born citizens that have moved abroad in search of work, and as such is rarely used as a term to refer to the entire diaspora. Official appellation used by North Korea for Korean citizens living outside the Korean Peninsula is haeoe gugmin whereas South Korea uses the term jaeoe gungmin to refer to entire Korean diaspora. Both terms translate as "overseas national(s)" or "overseas people". Prior to the modern era, Korea had been a territorially stable polity for centuries; as Jaeeun Kim described it, "The congruence of territory, polity and population was taken for granted".
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