Skip to content

Volunteers and refugees in South Korea

by Maaike van Nus

For my master in Social and Cultural Anthropology I did three months of fieldwork in Seoul, South Korea. My research revolves around the moral worlds of volunteers working with North Korean refugees. The large majority of my time was spent at an NGO which provides free English classes for North Korean refugees. Not only are the tutors volunteers at this NGO, the staff and directors are all volunteers too! This photo essay will give an impression of how I conducted my research.

Maaike van Nus studied Social and Cultural Anthropology at the VU. She wrote a thesis on the moral worlds of volunteers working with North Korean refugees.

In 2016/17, students in the Master of Social and Cultural Anthropology participated in workshops on ‘Visual and Digital Research Methods’ by Sanderien Verstappen and Lipika Bansal. The workshops aimed at facilitating students and their interlocutors in the field to apply visual methods of research and publication in their research projects. At Standplaats Wereld you can see the end results.

One Comment

  1. Abdelrahman Zaid Abdelrahman Zaid

    I have read your article about refugees’ in South Korea and I would like to contact you to tell you about the other side of refugees’ life in South Korea.
    I would tell you about another sad story about another Asylum seeker in South Korea who is ME, I was one of the revolutionaries in Egyptian revolution as I had so much political activities against the ex regime in Egypt until I was protesting against the ex judges club chief AHMED AL-ZEND who became the minister of justice after the military coup in Egypt 2013 and as you know and as you can find through all the international reports about human rights status in Egypt, EGYPT now is sinking down in a big chaos and I have been judged with a 5 years in the prison for a fake accusation and I could successfully escape out of the country after few days before my name be mentioned in travel ban list and after long trip I came to south korea because I thought that there a real Asylum seeker program which can protect me and I have applied my case on 2016 April 6 but I have been shocked by the truth which is that South Korea doesn’t welcome any refugees and they treat us as if we are dirty dogs and not welcomed in this country!!!
    If you are interested about this story, you can contact me back anytime and I will be so glad to meet you and tell you all my story and another storys of another refugees also.

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *