Korea in the World: Denmark
In recent years there has been a surprising increase of Korean immigrants to Denmark. According to the South Korean Ministry of Foreign Affairs, statistics show that the overseas Korean population in Denmark has risen by 83.3 percent between 2011 and 2012. By and large, though, the vast majority of people of Korean descent in Denmark are Korean adoptees.
Since the 1960s, approximately 9,000 South Korean children have been adopted and transported to Denmark, andfrom 1972 to 1985, around 400 children arrived annually from South Korea. These children grew up in Danish families, making Danish friends and speaking Danish day after day, not really knowing anything about their birth country, culture or language.
Many are fine with this, thinking of themselves simply as Danes and not really caring about their origins. Many others, though, feel conflicted about their identities or simply want to know more about their origins. For those, there is the Korean adoptee association Korea Klubben: the Korea Club.
Korea Klubben sees its mission as facilitating contact among Korean adoptees, as well as to increasing awareness and understanding of issues related to international adoption. The association provides a social forum for adult adoptees sharing cultural and adoption experiences. It also promotes post-adoption services, such as counselling, and education to professionals. Activities and events include monthly dinners, yearly summer camps, group tours to Korea, Korean language schools, conferences and seminars, workshops and social activities.
The club was founded in 1990 as an independent non-profit volunteer association by adoptees, for the adoptees themselves as well as their families. Today it has close to 600 members and is one of the driving forces behind the international network IKAA (International Korean Adoptee Associations), a global umbrella organization for Korean adoptee associations in Europe and America.
Birth Searching
One of the most important and personal services the association provides is assistance for Korean adoptees to search for their biological parents.
A blog called “I am Mee” puts well how many Danish adoptees feel. “Even though it sounds completely wrong in my head, I am Korean. I am a full-blooded Korean and I cannot run from it. Korea is no longer intangible. Korea has suddenly become something I can see and feel. Something that has been formed already, but Ihave to sculpt on to. It’s the process I’m in now… I am ‘Cecilie’, I am ‘Choon Mee’ and I am an adopted child, who now must learn to reconcile the two. How I do it remains to be seen.”
The Korea Club offers practical advice and individual counselling about this personal, complicated and often frustrating process. As adoptees find their biological parents, a host of emotional, linguistic and cultural issues emerge.
Thankfully, they now have help, and the opportunity to offer help to others. Hollee McGinnis, founder of U.S. adoptee association Also-Known-As Inc., says, ”For adult adoptees, our adoptions did not end the day we were placed in the waiting arms of our adoptive parents. It was only the beginning of our lifelong journey of self-discovery and the very beginning of our adoption journey. Our adoption journeys have not always been clear, nor have they been simple. But today adoptees have an unprecedented opportunity to share the wisdom gained from our journeys.”