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For a sum of US$20,000, travel agencies will provide ‘airport transfers, an apartment to live in before and after the delivery, medical treatment at clinics catering to Koreans, sightseeing and assistance in getting a birth certificate and passport for the newborn’ (Ko, 2003, n.p.). At 8 and 1/2 months pregnant, ‘Young Jin’ was making the 12-hour journey from South Korea to the United States alone. When asked why, her response was emphatic—to save her unborn child from the ‘Korea’s hellish school system’ (Ko).
Dr. Kim Chang Kyu, an obstetrician practicing in one of Seoul’s wealthier neighbourhoods, estimated that every year thousands of women are going overseas to give birth and returning to South Korea shortly after. Arugus Lee, the CEO of Hana Medical Center in Los Angeles, which delivers at least 5 babies from Korean visitors every month, attributed this to an overriding concern with education (Ko, 2003). ‘The U.S. State Department isn’t crazy about the trend, but tourist visas are given freely to well-heeled Koreans who don’t appear to be illegal alien risks’, wrote Ko (n.p.). They are coming ‘not to migrate but to get their children the document that, 17 years hence, might allow them a shot at a place in a U.S. university’ (n.p.). Ko then explained that
The situation in South Korea applies throughout East Asia. A widespread view exists that employers significantly favour graduates of overseas universities. This perception is fuelled by local media reports. Articles in the South China Morning Post1 frequently emphasise the inadequacies of formal education in Asia whilst, at the same time, observing that locally educated graduates find themselves excluded from the most coveted professional and managerial jobs.