[9] According to a report of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, undocumented migrant children are left without many of the rights enjoyed by their South Korean counterparts.
Scholars believe Korean's strong national identity comes from a long tradition of "thousand years of 'pure' ancestral bloodlines, common language, customs, and history"[10] and was strengthened during and after the Japanese colonialism in the 20th century.
In the 1997 crisis, the IMF forced South Korea to take a bailout and the adverse effect it had on Korean's economy caused the closings of financial institutions, losing jobs for 5% of workers and decreased earnings for the majority of the population.
[11] It was also observed that, due to a lack of an anti-discrimination law, incidents occurred where non Korean people were denied services at clubs or in taxis without consequences.
An article from 2021 mentions that a popular explanation for racism, is due to a favoritism toward white people, and is presumed that this stems from ideas about racial hierarchy absorbed from US military forces stationed in the country.
[31] South Korea implemented a vaccine passport system during the COVID-19 pandemic, restricting access to high-risk venues such as bars, restaurants, and clubs.
"[33] The United States embassy made a public statement saying, "The U.S. Embassy in Seoul is aware of the Korean Government's discriminatory policy which prevents U.S. citizens from registering vaccinations received in the United States with local health centers" and that they were raising their concerns to the highest levels of government to resolve this issue.
[34] On December 6, 2021, the ambassadors from the US, UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India, and the EU Delegation to Korea jointly urged the South Korean government to recognize overseas vaccinations of foreigners.
[36] Recent legislation – in particular, the Foreign Workers' Employment Act (2004) and Support for Multicultural Families (2008) – have improved the situation of immigrants, more efficiently protecting their human and labor rights.
[16] This has been accredited in part to international pressure – in particular, concern from the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which stated persistent ethnic-centric thinking in South Korea "might be an obstacle to the realization of equal treatment and respect for foreigners and people belonging to different races and cultures".
Another attempt has been made in 2020 by a minor liberal Justice Party to "ban all kinds of discrimination based on gender, disability, age, language, country of origin, sexual orientation, physical condition, academic background and any other reason.
[42] In a news article published in 2007, there were reported cases of discrimination against foreign professors in universities in terms of equipment provision and office space.