Q1. Please introduce yourself briefly.
Hello. My name is Woo Ji-yun. I started as an activist on the Refugee News team in the second half of 2024, and I am still on the Refugee News team, where I am in charge of producing Refugee News to improve refugees’ access to information.
Q2. Please share your motivation for applying to MAP.
As an immigrant to Canada, I thought that the difficulties I experience because of language barriers and cultural differences are similar to the confusion refugees experience in a new country. Seeing Korea’s low refugee recognition rate compared with Canada and a social structure that makes it hard to adapt to Korean society, I wanted to contribute my small abilities to a refugee I might meet or to a civil society organization, so I applied.
Q3. What was the most memorable activity?
What I remember most is when, during the December 3 martial law, I wanted to ease refugees’ anxiety quickly, so I hurried to provide a newsletter with easy-to-read information for refugees. I took great care to prepare the news concisely, quickly, and in an easy-to-understand way, worried that it might become yet another source of fear for people who had come to Korea to escape political repression or war in their home countries, and I felt rewarded when I received good feedback. I was proud that empathy and solidarity were created through Refugee News.
Q4. What do you think our society needs most in order to live together with refugees?
Korean society is not used to living together peacefully with refugees who have peacefully come to an unfamiliar foreign land. Negative perceptions of refugee arrivals are portrayed through social media and the press. For the ideas and thoughts with which we treat them to change, I hope that human rights education that can build empathy from early childhood will increase. To understand people who are different from us, I think education on multicultural acceptance for young children and adolescents is urgent and necessary.
Q5. Finally, is there an activity you would recommend to people interested in refugee issues?
First of all, I recommend volunteering on MAP’s Dialogue with Refugees team. I think it is an activity in which you can be with refugees and, at the same time, see the reactions of the civil society that takes part in the conversation. 🙂