Q1. Please give a brief self-introduction.
Hello! I am Kim Jeong-in of the 2025 Migration to Asia Peace AP Team. I like Olaf from Frozen and Dooly. My hobbies are reading and traveling!
Q2. Please share your motivation for applying to MAP.
After becoming a university student, I came across world news beyond the Korean news I had followed before, such as tents dotting refugee camps and refugees blocked in front of barbed wire, and I came face to face with a vivid cross-section of the world. As a student of political science and diplomacy, I applied because, faced with the sacrifices that arise from world dynamics and the self-interest of the international community, I wanted to help through practice and action rather than remaining in academic study.
Q3. Do you notice any changes in yourself before and after starting the activities?
I help publish “Displaced,” a newsletter on refugees and involuntary migrants. During the feedback process I heard from the staff that the drastic cuts to US government international aid and development funding are affecting even NGOs, and I learned that the impact is wide-ranging and devastating. But I also learned about movements in many sectors that try to turn the crisis now upon us into an opportunity rather than becoming discouraged, and I realized that I want to explore ways to build a sustainable aid system through graduate study or research papers!
Q4. What activity left the strongest impression on you?
What impressed me most was supporting the event at the children’s marathon with the “Migration to Asia Peace” booth! “Hello, My Best Friends,” the program in which participating children make friends with refugees, made me happy throughout the booth. The children who took part held tightly onto the cards bearing the newly made refugee friends, repeated their names, and played games from different countries. I was truly proud to see the children’s lively spirit and how close they felt to refugees.
Q5. What do you think our society needs most in order to live together with refugees?
I think our attitude toward the refugee issue should be to “keep them by our side.” The refugee issue seems to have little direct connection to us, and it is easy to feel helpless, as if their situation will not easily improve whatever we do right now. Yet the attitude of listening to their stories at this very moment is what forms discourse in many places and becomes the first step in protecting their human rights. Whether they are our neighbors or neighbors who came across a border, we must protect human dignity together. Only when all of us hold international sensitivity and a sense of responsibility can we be ready to welcome peace.