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As "Lone Deaths" Rise in U.S.,
Korean Elders "Reverse Immigrate" Home
By
Jongwon Lee, New America Media
July 9, 2012
ATLANTA--The number of Korean
seniors living alone in the United
States more than doubled from 2000 to
2010, according to the U.S. Census. And
in Korean culture, with its deep
tradition of family care for elders,
that’s an alarming fact signaling that
many will succumb to a “lone death,” the
Korean phrase for spending one’s last
days in isolation.
Then how come Korean families,
with all the traditional value placed on
serving seniors, leave so many alone?
Y.M. Kim, of Duluth, Ga., may provide a
good example.
Recession
Triggers So. Korea Return
Deuk Yong Jang, 58, recently
“reverse immigrated” back to South
Korea. He ended his 13 years in the
United States and returned to his
hometown in Jeju Island.
He moved to New Jersey in 1997,
and worked as an electrical engineer at
a company where his friend was the
firm’s CEO. With his friend’s help, he
got permanent U.S. residency and became
an American citizen.
But the company was hit hard by
the recession in 2008, and Jang and his
friend both lost their jobs. Jang
decided that I would be extremely
difficult for him to get another job, so
he decided to go back home.
Jang gave up Korean citizenship
when he became an American, but he has
no major difficulty living in Korea with
an F4 foreigner’s visa. Jang said, “My
children are all grown up, and I don’t
see them often anyway since they all
live in different states. I’ve made
enough money and had enough experience
living in the U.S.”
He also added, “I don’t want to
die alone where I don’t know anyone. I’d
rather go back to my hometown to family
and friends.”
The fear of “lone death” is
being seen everywhere in Korean American
community.
According to the South Korean
foreign ministry, 2,122 Korean Americans
“reverse immigrated” to South Korea in
2011. That’s a 60.9 percent increase
since 2006, when only 1,319 people moved
back, according to official records. The
number is probably somewhat larger
because many return to Korea without the
foreigner’s visa.
Another sign of that reverse
immigration is a trend is that some
Korean towns are developing “Korean
American senior towns” for these folks.
The “lone death” is not an
individual issue, but a social with a
profound impact on Korean immigrant
society in the United States.
Little to Live On—and Cancer
Kim, 60, lived on her own in a
cold room on Duluth Hill Drive when we
interviewed her last December. She had a
surgery for cancer of the gallbladder,
but recovered on her own. Her only son
was not close by, and her only monthly
income was $107 in food stamps and a
$225 disability benefit.
Although she was a permanent
resident of the United States, Kim was
younger than 62, the earliest age to
qualify for Social Security. She sold
her car to pay for her surgery. She
walked to the grocery store to get food.
And members of her church brought some
food and checked to see if she was okay.
Kim moved to the United States
in 1985, and soon divorced her husband.
Left with a son to raise by herself, she
earned her living working as a kitchen
helper at a Korean restaurant. But the
restaurant did not survive the Great
Recession and closed in 2009.
Her son also lost his job
during that period. He left the area to
seek other work and never came back.
That children do not have enough money
to take care of their parents is
considered shameful in the Korean
community.
In the midst of all of this,
Kim became ill and was diagnosed with
cancer--gallbladder carcinoma. She
didn’t have enough money for her surgery
and asked for help from the Korean
American Association of Greater Atlanta
(KAAGA) and the Pan Asian Community
Center. Until that point, she did not
even know how to apply for food stamps.
Kim finally had surgery in
August 2011, but her health was still
poor. Afraid she would feel even more
isolated in a nursing home, she insisted
on staying in her rented room and
waiting for her son. “I wish he would
comes back before I die,” she said last
winter.
But Kim died in a local hospice
with none of her family present. A local
Korean Catholic church provided for
Kim’s funeral.
Kim’s case is representative of
the problem Korean society is going
through. University of Maryland
gerontologist, Banghwa Lee Casado, an
expert on eldercare for Korean
Americans, several factors contributing
to the growth of situations like Kim’s.
Korean Seniors in U.S. Have
Doubled
Casado, a John A. Hartford
Faculty Scholar at the university,
explained that the Korean senior
population is rapidly increasing
nationwide. According to the 2010 U.S.
Census, over 140,000 Korean seniors live
in this country among 1.7 million Korean
Americans. That’s a 100 percent increase
since 2000.
In addition, the 2010 Census
shows that about 60 percent of Koreans
in the U.S. have low proficiency in
English--and the seniors have even
bigger language problem. Korean seniors
and their families in this country
usually lack knowledge about social
programs, such food stamp or Social
Security. And limitations of access to
social and health programs for
immigrants also complicate their ability
cope with life here.
The worsening economy also
leaves families little financial room to
support seniors, as Kim and her son
discovered. In 2010, one of five
families supported their elders, and
it’s becoming increasingly difficult.
The foreclosure crisis is especially
difficult. Losing a home often means
breaking traditional family structure.
A further problem is that
Korean seniors tend to shy away from
being admitted to nursing homes. The
2010 Census shows only 2,281 Koreans in
nursing homes nationally. Korean seniors
feel socially marginalized in nursing
homes. They usually prefer to live with
their families or friends.
Sang Soo Park, a senior living
in Atlanta, said, “Nursing homes are run
mostly with white residents in mind. The
food is bad, and other residents
complain the smell of Korean food. I’d
rather live on my own, even if that
means being poor.”
According to Hyo-Yeon Yim of
Sejong Cyber University, the fear of a
lone death may cause serious damage to
Korean immigrant society. Older people
remain fearful, while their families
feel guilty for failing to take care of
their elders, all of which may cause
internal conflict in families,
frequently causing anxiety and mistrust.
Furthermore, local Korean
American communities may also bear the
guilt of its systematic failure to take
care of its most vulnerable members. But
some have developed ways to counter the
problem.
8 in 10 Unaware of Available
Help
One way is utilizing local
respite care and adult day health care
programs, where they are available.
(Because these programs are often
subsidized by Medicaid, some states are
cutting back on them due to budget
constraints.) Respite care programs
employ trained individuals to
temporarily take care of those with
disabilities or elders. Casado said,
"When a family reaches an agreement on
how it should take care of their
seniors, respite care could be a good
option."
But language barriers and lack
of needed information are keeping Korean
seniors from receiving services.
The University of Maryland’s
Casado found in a study she conducted of
146 Korean American seniors that they
have an extremely low usage level of
respite care and related family care
services. Eight in 10 were not even
aware of such services.
Additionally, Korean
communities in Washington, D.C.,
Seattle, Atlanta and other cities with
substantial concentrations of Koreans
are holding regular meetings to get
their seniors informed about available
programs and practical help. Volunteers
are visiting seniors every week, for
example, to bring them food.
Atlanta lags behind the growing
demand in this respect. Sang Ho Na,
president of Atlanta’s Korean American
Senior's Association, noted, "For 20
years, our organization was not aware of
how to get support from the government.
We got our 501-C3 [nonprofit] status
last year," America’s designation for
nonprofit, tax-exempt organizations.
Also emerging are Korean- or
Asian-focused senior living centers.
Lawrenceville's Misun hospice is helping
Korean seniors face the end of their
life in comfort. Pastor Seung Do Baek,
who has conducted numerous funerals
there, poignantly observed, "The people
who you have around you at the time of
death is family."
Baek's words ring true with
Korean culture’s family mentality. Every
individual belongs to a family or clan,
and is protected within them. Dying
alone means being abandoned from all of
such circles. This may cast an emotional
shadow making isolated seniors feel
socially abandoned and an ultimate
failure in life.
But by balancing traditional
values with American ways of living, the
Korean immigrant community is striving
to find solutions.
Problem for Entire U.S. Boomer
Generation
Lone deaths are not only an
Asian American issue, but one
confronting the entire American society.
The boomer generation is increasingly
likely to die alone, according to a
study released in April by researchers
at Bowling Green State University's
National Center for Family and Marriage
Research.
Sociologists I-Fen Lin and
Susan Brown showed that one-third of
Americans ages 45-63 are unmarried, a 50
percent increase since 1980. Brown said
she expects a jump in the number of
Americans dying alone.
Lin commented, “Families and
spouses used to take care of seniors,
but baby boomers are increasingly likely
to die alone.” She added, “policymakers
need to look ahead 10 to 20 years and
start preparing for lone deaths.”
Jongwon Lee wrote this
article as part of the MetLife
Foundation Journalists in Aging
Fellowship, a project of New America
Media and the Gerontological Society
of America.
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