Earning Refuge : A Case Study on the Afghan Special Contributors in the Republic of Korea

Abstract: The purpose of this study is to analyze how Afghan evacuees have been constructed as belonging in Korea and what impacts might their status as ‘special contributors’ have for the future resettlement and integration of refugees. ‘Special contributor’ is a term used for the Afghan personnel and their families that worked with Korean governmental agencies in Afghanistan, and were evacuated upon the Taliban takeover of Kabul in 2021. Although a Refugee Act was already in place, the Afghans entered Korea not as refugees, but as special contributors. The study was carried out as a case study, where material was collected primarily from news articles directed at an English-speaking audience, and the data analyzed using the framework on ‘belonging’ by Yuval-Davis (2006). The results showed inter alia that the new framework ‘special contributors’ may lead to a situation where future refugees may have to justify their belonging based on their contribution to Korea, aside from their fear of persecution.