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International Area Studies Review
[ Article ]
International Area Studies Review - Vol. 28, No. 2, pp.113-129
ISSN: 2233-8659 (Print)
Print publication date 30 Jun 2025
DOI: https://doi.org/10.69473/iasr.2025.28.2.113

The Effects of Political Ideology on Foreigner Sentiment: A Comparison of Young Adults and the Youth in South Korea

Hannah June Kim ; Hyeon-Woo Lee*
Associate Professor, Graduate School of International Studies, Sogang University, Republic of Korea
Professor, Political Science, Sogang University, Republic of Korea

Correspondence to: *Email: leehw@sogang.ac.kr

Abstract

Extant studies have shown the significance of political ideology on attitudes towards foreigners, but most have focused primarily on the adult population. This study investigates the effects of ideology on foreigner sentiment among South Korean youth, posing the following questions: What are some of the main predictors that influence youth support for various immigrant groups living in Korea? More specifically, do the political ideologies of Korean adolescents influence their attitudes towards foreigners, similarly to that of the adult population? Using an original survey conducted in January 2024, this study contends that political ideology, a significant predictor for adults, is less influential among adolescents. Instead, for Korean youth, practical and humanistic factors such as the contributions made by foreigners and state support for minorities are more critical in influencing their support. This suggests that sentiment towards foreigners among the youth fundamentally derive from different factors than that of adults. The results suggest that these determinants should be explored further, since the youth will play a vital role in integrating immigrant groups and in shaping the country’s future policies and norms.

Keywords:

Korean youth, Foreigner sentiment, Political ideology, Public opinion, South Korea

AI Acknowledgment

Generative AI or AI-assisted technologies were not used in any way to prepare, write, or complete essential authoring tasks in this manuscript.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Korea and the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF-2022S1A3A2A02090384).

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