Lack of Agency
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) defines the sense of agency as “the feeling of control over actions and their consequences.” In short, it is a feeling of being in the driver’s seat instead of things simply happening to you.
From the moment a trafficker takes control over a North Korean life, that person’s sense of agency is gone. Some carefully and patiently save up enough money to pay the broker’s fee to be taken across the border into China while others are unknowingly sold to brokers. No matter how it starts, North Koreans who flee into China are at the mercy of others as they enter into a foreign and hostile land.
Unable to work
In North Korea, most women are the primary breadwinners of the household while husbands typically hold low paying government jobs or serve in the North Korean military. Upon arrival in China, it is a drastic shift to go from the role of breadwinner to unable to work altogether. North Korean refugees living in China don’t have any government protection or rights, including the right to work. In fact, working in a public setting increases the likelihood of being caught by the Chinese police and sent back to North Korea.
Refugees also have very little control over their situation and surroundings. They escape to or sold into a foreign land with a foreign language, with no family or support. They flee North Korea for freedom and opportunity but are met with neither. Lacking agency and support often leaves North Korean refugees feeling vulnerable and hopeless.
Made for work
Have you ever considered why God took six days to create everything? He’s an all powerful God with limitless creativity. Why not do it all in a single instant? The account of creation in Genesis 1 is God’s example for us to work and to appreciate the work of our hands. To further affirm His point, in chapter 2, God appoints Adam to work:
“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it”
Genesis 2:15
God created people to crave and enjoy work. It gives people a chance to put their talents on display for the good of others and for God’s glory. It is work that also gives the sense of agency: the ability to labor, earn a living and make decisions on how to spend the money.
Vocational training
Working legally is not an option for North Korean refugees in China. However, many refugees risk their safety to work at small restaurants or sell food and goods at local markets for cash. Vocational training would give these women more options to independently earn a living: a craft known to us as a “side hustle”. Not dissimilar from other parents around the world, refugees want to work hard and provide a brighter future for their children. Refugees under our care want to earn money to provide better education for their children, send money back to family in North Korea or pay for their passage out of China into South Korea. With assistance from Crossing Borders, many can have access to trusted vocational training resources to help reach their goals.
Hope for Refugee children
Life is hard for refugees but we are more hopeful for the next generation. Many refugee women choose to stay and struggle in China rather than risk getting caught while escaping through the Underground Railroad. Living in China, their children also experience first-hand the effects that abuse, neglect and poverty has on the mom and the family. However, providing financial support for these children’s education gives them a fighting chance to escape the same cycle.
We want to empower this next generation to break the cycle of abuse and poverty. If their awareness of the suffering they and their moms endured and the increased access gained through education pushes them to be agents of change, we are hopeful that they can and will do far more than we’ve ever been able to do as outsiders. And beyond providing worldly opportunity, we point these children to Jehovah Jireh, the Lord who provides, and Jehovah Rapha, the Lord who heals. Our prayer is that they will carry the torch forward into parts of China that we don’t even know about.
