Raise Them Up from Isolation: Breaking Free from Social Confinement

Not Welcomed

Safety for refugees in China is to minimize contact. The majority do not have family in China. Neighbors can’t be trusted. The police are a threat to their livelihood. As a result, North Koreans in China stay confined to their homes.

North Koreans living in China not only bear the stigma of living as a refugee, they live in a country that is foreign and hostile to them. There is no protection by the Chinese government for refugees, even for those who fled an oppressive country like North Korea. Rather, the government encourages the reporting, arresting and repatriating of refugees back to Kim Jong Un’s regime. North Koreans in China are a stateless people and not welcomed.

Trafficked

Most escapees from North Korea are women who once served as the primary breadwinner of their households. They sought China as an opportunity to earn money to send back to their families to survive or pay for passage out of North Korea. But en route to their own escape, many fall victim to trafficking by opportunistic brokers at the Chinese border. North Korean women are deceived by would-be “good Samaritans” only to be trafficked to Chinese men and families. Many are abused during and after their sale. These women will bear these scars and shame for the rest of their lives. Social confinement is their means of hiding the past.

Impoverished

The other driving force behind their social isolation is poverty. As we covered in the first part of our education series, trafficked North Korean refugees alack access and opportunity in China and most live in poverty. Poverty is generally known to drive down confidence and participation, especially in women and girls. Those struggling with poverty self-isolate as a way to avoid judgement from others.

The confluence of these forces makes isolation the only option for many North Korean refugees.

Restoration

We seek the restoration of refugees and their children in our work.

Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. - Galatians 6:2

The apostle Paul encourages those in the church to carry each other's burdens. Life is already taxing for North Korean refugees. Imagine how much greater the burden when they have to shoulder it on their own. 

Underground churches and field workers in our China network welcome refugees with refuge and rest. Most have been conned, abused or neglected. Many have lived completely void of social interaction. When introduced and integrated into communities of other North Koreans refugees who speak the same language and have walked a similar road, emotional healing begins in many refugees. Life is meant to be lived together and isolation can be a silent killer.

Self worth

One’s self esteem is sourced both from internal (abilities, performance of good deeds, independence) and external (peer approval, contribution to those around us) factors. Barred from access and opportunity, it is difficult for any person to maintain a sense of self worth. Unable to escape this stigma, many refugees and their children we encounter live each day burdened with guilt, shame and bouts of depression.

We may take for granted opportunities to work or access to education. These are privileges we wish we could provide for all of our refugees and their families. While turning that into a reality in China is generally difficult, we have seen refugees and their children thrive when given access to school and work opportunities.

Who you say I am

Access and community are both crucial to North Koreans living in China. As important as these may be for refugees to fight poverty and isolation, there is greater work to be done in their souls.

 ”Instead of your shame there shall be a double portion; 
instead of dishonor they shall rejoice in their lot; 
therefore in their land they shall possess a double portion; 
they shall have everlasting joy. 
Isaiah 61:7

These are promises God made to the Jews returning out of captivity. These same promises, through grace, extend to all followers of Jesus today. This is the greatest good we can pray for for North Korean refugees and their children. We pray that by calling upon the name of Jesus, He would replace their shame and dishonor with peace and everlasting joy! How great our God is and how true His promises.

Please pray for North Koreans living in China under these conditions. Would you also pray about providing education for our refugees and their children through our upcoming Giving Tuesday campaign?

China’s Hukou System: Perpetuating the Cycle of Poverty

Without outside help, the hukou system locks North Korean refugees and their children in generational cycles of poverty. Learn more from the infographic below and see how you can help end this cycle on Giving Tuesday.

This Giving Tuesday, we want to help break the cycle of poverty for many North Korean refugees and their children in China.

Raise Them Up Through Education: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

Our hearts yearn to help North Korean refugees and their families. Some take the precarious journey to southeast Asia for a chance at asylum in South Korea. However, most will choose to stay and live in China, where access is limited. Through education, we want to empower refugees and their children to break out of poverty SO THAT the next generation might do far more and reach many more North Koreans than we are able to do as foreigners. 

Education is the focus of this Giving Tuesday

Cycle of poverty as described by World Vision:

“The cycle of poverty begins when a child is born into a poor family. These families often have limited or no resources to create opportunities to advance themselves, which leaves them stuck in the poverty trap.”

This is the unfortunate predicament many North Korean refugees find themselves in while surviving in China. The problem is both geographic and legal. It is almost impossible to break out of without outside intervention.

No rights, no access

Most refugees are women who have been trafficked and sold into Chinese families or to Chinese men as wives. They usually end up in rural areas married to men who work as farmers. Many refugees in Crossing Borders’ network are forced to marry men with significant disabilities. By law, refugees do not have the right to work, and more importantly, working in a public setting exposes them to arrest and repatriation into North Korea. But out of necessity, some women work for cash in small restaurants and farms. These are not people of financial means.

Geographic challenges

Rapid urbanization in China grew its urban population from 30% (of China’s total population) in 1994 to double that (60%) in 2019. Mass internal migration has caused income disparity that continues to grow today. While urban areas gain more access and advantages, rural areas of China receive diminishing education resources (ie. less qualified teachers) and offer fewer economic opportunities. As urban migration has grown in the past few decades, more and more rural primary schools have also been forced to close.

Hukou status

The hukou system is China’s governmental household registration system. Chinese citizens have either urban or rural hukou and, as expected, urban hukou generally provides more public service and welfare than rural hukou. According to the website China Briefing, “those holding rural hukou are distributed arable land for their livelihood while urban hukou holders have access to government jobs, subsidized housing, education, and healthcare.”

Hukou is also inherited, meaning the child of rural hukou parents will inherit the same status. One’s hukou status also determines access to schools. Parents who choose to move to cities for work often leave their children in their rural hometowns with relatives because urban schools prioritize children with urban hukou. This has long term implications into college and the future of their careers. The hukou system creates a massive chasm between the urban and the rural. 

See more on our Hukou system infographic

Teach young people

“to give prudence to the simple, knowledge and discretion to the youth” - Proverbs 1:4

Proverbs speaks to the benefits of teaching and passing wisdom to the younger generation. They need knowledge, discipline and to become knowledgeable of both the divine things and worldly things. This is Crossing Borders’ desire for these  people and an integral part of our mission to sow into the children of North Korean refugees. We want to prepare them for better access in China through education and for eternity with the Gospel.

To have a fighting chance at a better education, Crossing Borders currently provides for children of refugees to get educated in cities with better schools, which is often far from their parents. We also provide access to tutors and school supplies for many others. By God’s grace and with your support, several kids are currently attending college in China.

Akin to many Asian education systems, the objective of pre-college education is to score well on the college entrance exam, known as gaokao in China. But rural students must far outperform their urban counterparts as urban universities heavily prioritize urban hukou students. Whether they stay in their rural hometowns or aspire for urban schools, these children face a constant uphill battle due to their rural hukou status.

Learning a trade

Technical training is another means for both refugees and their children to earn a living and become self sufficient. When college is not an option, children often desire to receive technical training at trade schools or via an apprenticeship. This, too, requires money, access to schools and mentors. We have heard from refugees who want to sell street food or make money cutting hair but don’t know where or how to receive the necessary training. Crossing Borders provides financial aid to give refugees and their children technical training from trusted resources.

The children of rural China already have a tall mountain to climb. At a greater disadvantage, the children of North Korean refugees with rural hukou are destined to continue the cycle of poverty they grow up in.  Without help, North Korean refugees are not able to provide opportunities for their children to break the cycle. And without ongoing support for their kids through college or trade school, the cycle of poverty will persist for generations.

This is why we feel like God placed education on our hearts for Giving Tuesday. We want to empower refugees to earn a living and their children to have the tools and opportunities to break out of the cycle of poverty. May God’s provision and grace give them that chance.

this campaign to financially support education will go live on Giving Tuesday, December 1 and run through December 31.

Our goal is to raise $24,000, which will fund education for the next two years.

Please pray for North Koreans living in China under these conditions. Would you also pray about providing education for our refugees and their children?

Learn more about the crippling effect of China’s hukou system in our latest infographic:

The Black Mushroom Project - Charting New Territory

On a random bus ride through one of China’s largest cities last year, a pastor gets on to start his day. The pastor, an ethnic Korean who is a Chinese citizen, hasn’t heard the Korean language spoken in public in years but this day he did. He went to speak with the two women who were quietly talking to one another and learns that they are North Korean refugees. Over the course of the ride, he gains these women’s trust and they tell him they are from North Korea but live in rural China, away from the North Korean border, and that there are many, many more like them.

The pastor started making regular visits in 2014 to this area to see if they need help and to share the gospel with them. Early this year, he contacted Crossing Borders. We decided to investigate, despite the fact that we have not ventured out of Northeast China since our operations started in 2003. What we found was an area where North Korean refugees experience much less government scrutiny but still struggle with issues related to poverty.

This new area is an interesting endeavor for us because we have never worked where North Korean refugees live and work in such freedom.

Our first priority in working with North Korean refugees in China is to find a place of safety for them. Without safety, people cannot move forward with their lives. They cannot heal. They cannot grow.

As we mentioned in our previous post, almost all of the ingredients for success were in place for our first Black Mushroom Project loan except the most important: safety.

So if we remove the very powerful element of fear, we have the freedom to operate under a new set of rules and expectations for our refugees. This is what we have found for this area where police are not trained to spot North Koreans and the government is not active in pursuing these people.

Most of the North Korean refugees we’ve worked with in the past have lived under stifling fear that, if they are in the wrong place at the wrong time, they will be caught, hauled off to North Korea where they will face time in the country’s infamous prison system and face execution.

This is why we skipped the important first step of providing monthly support for the refugees in this area and went directly to helping them with medical care and providing ways to help them make a living.

This area is virtually untouched by Western influence. There is no church. People are Buddhist or believe in other indigenous superstitions. We made contact with this area through the pastor who had been visiting since 2014. We decided that the best thing we can do in the region is to help this pastor start a church, which will be completely self-funded.

Through this church, we can mount efforts to improve the quality of life for the refugees and their children in the area. It gives us an efficient contact point through which we can show the compassion of Christ to these people.

The North Korean refugee crisis started in the 1990s and continues to affect North Koreans and their children in the region. Over time the severity and nature of the issue has changed. As Crossing Borders continues to help this population, we have been able to change with it, providing a new kind of help to North Korean refugees in different kinds of situations. We will keep you posted on the developments of this new and exciting site. In the meantime, we ask for your prayers.

Forging Ahead: Into the Garbage - North Korean Refugee's Story

First of all, we want to thank each and every one of you who donated to Crossing Borders in 2014. We were able to take in three North Korean refugees because of the generosity of our donors in 2014. We will look to add even more people to our care this year. Here is the story of one person we took in:

Sook-hee lived with her husband and daughter in a North Korean mining town. After her husband died in an accident in North Korea, she had no means of supporting herself and her daughter. She decided to take the dangerous journey to China to find work.

Crossing Borders has never encountered a North Korean refugee who has lived in China for longer than Sook-hee. She has been in China for about 20 years, which means that she was one of the first to flee to China during the Great North Korean Famine.

Sook-hee was sold to her current husband who is severely disabled from a fishing accident. He does not have arms and is blind because of an explosion on his fishing boat. She was told her husband was severely disabled by her traffickers but was offered no alternative.

She and her husband live in Northeast China in utter poverty. They scour their city everyday looking for garbage they could exchange for money. They live on just $50 per month, which is considered extremely poor for her area. Their resources are even more stretched because they have a teenage son.

A few years ago, Sook-hee found out that her daughter in North Korea died. Her daughter was 11-years-old when Sook-hee left. She found out about her daughter’s death when she received a picture of her daughter’s famished body. Sook-hee had been saving money to bring her daughter to China.

When we first told her that we could help her, she was suspicious.

“I can’t join your church because I have no money,” she said. There is an acute distrust of Christians in her city because there have been cults and other churches in the area who have swindled money from the people there.

During our staff’s lunch meeting with her, Sook-hee was very uncomfortable and was not able to eat anything besides vegetables and rice. She repeatedly asked what she needed to do to receive the aid but we assured her that she didn’t need to do anything.

For the first time in her life, Sook-hee was being offered a helping hand. The concept was so foreign to her that she didn’t know what to do.

In addition to her abject poverty, Sook-hee, as a North Korean refugee, is an illegal immigrant of China. When she collects garbage with her husband, she has to watch out for any potential threats to both herself because of her legal status and her husband because he is blind.

We hope that, through our aid, she will be able to feel the love, security and compassion of God.

Thank you to all of you who are involved in her restoration.

China Facts: China's Economy - North Korean Refugee Crisis

How do China's economic ties with North Korea affect the North Korean refugee crisis in China? In order for the Communist Party in China to remain in power, it must have a growing economy. Unemployed people = Unhappy people

Graph of China, US GDP Growth Rate Since 2000 Source: World Bank

Though China’s growth has made it the world’s second-largest country by GDP, because of the sheer size of the country, many of its people remain in poverty ranking 121 out of 228 countries.

China must support its breakneck economic growth by securing resources from around the world for cheap.

This is part of the reason why China wants to keep close economic ties to North Korea.

ChinaNKTradePie

China represents about 60 percent of North Korea's economy, according to the Congressional Research Service. And this relationship continues to grow.

ChinaNKTrade

What China gets out of this relationship are cheap raw materials, which are abundant in North Korea.

Natural resources accounted for 73 percent of North Korea’s bilateral trade with China in 2012, according to the Korea Times.

Over the past 10 years, China has effectively propped up the dysfunctional North Korean economy and provided little incentive for the regime to change its ways. It has done so at the expense of the people of North Korea, many of whom report to us widespread poverty in the country's outer-regions.

The people of North Korea continue to suffer while the elite in North Korea prospers. The Daily NK reported that Kim Jong Un spent $644 million dollars in luxury goods last year. North Korea recently requested $600 million in food aid.

China's economic ties to North Korea creates the situation from which the North Korean refugees flee from. These same North Korean refugees are those who China refuses to accept into their country. This is why the work of Crossing Borders is essential in the region. As North Korean refugees cross into China and as China refuses to offer any human rights to these people, we will continue to be a safety net for the people of North Korea, who have suffered so greatly.

Stay tuned for more facts about China.

Prayer for North Korean Orphans: Why Children are Orphaned

All of the North Korean orphans in our care in Second Wave have lost their mothers who have either escaped their forced marriages or been captured by the Chinese police and sent back to North Korea. Many of the children have fathers who are estranged or in moderate contact. If the children have fathers, why does Crossing Borders refer to them as North Korean orphans?

First, it is important to note that the official definition of "orphan" by the United Nations is “a child who has lost one or both parents.”

A second factor are the typical relationships between our children and their fathers. We take care of two North Korean orphans, brother and sister, “Soo and Jin.” They are half North Korean, half Chinese. They live in one of our orphanages, which is near their father’s home. Their father has been suffering from tuberculosis for years.

Each morning they both go to their father’s home, make him food, clean the house and then go to school. They go to their father's at night to do the same before returning to their orphanage.  Each weekend, they spend time with at their father to help maintain their his home and his health.

The typical Chinese or Korean-Chinese man who goes to the open market in China to purchase a bride lives in poverty, is sick, or has a mental or physical disability.  A majority of them are unable to provide an education or future for the children born following their marriages and need outside help.

This is why we consider each of these children as North Korean orphans. Not only have the children in our care lost their mothers, their fathers are unable to care or provide for them.

Crossing Borders currently helps more than 40 children in Second Wave. However, we cannot ignore the fact that over the past ten years there have been 100,000 North Korean refugees who have fled to China, most of whom are women. An estimated 80% of North Korean women who flee to China are trafficked and sold as forced brides. The number of children who need help must easily be in the thousands if not tens of thousands throughout China.

It is not hard to find a child who needs help in Northeast China.  Whenever we expand this program, it takes little effort.

Please pray with us as we address the needs of North Korean orphans. The sheer number of children in need is staggering. Please pray that these children will be loved. Pray that they would have a future. Pray that they would find hope in Jesus. And pray that we find more.