Koreans in Mexico

Korean Mexicans

Monument in Merida, Yucatan commemorating 100 years of Korean immigration.
Total population
11,800 South Korean nationals residing in the country (2011) est. 30,000-40,000 Mexicans of Korean descent
Regions with significant populations
Yucatán, Mexico City
Languages
Korean, Spanish
Religion
Christianity, Mahayana Buddhism
Related ethnic groups
Korean diaspora, Asian Mexicans

Korean immigration to Mexico began in 1905. The first Korean migrant workers settled in Yucatán, while more recent expatriates from South Korea often choose Mexico City as their destination.

In the late 19th century, social instability and natural disasters in Korea resulted in increasing emigration from the country. At first, emigrants chose nearby destinations such as northeast China and the Russian Far East. By the early 20th century they began going farther afield, for example in 1902 to Hawaii. However, increasing Japanese influence on the Korean peninsula made this controversial: Japanese labour brokers were opposed to Koreans choosing Hawaii as their destination, believing this would interfere with Japanese migration there, and they lobbied Japanese foreign minister Komura Jutarō to address the situation. Meanwhile, in Mexico, there was increasing interest in hiring workers from Asia to address labour shortages in the agricultural sector, but the Japanese government placed restrictions on the recruitment of labour migrants for Mexico due to the expectation of poor conditions, and the Chinese government was also opposed due to previous experiences with poor treatment of Chinese workers in Peru.

It was against this background that labour brokers began advertising in newspapers in the Korean port city of Incheon in 1904 for workers willing to go to Mexico to work on henequen plantations for four- or five-year contracts. A total of more than one thousand were recruited and departed from port of Chemulpo, present (Jung District), Incheon on board a British cargo ship on 4 April 1905, despite efforts by the Korean government to block their departure. They arrived at the Mexican port of Salina Cruz, Oaxaca about a month later on 8 May 1905, from there taking trains to their final destination: Progreso, Yucatán.