In the 2007 CSIS report, Congressional Attitudes on the Future of the U.S.-South Korea Relationship, it was noted that:
As a whole, Korean-Americans play a limited role in influencing Congress on Korearelated issues, with the exception of encouraging Congress to pass legislation highlighting North Korean human rights abuses. In general, members of Congress with large Korean-American communities are not leading players on issues such as U.S. troop presence in South Korea, the threat posed by North Korea, or the KORUS [Korean-U.S. Free Trade Agreement].
The U.S. government estimates that there are 1.5 million ethnic Koreans living in America. Unofficial estimates put the number closer to 2 million, of which 1.1 million are U.S. citizens. Despite the community’s overall high levels of education and economic success, however, it remains disproportionately divorced from the American body politic. Its potential has yet to be realized and the community is not currently a consistent player in either domestic or international issues or an influential actor in promoting U.S.-Korea relations.
More specifically, this study found that:
The Korean American community, as a whole, shows a great deal of interest in Korea and the U.S.-Korea relationship. However, it lacks a corresponding level of knowledge about issues relevant to those topics.
The community, especially current advocacy and political groups, has not yet internally determined whether U.S. foreign policy toward Korea is an important enough issue to them to mobilize and drive an agenda in Washington (and Seoul).
There is a substantial cultural divide in how different generations of Korean-Americans view the process of civic organization and activism, leading to alienation particularly among the younger generations. This situation has complicated efforts to rally the community and effect large-scale mobilization around common interests.
Korean-Americans are generally uninvolved in political life, stemming largely from conditions associated with the relatively short period in which Korean-Americans have been part of the fabric of America (e.g., the lack of English-language facility within the first generation and the corresponding lack of public service mentors for the 1.5th and second generation).
The church, which plays a major role in Korean-American community life, consciously avoids promoting or taking a stand on political issues.
There is a severe lack of accessible English-language sources of information on U.S.- Korea and Korean issues, and poor dissemination and packaging—particularly to the younger generation—of the information that does exist.
