Over one-third of immigrant students leave high school because they 'don't fit in'

Nearly 1 out of 20 students in South Korean schools have a migrant background, but a report Tuesday indicated that a significant number of such high school students drop out because they are unable to adapt to school life.

According to local media outlet Hankyoreh, Ministry of Education data showed 594 migrant background students dropped out of high school in 2024. This accounted for 2.15 percent of such students across the country.

Of those, 35.7 percent cited "not being able to adapt to school" as among the reasons for leaving.

Migrant background students refer to those who have or previously had foreign nationality, or whose parent is a foreign national. There are 210,838 such students across all types of schools, accounting for 4.3 percent of all students.

But government data showed that the dropout rate among migrant students in high school has been trending up since 1.36 percent in 2020. The annual figure surpassed the 2 percent mark — 2.22 percent — for the first time in history in 2023.

The high school dropout rate for migrant students was similar to the figure for overall students in 2024, which was 2.1 percent. But there was substantial disparity as to why they left school.

Some 14.5 percent of high school students dropped out for being unable to adapt, less than half of the proportion of migrant background students that left for the same reason.

Reports indicate that many of these students are subject to discrimination.

Hankyoreh cited the case of one high school dropout, whose mother is Chinese and father is Korean, who had difficulties keeping up with classes. One teacher reportedly said in Korean, "We have to teach this kid with our tax money?" which the student learned via a translation application.