Formation and Development of Ethnic

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of sovereign states opened a new page in the history of the “Koryo saram”. Opposite to other ethnic minorities, that have chosen the strategy of leaving the former Soviet Central Asian Republics, the Koreans have stayed but they are again being forced to adapt and this time to the nationalizing states. The Korean Immigrant communities living scattered over the world are demonstrating one specific feature- their special ability to adapt themselves in the host countries. Koryo saram are, in this sense, a remarkable case. The first generation of Koryo saram tried as fast as possible to settle down on the land of the tsarist empire and later of the Soviet Russia. The second generation did not have time to taste the first fruits of their labor in the new lands. They were forced to repeat the mission of the previous generation, that is, to adapt after the Deportation of 1937 to the conditions in a new land, namely Central Asia. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 the third generation also turned out to be pioneering because they were forced to adapt to the new sovereign states of the post-Soviet area