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<p>Story URL: <a href="http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=113851">http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=113851</a><br>Story Retrieval Date: 2/4/2009 7:40:22 AM CST</p></span></div>
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<div class="storypagestorylinks"><span id="Features"><a href="http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/chicago/news.aspx?id=113851">Korean speakers likely to see official documents in their own language soon</a><br></span></div>
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<div class="storypagecenteredmm"><img alt="KOREA I" src="http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/uploadedImages/News/Chicago/Images/Urban/Korean%20Graph.jpg"></div><br>
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<p>Migration Policy Institute <br></p>
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<p><span class="text2">The number of Korean immigrants in the United States grew 27-fold between 1970 and 2007, from 38,711 to more than one million, making them the seventh largest immigrant group in the United States, says a new study by the Migration Policy Institute.</span><br>
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<h2 id="maintitle">Korean speakers likely to see official documents in their own language soon</h2>
<h3><em>by </em><a title="Nirvana Bhatia" href="http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=102551">Nirvana Bhatia</a><br><em>Feb 03, 2009</em></h3>
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<p>Korean is expected to become a federally mandated language for voter documents in the Chicago area with the publication of the 2010 U.S Census, according to the Chicago Board of Election Commissioners. "We fully believe that the Korean population will reach its threshold with the publication of the next census," said Jim Allen, the board's communications director. "This will affect everything." All mailings, signage, literature and ballots—including the audio ballot—will be available in Korean for local precincts with a significant Korean population. "The key thing is to be able to help voters with basic information," Allen said.</p>
<p>Under the Language Minority Provisions of the U.S Voting Rights Act, all citizens are guaranteed the right to vote without facing any discrimination resulting from language barriers. Using census data, selected jurisdictions with high numbers of non-English speakers are required to supply materials in popular languages. Chinese, Spanish and, of course, English are the three languages currently mandated by the federal government for voters in the Cook County area. The act only considers American Indians, Asian Americans, Alaskan Natives and Spanish-heritage citizens as language minorities because these are the groups Congress has found to have faced barriers in the political process. This excludes much of Chicago's largely European immigrant community.<br>
<br>The addition of Korean language materials should be effective by the 2010 senatorial election. While the Korean demographic may be expanding considerably nationwide, Korean does not even appear in the list of Chicago's top 10 languages. Kwang Sun Ahn, who emigrated from Korea several decades ago and operates a stationery store in Albany Park, and his American-born son, Eujin Ahn, 31, were surprised by the growth in their Korean community.<br>
<br>"I'm shocked," Eujin Ahn said. "It feels like more Koreans are leaving the area than are coming in. Here my parents are learning Spanish to keep up with their clientele."<br><br>There are approximately 50,000 Korean-speakers in Chicago and about 250,000 in the metropolitan area in total, according to the Korean American Chamber of Commerce.<br>
<br>Over 57 percent of Koreans in the United States have limited English proficiency, says a study released by the Migration Policy Institute in January. During the 2008 presidential election, 17 judges in the Chicago area were fluent in Korean, ensuring language assistance for this demographic.<br>
<br>Korean is already required on voting documents in the Los Angeles and Queens, N.Y. counties, and Chicago is quickly making provisions to meet the same standards. <br><br>"We tend to go beyond the requirements anyway," Allen said. "But this will mean adding a translator and doing some additional programming and more graphic work. The cost won't be astronomical, but you're looking at somewhere in the neighborhood of $250,000."<br>
<br>Although the legal change only applies to voting documents, other agencies often use the federal mandate as a guideline for providing multilingual information. In 2000, households that received the U.S. Census form in the mail had the option of requesting the questionnaire itself in Korean, as well as in Spanish, Chinese, Tagalog and Vietnamese. Similarly, leasing agreements, tax forms and business registration forms may become more commonly available in Korean.<br>
<br>Not everyone will adjust to accommodate another language though. The Niles School District, which has a large Korean population in its student body, previously experimented with handing out school forms in Korean. <br>
<br>"It didn't work though," Administrator Sue Neyrinck said. "The problem is they reply in their own language, and then we can't read them. So we no longer cater to other languages." </p></div></div><br>
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<a title="Residents of Chicago's Koreatown, located in the Albany Park neighborhood, may soon find more government resources available to them in the Korean language. The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners fully expects Korean to become a federally mandated language by 2010." href="http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/uploadedImages/News/Chicago/Images/Urban/Medill%20Urban%20002%20edited.jpg" rel="lightbox[page]"><img style="WIDTH: 252px; HEIGHT: 144px" alt="" src="http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/uploadedImages/News/Chicago/Images/Urban/Medill%20Urban%20002%20edited.jpg"></a>
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<p> N/Bhatia/MEDILL</p>
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<p>Residents of Chicago's Koreatown, located in the Albany Park neighborhood, may soon find more government resources available to them in the Korean language. The Chicago Board of Election Commissioners fully expects Korean to become a federally mandated language by 2010.<br>
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<a title="Eujin Ahn, 31, and his father Kwang Sun Ahn, who runs a stationery store in Koreatown are surprised to learn that their native language of Korean will become a federally mandated language in Cook County following the release of the next census." href="http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/uploadedImages/News/Chicago/Images/Urban/Medill%20Urban%20080%20edited.jpg" rel="lightbox[page]"><img style="WIDTH: 252px; HEIGHT: 168px" alt="" src="http://news.medill.northwestern.edu/uploadedImages/News/Chicago/Images/Urban/Medill%20Urban%20080%20edited.jpg"></a>
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<p> N.Bhatia/MEDILL</p>
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<p>Eujin Ahn, 31, and his father Kwang Sun Ahn, who runs a stationery store in Koreatown are surprised to learn that their native language of Korean will become a federally mandated language in Cook County following the release of the next census.<br>
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