Urban study on physical environment and social migrants networking focused on russian-speaking town in Seoul, Korea

Due to international migration many “foreign villages” emerged in Seoul over the last two–three decades. Compared to old and relatively well-established Chinese communities, studies concerning these new international settlements are few. Particularly, paper focused on Russian-speaking, Central Asian and Mongolian town in Gwanghuidong located near Dongdaemun markets. Together with the Korean residents, these migrants from Post-Soviet countries and Mongolia live work, or visit this area. The problem of managing the area and value for Russian migrants’ community becomes important after the short-term visa-waiver agreements have been adopted. This paper introduces the results of our social study conducted at this area in June–November 2013. In the survey the possible ways for improvement were investigated by collecting responses on buildings, facilities and existing problems. Overall, 77 respondents participated in the survey, with 15 selected for interviews. This paper discusses problems of urban typology for immigrants social networking closely connected with the physical environment, and a potential of “foreign villages” in general.