Kopino

Kopino (), or Korinoy in Filipino slang (a combination of "Korean" and "Pinoy"), is a term referring to a person of mixed Korean and Filipino descent.

==Background== According to a Filipino delegate to the 2005 ECPAT international conference, when the fathers of Kopinos return to South Korea, most of them stop contacting their children in the Philippines and no longer provide any form of support. The responsibility then falls on the Filipina mother to raise the child herself. The Philippines is a strongly Catholic nation that gives importance to the preservation of life, thus stigmatising alternatives such as abortion and the use of contraceptives. As a result, Kopino children are often raised in single-parent households, without any contact with their Korean fathers. This problem is a consequence of sex tourism in the Philippines by Korean men, specifically within areas such as Angeles City. Since the fathers are not married to the mothers, the children are unable to obtain South Korean citizenship. As recently as 2003, Kopinos were believed to number fewer than 1,000; another 9,000 were born from 2003 to 2008. In response, South Korean NGOs such as the Daejeon Migrant Workers Support Center, alongside locally established NGOs like the Kopino Children Center, have begun to establish branch offices in the Philippines to provide social services to Kopino children and their mothers.