다문화시대의 과제

In the 21st century, Korea seems to stand at a historical juncture to become an obvious multicultural society that may internationally contribute to world peace and antipoverty, and domestically create an environment for people with different ethnicities to live in harmony. What is behind the idea is korea's close friendship with other countries since it only has the history of realizing economic development and democratization after all the pain under the japanese colonialism, war and division rather than participating in such brutal invasions. Currently, Korea has about 1.4 million foreigners from all over the world with their high hopes and dreams, harmonious living in korea with the citizen. The immigration policy is a new topic in the Korean society. Many are flowing into Korea with dreams of happiness and opportunities like the American dream with which people traversed the continent millions of years ago. Immigration will help grow and prosper the country and make the society more dynamic. Immigration is no longer an option but a must to promote major national interest in this 21st century. It is highly required to come up with a new immigration policy and system that meets the new demand for the new era to maximize advantages and reduce the burdens from immigration. The social integration policy in Korea takes open-door multicultural society as a basic direction, where the Korean citizens and foreigners live in harmony by embracing different cultures and foreigner-friendly policies. Such basic idea is not only universal in a civilized society but also cultural in parallel with the founding principle of Korea "Hong-ik-in-gan", meaning humanitarianism, or basic principle of the Constitution. Therefore, when it comes to social integration in multicultural society, it will be desirable to flexibly undertake the social integration policy not just applying western multiculturalism or assimilationism to the Korean society.