신문 사설에 나타난 다문화주의의 담론적 양상

Discursive Aspects of Multiculturalism in Newspaper Editorials

This study aims to analyze multicultural discourses of news editorials focusing on discursive aspects of multiculturalism in Korea since 2000. The analysis of multicultural discourses was based primarily on Kymlicka’s approaches to multiculturalism and Castles and Miller’s models of immigrant policies. The tendencies and characteristics of a multicultural discourse can be explained using three types of models: the differential exclusionary model, the assimilationist model, and the multicultural model. The discourse structures of the editorials embody a process of argumentation including circumstantial premises, values, claims and argument. Accordingly, discourse analysis of multicultural discourse reveals various conceptions or views of multiculturalism. The analysis shows that multicultural discourses in Korea have an assimilationist view and focus exclusively on multicultural families. The central claims of these discourses concern accepting immigrants in the name of multiculturalism, but their underlying values advocate assimilating immigrants into Korean culture and society. Korea’s multicultural discourses, therefore, do not accept the idea of multiculturalism but only reflect assimilationist views and treat multicultural issues selectively. Those issues are limited to antiracism and the civil rights of people from multicultural families rather than for immigrants as a whole. In light of other immigration societies’ experiences of conflicts arising from unilateral assimilation, Korea needs to further discuss and carefully reconsider the direction of its multicultural society.