한국 이민자 자녀와 관련된 용어 사용상의 문제점

Appropriateness of Terms Related to the Children of Immigrants in Korea: “Multicultural Family” and “Multicultural Education”

Foreigners in South Korea have never been a large portion of the population. Yet by 2010, the percentage of foreigners in South Korea had risen to 2.5% of the total population. This rise is expected to continue due to the country’s low birthrate and poor industrial structure. The government has taken measures to deal with this radical social change, particularly after having characterized the situation as “irreversible general trend” in 2006. The Ministry of Education is no exception to these national efforts, but its measures to strengthen educational support programs for foreign residents’ children show some shortcomings. One of these is the erroneous use of terms related to the children of immigrants. This study examines the appropriateness of the terms “multicultural family” and “multicultural education” in the context of Korean education. Since 2006, the Ministry of Education has called immigrant families “multicultural families.” However, the term “multicultural family” is not acceptable because it is based upon a premise that Korean families are “monocultural families” while ignoring the fact that it is difficult to imagine a real monocultural family in today’s society. Instead, in this paper we suggest the use of expressions such as the European term “Immigrant family”. The term “multicultural education” is less problematic, yet this study shows that the Ministry of Education has officially adopted a policy of “multicultural education,” derived from those developed in United States, without assessing whether this type of education is suitable for Korean society or considering alternatives such as “intercultural education” which prevails throughout Europe.