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| President Yoon Suk-yeol meets with members of multicultural families at a family support center in Guro District, Seoul, Tuesday. Yonhap |
Multicultural families face diverse challenges in parenting
By Lee Hyo-jin
Multicultural families in Korea are having fewer children due apparently to difficulties in raising children here.
The number of students from multicultural backgrounds in Korea's schools has been growing continuously over the past decade, but the trend may end in the coming years, as more families are opting out of becoming parents, according to government data.
According to data from the Ministry of Education disclosed on Tuesday, the number of students from multicultural backgrounds attending elementary and middle schools as of April 1 stood at 168,645, a 5.4 percent increase from the previous year.
The figure has been increasing consistently since the government began to collect relevant data from 2012, and now accounts for 3.2 percent of the total students.
It is notable, however, that the percentage of students from multicultural backgrounds in schools is increasing not because multicultural families are giving birth to more children, but because of the decline in the total number of students, which plunged to an all-time low of 5,879,768 as of April 1.
A triennial survey of over 15,000 multicultural households across the country conducted by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family released in June, showed that international couples are increasingly opting out of parenthood.
As of 2021, the average number of children per multicultural household stood at 0.88, a slight decrease from 0.95 in 2018.
The share of multicultural households living without children came to 42 percent, up from 36.7 percent in 2018 and 33 percent in 2015. Meanwhile, 21 percent of households were raising two children, down from 22.5 percent in 2018 and 24.6 percent in 2015.
The family ministry suggested that the declining birthrate among multicultural families may be related to various challenges faced by parents of foreign nationality here.
The survey showed that over 70 percent of parents raising children aged five and under suffered difficulties in bringing up their children here. Their main concerns were: teaching their children the Korean language (26.8 percent), lack of childcare services (20 percent), conflicting parenting styles with their spouse (15.8 percent) and a lack of information about kindergartens and school curriculum (8 percent).
A majority of parents with children who are aged six?to 24 ― 88 percent ― expressed difficulties. Half of them said it is challenging to help their children with schoolwork, while 37 percent had difficulties in obtaining career-related information, and another 32 percent cited financial difficulties.
Against this backdrop, the government is seeking to increase tailored support for multicultural households to meet their diversifying needs for child-related support.
President Yoon Suk-yeol vowed to improve welfare measures to ensure equal opportunity to every child, during his visit to a family support center in Seoul's Guro District, Tuesday.
During a meeting with single parents and members of multicultural families, he said, "These children, regardless of their nationality, are precious assets for Korea and the world. It doesn't matter whether they have obtained Korean citizenship or not."
He also said his administration will take responsibility and come up with measures to help parents who struggle to take care of their children.
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