By Jonathan Hicap
Korea Times Correspondent

SEOUL ― Despite social integration programs and millions of dollars in funds poured in by the Korean government to help multicultural families live at ease, the sting of discrimination is still a problem for foreign wives and their mixed-race children as Koreans have not accepted them as part of society.

This is the prevailing sentiment among foreign wives married to Koreans who say that despite their efforts to blend in, they still feel that they have a long way to go before they can be accepted as Korean.

One of them is Jean, 36, a Filipina who married a Korean in 2007 and moved to Korea the same year. She is happily married to her husband but said Koreans regard foreign spouses and their children as lower in social status.

``It is an unfortunate fact in Korea that multicultural families are second-class citizens since they are not pure Korean in blood,'' she told The Korea Times.

The number of Koreans, both men and women, who have married foreigners has increased dramatically from 2000 to 2008. Based on data from Statistics Korea, there were 36,204 international marriages in Korea in 2008, which amounts to 11 percent of the total 327,700 marriages held in the country for that year.

The number of international marriages in Korea increased by 311 percent from 2000, when there were 11,605, to 2008.

Of the total international marriages in 2008, 28,163 were between Korean men and foreign women, and 8,041 were between Korean women and foreign men.

Out of the 28,163 marriages, the number of Chinese women marrying Koreans amounted for 13,203 or almost half of the total number, followed by Vietnamese with 8,282, Filipino women with 1,857 and Japanese with 1,162.

In contrast, Korean women who wed foreigners preferred those from industrialized countries. Last year, 2,743 Japanese men were married to Koreans, followed by Chinese (2,101), American (1,347), Canadian (371) and Australian (164).

By the end of 2008, there were about 182,712 multicultural families in Korea.

The migration of foreigners to Korea has been increasing in recent years. Today, there are over a million immigrants in Korea including workers, entertainers and students. The phenomenon of the rising number of multicultural families and immigrants in Korea has pushed the Korean government to enact laws to protect their rights, establish migrant centers and provide cultural education for them to better understand how the Korean society works.

``Korean society is now becoming increasingly diverse,'' declared Vice Minister Kim Sung-Hwan of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade last year before the U.N. Human Rights Council during the universal public review of Korea's human rights issue.

But as the number of multicultural families has increased, the level of problems faced by foreign wives and their children has also gone up.

In a blueprint on immigration policy that will be implemented until 2012, the Korea Immigration Service acknowledged that minorities in Korea suffer from discrimination.

``Many immigrants, the social minority, suffer discrimination and prejudice because of their appearance and cultural differences,'' the report said.

It added that cultural differences can be a source of conflict in a society that lacks mutual respect and understanding among its members.

In a report on marriage migration in Asia published last year by the Asian Regional Exchange for New Alternatives (ARENA), a network of scholars and experts from Asia, it said that international marriages in Korea are fraught with issues such as human rights infringement.

In his country report that is included in the publication, Chief Director Han Kuk-yom of the Korea Women Migrants Human Rights Center said that this is the product of marriages made through matchmaking agencies. It only heightens the stereotype perceived by the groom's family and the Korean society that these women were purchased for marriage, he said. Even Korean husbands often come up with the idea that they should have control over their wife because they pay for everything. They don't treat their wife as an equal, he said.

Minerva, a 30-year-old Filipina living in Korea who divorced her Korean husband, told The Korea Times that cultural differences are the main problem for multicultural families in Korea.

``It was hard for me to learn their culture. In addition, the issue of money was a problem,'' she said.

With Korea being a male-dominated society, Minerva said it was hard to get along with her Korean in-laws since they expect wives to do all the chores much like a servant. Also, she said Koreans regard the Philippines as a poor country where Filipino women only marry Koreans for money.

She said many foreign wives fail to learn the Korean culture. She said the beginning of their marriage was fine, but changed when her husband showed his selfishness.

``My family could not stay at our house,'' she said.

Minerva said they had so many personal differences that in the end, they had to separate. Citing data, Han said, the most serious problem in international marriage is domestic violence.

He added that foreign wives also suffer from a cultural gap and language barrier. The report criticized the Korean government's social integration policy and programs on multiculturalism that put more importance on assimilation to Korean culture rather than acceptance of diversity.

``Cultural conflict appears in a process of forcing Korean family culture to these brides rather than respecting their culture, which is the main cause of failure of marriage life,'' Han said.

This failure has resulted in the increase in the number of divorces in South Korea among multicultural families.

In 2008, there were 116,535 divorce cases in South Korea, according to Statistics Korea. Of these, 11,255 cases involved divorce between Koreans and foreign spouses, an increase of almost 30 percent compared to 8,671 cases in 2007.

The data showed that of the 11,255 cases, 7,692, or 70.74 percent, were between Korean husbands and foreign wives, an increase of 39.5 percent compared to figures in 2007.

The children of multicultural couples are also targets of discrimination and prejudice.

Jean said she has seen children suffer.

``Children of multicultural families are victims of discrimination on a daily basis and even in school," she said.

She added that some children dropped out from school because their classmates and even their teachers ignored them. They are treated differently by their teachers and other people in the community.

Han said these children also do not receive support due to poverty.

The Korean government knows all these problems and is addressing them through policy changes and support.

Based on the government's plan on immigration, a broad range of support services will be implemented to help foreign wives and their children.

Textbooks are being revised and Korean students are being taught the concept of multicultural families, the immigration plan said.

``Models are being developed for immigrants through marriage to achieve financial independence by either getting a job or by starting up a business of their own,'' the plan said.

In addition, the government is targeting to stop the proliferation of fake marriages between Koreans and foreigners through tightening rules on visa issuance and monitoring of their activities of multicultural families once they are now in Korea.

On the other hand, Han suggested in the report that Koreans should shake off their stereotypes and start to esteem migrant women's culture, diversity and human rights. ``Married migrated women are Korean citizens. When they are respected not as Koreanized citizens but as citizens who have an identity of dual culture and seek harmony in diversity, the way for a multicultural and multiethnic society will be paved,'' Han said.

jhicap@yahoo.com