Is this really multiculturalism?

By Iain Watson

The front-page headlines in The Korea Times’ April 18 issue stood out as a reminder and a laudable intention to promote multiculturalism in Korea.

On closer inspection, however, and as a foreigner who has lived in Korea for over five years, I spotted a few concerns which are particularly troubling for anyone who has witnessed a gradual maturity in Korean views regarding the ``foreigner” question.

Such well-intentioned initiatives are usually promoted through Korean paternalism which can help all of us poor foreigners. However "progressive” intentions and associated policies often end up as racial/cultural segregation, strangely promoted as "foreigners only” enclaves or ghetto’s, and reminiscent of the dark days of 1950s Europe and the U.S.

The constant securitization of and mild obsession with ``the foreigner” issue now in the 21st century also leads one to suspect that what is really happening here is a set of anxieties about Korean identity.

I was also struck by the story on the bottom of page one which was clearly implying that if foreigners and "Kosians” were not treated with "our Korean love” then there is a possibility that they might become "indigenous” terrorists.

Not yet, of course; they are too busy learning Taekwondo! But this is surely an unintentionally ironic use of the term indigenous because for the last few weeks we have been plagued by erratic threats from North Koreans who, we are constantly told, share the same beliefs in a 5,000-year Korean bloodline. Maybe Koreans could trust the multicultural people more?

Foreigners are constantly designated "fun and passive” or a "curiosity for Koreans to practice their English,” or hard-working and "happy clappy” factory fellows, or among groups to fear. The defense that Korea is still in the early stages of multiculturalism and will still make mistakes is disrespectful to the many progressive Korean groups and students I have talked to over the years who work on a daily basis improving the lives of foreigners in Korea, and more self-reflexive about their identity and own place in the world.

Multiculturalism in Korea is a strange amalgam of assimilation policy for the "daughters in law of Korea,” usually south Asian or Chinese women, or a celebration of ‘cultural diversity’ for cosmopolitan Seoulites intrepid enough to sample foreign food and enter the foreign zone.

All multicultural programs reinforce the separation of Korean and "foreigner.” Until profound questions of Korean race, culture and identity are openly discussed outside the sanctioned textbooks, then multiculturalism will always intensify these limits and segregations. I suspect that this is what some "supporters” of multiculturalism really envisage in any case. It’s a case of "we don’t want it, but if we must, then let’s keep the experiment a controlled one.”

Migrants are also still being placed within the narrative of the Korean success story. We are told that migrants are coming to Korea to learn and work and follow the Korean miracle. Notwithstanding the problems in the Korean development model itself (household debt, low consumption, welfare deficits, lack of women in the workplace), the leading article did reassure worried Koreans that most migrants do go back to their home country. Yes, Korea has had remarkable development. But I still can’t fathom why multiculturalism has to be constantly put within this narrative.

However I applaud the Korea Times for tackling this issue absolutely head on as front page columns as this is the only way a proper intentional or unintentional debate on Korean multiculturalism and identity can develop.

The writer is an assistant professor at the Department of International Development and Cooperation, GSIS, Ajou University in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. His email address is i.watson@hotmail.co.uk.