New campaign to raise awareness about immigrant families

By Kim Se-jeong

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family said Monday that it has launched a new public awareness campaign about interracial families.

The ministry’s new 40-second public service announcement stars figure skater Choi Jin-joo, 18. Choi was born to a Korean mother and a Swiss father, and the commercial shows her daily training routine for the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang.

The public service announcement, which began airing Oct. 1, also features Jeon Mi-na, Bak Zoana, Lim Jae-be, Hwang Do-dam and Caleb Briscoe ― all Korean teenagers with one Korean-born parent and one immigrant parent.

It is part of an initiative by the ministry to support children from immigrant or culturally mixed families and increase their visibility. Last year, the ministry collaborated with movie theaters on a similar project.

“As the TV public service announcement shows, Korea should be a place where people have opportunities regardless of their racial and cultural backgrounds, and where they can make their dreams come true,” said Choi Sung-ji, director of the Multicultural Family Policy Division. “And laying the groundwork is the work of the ministry.”

Additionally, the ministry has filmed public service announcements featuring nine actors appearing on the popular Cable TV drama “Non Summit.” The actors, who represent a number of nationalities, express solidarity and support for immigrant families in videos that will be released this week on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.

The campaign reflects a surging number of immigrant and culturally mixed families in Korea. The majority of immigrants to Korea are women, and in most cases they have come from other Asian countries to live with their Korean husbands. According to the ministry’s statistics, this year almost 800,000 households in Korea had at least one member with a non-Korean cultural background. The number of international marriages stood at almost 26,000 last year, accounting for almost 8 percent of all married couples.

In the early 2000s, Choi said, the policy focus was on helping marriage migrants to settle and integrate. Support centers sprung up, offering language courses, cultural orientation classes and other assistance for newcomers.

“Time has passed, and the need is growing bigger for employment assistance and assistance with raising children,” Choi added.

The purpose of the public service announcement is to counter a lack of understanding and tolerance. For example, one survey of immigrants showed that 41 percent of respondents had experienced discrimination either because of language barriers or because of their looks.