Teenagers more open to multiculturalism than adults

Jeju Governor Won Hee-ryong plays traditional Filipino game Tinikling with multicultural family members prior to Lunar New Year' day at Namgwang Elementary School in Jeju on Feb. 6. / Courtesy of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province

By Kim Jae-heun

Teenagers are more open to people with multicultural backgrounds than adults, according to government research published Thursday.

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family released the 2018 results of its study on the nation's receptivity to multiculturalism, a study which it conducts every three years. The research grades people's receptivity from zero to 100.

The study showed that teenagers' acceptance of a multicultural society had improved ― they scored 71.22 points last year, up from 67.63 points in 2015. However, the level of receptivity for adults dropped slightly from 53.95 points to 52.81 points over the same period.

The ministry attributed such a result to an increase in opportunities for teenagers to build more relationships with friends or neighbors who were from different racial and cultural backgrounds. The rate of adults who have friends or family members with multicultural backgrounds decreased from 41.2 percent in 2015 to 32.4 percent in 2018, while the same rate increased for teenagers from 34.7 percent to 41.1 percent in the same period.

“Children showed a higher receptivity to multiculturalism than adults by a large margin because their relationships with people with multicultural backgrounds has increased in daily life, both in quality and quantity, and education has played an influential part as well,” said Kim Lee-sun, a senior researcher at the Korean Women's Development Institute under the ministry.

The surveyed adults also showed more openness to various races, as a higher ratio of people than 2015 responded they don't believe racial homogeneity is something to be proud of.

But still, both teenagers and adults expected people from different backgrounds to assimilate into Korean culture, and they showed a discriminatory attitude to different racial groups.