Report: Korea Becoming Less Homogenous

The Statistics Bureau of Korea reports that 36 percent of males living in agricultural and fishing villages were married to foreign women as of 2005. This has led to a rapid increase in the number of mixed-blood children attending local schools in those areas. The ratio is as high as 70 percent in one school.

These numbers show that agricultural and fishing villages are leading Korea`s transformation into a heterogeneous society.

It could be a daunting change for Korea, which has proudly believed in its identity as a "homogenous nation" for thousands of years.

This has been more or less expected, however, ever since globalization hit Korea. Globalization has brought about large-scale transnational movements in population, capital, and technology, and has caused fundamental changes in every respect, especially in the cultures and the ethnicities of the world’s nation-states.

The composition of ethnic groups in Korea is already quite diverse. The varied visa status of the residents` reflects that (i.e., citizens, dual nationals, permanent residents, temporary residents with no limitation of extension period, foreign workers, overseas students, visitors, and even illegal immigrants).

No culture, when you examine it closely, is completely homogenous. There are various sub-cultures within a culture interacting and evolving together. And there is no culture which is generic. A culture is the result of an ongoing process in which one influences and becomes influenced by others. A culture is shaped by the comparative representation that distinguishes it from others. This has been the intellectual basis of the "multiculturalism" of immigrant countries such as Australia and Canada since the 1970s.

Also, there is no country that is completely homogenous in racial composition. Korea is no exception.

In fact, the "homogenous nation" is the consequence of a long period of isolation. Therefore, a homogenous nation is less capable of objectifying itself from others and consequently preserving its own distinctive identity. Therefore, it tends to isolate itself more and more, forming a "cultural island." Closing itself from others works inwardly as well. The subcultures inside the nation usually are not able to interact among each other freely for a harmonious co-existence, but rather an authoritarian or totalitarian power tends to pull them together by force to maintain order in conformity. In this sense, being a homogenous nation is not a source of pride but limitation in this day and age.

A culture or people should evolve by an endogenous process, not by the exogenous demand. Otherwise, it will never work.

Korea, which has been regarded as a nation comprising a homogenous culture and people, will soon have one million foreign residents from various backgrounds. If Korea has no choice but to become transformed into a heterogeneous society, it is ideal to start the process from the most isolated and culturally closed communities such as agricultural and fishing villages through the inter-racial and inter-national marriages leading to their mixed-blood children.

It looks quite possible for Korea to make a soft-landing into the "multi-cultural and multi-racial" society without major conflicts.

To succeed, it is vital to establish an appropriate administrative system. First of all, there should be government and public support for foreign spouses to learn the Korean language and culture to better understand Korea. However, the newcomers should not feel forced to throw their own cultures away and become regular Koreans. Their children also should be encouraged to learn the cultures and the languages of their parents who are from a foreign origin.

It is really important to prepare thorough and systematic measures to protect the genuine and truthful interracial marriages by preventing and managing against the malicious acts of enslaving foreign women into sexual and domestic abuses.

The British movie "Secrets and Lies" has touched me deeply. It is the story about a white woman who gave up her infant child and a black daughter who tracks down her birth mother as an adult. When they meet, the black and white color of their skin does not matter at all.

The Korean American football hero, Hines Ward, visited Korea on April 3. His visit is an illustration of a Korea on the verge of the beginning of a heterogeneous society.

Park Hwa-Seo, Professor of Migration Studies, Myongji University