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Rethinking Multiculturalism in Korea Kyung Seok Oh (Hanyang University) This paper argues that multiculturalism debate should be revitalized in spite of various criticisms on the current discussion of the concept in Korea. What is important is to find methodology to transform the current debates based on assumptions to ones on reality. Chapter one reviews several criticisms on the current discourse of multiculturalism in Korea. Chapter two introduces some characteristics of Korean multiculturalism debates that are contradictory. They are a strong penetration of the state initiative, a segregated approach on migrants, and a popularity of assimilative programs based on a primordial concept of culture. Chapter three presents several perspectives on why such contradictory characteristics of multiculturalism in Korea have been produced. These are a problem of multiculturalism concept itself, unilateralism of the state initiative, and the absence of the subjects in the debates. Chapter four introduces Amartya Sen’s criticism on plural monoculturalism. Warning the danger of emphasizing ‘diversity of values themselves’, Sen suggests multiculturalism based on ‘reasons and individual freedom of choice.’ Chapter five proposes several new topics to revitalize the current debates on multiculturalism in Korea. They include a relationship between multiculturalism and structural criticism, a way to politicize minorities of Korean society including migrants, and Sen’s alternative to overcome plural monoculturalism. The last chapter recommends several methods to avoid making multicultural debates into another pressure for assimilation: an adaptation of utopian realism, a separation from master discourse, and an introduction of methodology of public sociology.