earticle

영어

‘Damunwha (multicultural)’ has become a keyword in South Korea since the mid 2000s after the country witnessed a rapid growth in the number of immigrants from the early 1990s. But recently, criticism has risen that ‘damunwha’ is becoming a term referring to a specific group of immigrants and their families with negative connotations. This paper discusses the categorization of foreign brides and their children into ‘damunwha’ examining the social processes in which these immigrants and their children have been slotted into this category. First, the literatures on multiculturalism as governmentality, the categorization of immigrants and the human capital approach to international migration are reviewed. Then, it is discussed that the influx of foreign brides from various Asian countries since the 1990s was the result of transnational practices of the agents including Korean central and municipal governments, bride-seekers from the rural areas and the urban lower class, international matchmaking businesses, a transnational religious institution and female immigrants themselves all together. It is also discussed that the Korean government’s multicultural policy is to contain and accommodate these agents’ transnational practices within the national boundaries. It is argued that, however, the government’s multicultural policy leads foreign brides and their children to being categorized into ‘damunwha’ because it only targets immigrants who are linked by kinship and marriage with Korean nationals and problematizes and exoticizes the immigrants and their families. Lastly, the ways in which the immigrants and their children cope with categorization are examined. Some denying the category while others using it strategically, they negotiate their places in the host society. In this course the immigrants represent themselves as transnational subjects.