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영어

Since the late 1980s, many changes and conflicts accompanied with the advent of multicultural era have acted as the driving forces to establish multicultural legislation and policies in Korea. Looking into the context of multicultural policy, marriage migrant women were located at the center of the so-called multicultural debate in Korea. The severity of their human rights violation and the instability of their families came into social problems, to cope with the immigration-related issues, Korean government starting to prepare systematic countermeasures, such as preparation of related legislation and establishment of basic policies. Korean multiculturalism is based on a sort of discriminatory-integration policy model characterized by separated policy targets and marriage migrant women are subject to a strong assimilation. The current laws concerning marriage migrants, such as Nationality Act, Framework Act on Treatment of Foreigners Residing in the Republic of Korea, Support for Multicultural Families Act etc. protect them legally on the basis of their status of Korean 'spouses' or 'mothers' of Korean children. Their legal position is so dependent on their status in Korean families. Marriage migrant women are considered as main beneficiaries of multicultural policies at first glance, still low status within the family and position of 'second-class citizens' in Korean society are preserved by the laws regulating them. Besides, contrary to the purpose of the legislation, discriminatory benefits given to multicultural families leads to adverse consequences for their social integration, by bringing controversies of reverse discrimination and privilege. Therefore, in order to correct the systematic bias which affects migrant women's lives, the deliberation of new multicultural discourse emphasizes human rights and citizenship of them should be made as a first step, on which maintenance of the legal system be founded.