The vortex of multiculturalism in South Korea: a critical discourse analysis of the characterization of “multicultural children” in three newspapers

ABSTRACT

This study investigates how multicultural children have been portrayed by the Korean media, where the term is typically used to mean a child of an underprivileged Korean man and a female marriage migrant from a less industrialized neighboring country. Adopting the theoretical lens of critical discourse analysis, I examine news articles published from 2009 to 2013 in the Hankyoreh, the Hankook Ilbo, and the Chosun Ilbo: three daily newspapers representing a full range of progressive, moderate, and conservative political perspectives within society. Analysis reveals that multicultural children have been characterized as a marginalized group, as a threat to the future Korean society, or as global human resources. Given that these discourses are manifestations of underlying ideology, I also explore how these three discourses are conjoined with three competing ideologies in Korea; namely, democracy, nationalism, and neoliberalism. This study concludes by discussing how multiculturalism serves as a discursive framework through which democratic, nationalist, and neoliberal ideas gain their effectiveness.

KEYWORDS:

• critical discourse analysis
• mixed-race children
• multiculturalism
• South Korea
• newspaper discourse

ORCID

Jaran Shin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2775-0114

Notes

1 Mary Lee, “Mixed Race Peoples in the Korean National Imaginary and Family,” Korean Studies 32, no. 1 (2008): 56–85; Mi-Young Oh, “A Study on the Stigma of Mixed-Race: Factors Affecting Stigma on Mixed-Race and Stigma Effect,” Korean Journal of Social Welfare 61, no. 2 (2009): 215–246.

2 Although the term multicultural children refers legally to children of one foreign parent and one ethnic Korean parent who obtains Korean nationality by birth, it primarily is used to describe children who have underprivileged Korean fathers and marriage migrant mothers; see the Multicultural Families Support Act of 2008.

3 Jae Hoon Shim, “Rural Exodus: Farming for Brides; South Korean Villagers Struggle to Find Wives,” Far Eastern Economic Review 156, no. 9 (1993): 24.

4 See Pei-Chia Lan, “New Global Politics of Reproductive Labor: Gendered Labor and Marriage Migration,” Sociology Compass 2, no. 6 (2008): 1801–1815.

5 See Dongwook Kim. “Damunhwajanyeo 5% cheot dolpattsahoejeok pyeongyeon haeso gwaje” Yonhap News TV, August 23, 2018, http://www.yonhapnewstv.co.kr/MYH20181123015100038 (accessed February 14, 2019); Statistics Korea. 2017 Vital Statistics on Multicultural Families (Daejeon: Statistics of Korea, 2018).

6 See Euichul Jung and Changho Lee, “Analysis of Media Coverage of Racially Mixed People: Before and After Hines Wards’ Success Story,” Korean Journal of Journalism and Communication 51, no. 6 (2007): 84–110.

7 Nora H. Kim, “The Retreat of Multiculturalism? Explaining the South Korean Exception,” American Behavioral Scientist 59, no. 6 (2015): 727–746.

8 Will Kymlicka, Multicultural Citizenship (New York: Oxford University Press, 1996).

9 Erin A. Chung, “Korea and Japan’s Multicultural Models for Immigrant Incorporation,” Korea Observer 41, no. 4 (2010): 649–676.

10 See Sung-Hae Kim, Y. Yoon, and J. Ha, “The Public Sphere and Its Practical Application: How the Press Handled the Late President Roh Moo Hyun’s Suicide?” Social Science Review 41, no. 1 (2010): 69–99.

11 Roger Fowler, Language in the News: Discourse and Ideology in the Press (London: Routledge, 1991).

12 Ruth Wodak, “What CDA Is About: A Summary of Its History, Important Concepts and Its Developments,” in Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis (London: Sage, 2001), 2.

13 Norman Fairclough, “Semiotic Aspects of Social Transformation and Learning,” in An Introduction to Critical Discourse Analysis in Education, ed. Rebecca Rogers (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2004), 225–236.

14 Norman Fairclough, Language and Power (London: Longman, 1989).

15 Michael Halliday, Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of Language and Meaning (Baltimore, MD: University Park Press, 1978).

16 James Paul Gee, An Introduction to Discourse Analysis: Theory and Method (London: Routledge, 1999).

17 Ruth Wodak, “The Discourse-Historical Approach,” in Methods of Critical Discourse Analysis, ed. Ruth Wodak and Michael Meyer (London: Sage, 2001), 63–94.

18 Fairclough, “Semiotic Aspects of Social Transformation.”

19 Stuart Allan, News Culture, 2nd ed. (New York: Open University Press, 2004).

20 Fowler, Language in the News.

21 Ruth Wodak, “The Genesis of Racist Discourse in Austria since 1989,” in Texts and Practices: Readings in Critical Discourse Analysis, ed. Carmen Rosa Caldas-Coulthard and Malcolm Coulthard (London: Routledge, 1996), 107–128.

22 Colin Clark and Elaine Campbell, “‘Gypsy Invasion’: A Critical Analysis of Newspaper Reaction to Czech and Slovak Romani Asylum-Seekers in Britain, 1997,” Romani Studies 10, no. 1 (2000): 23–47.

23 Laura Costelloe, “Discourses of Sameness: Expressions of Nationalism in Newspaper Discourse on French Urban Violence in 2005,” Discourse & Society 25, no. 3 (2014): 315–340.

24 Peter Teo, “Racism in the News: A Critical Discourse Analysis of News Reporting in two Australian Newspapers,” Discourse & Society 11, no. 1 (2000): 7–49.

25 Daya Thussu, “Live TV and Bloodless Deaths: War, Infotainment and 24/7 News,” in War and the Media: Reporting Conflict 24/7, ed. Daya Kishan Thussu and Des Freedman (London: Sage, 2003), 117–132.

26 Robert McChesney, Rich Media, Poor Democracy: Communication Politics in Dubious Times (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1999).

27 Cristian Cabalín, “The Conservative Response to the 2011 Chilean Student Movement: Neoliberal Education and Media,” Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 35, no. 4 (2014): 485–498.

28 Jennifer Cohen, “Teachers in the News: A Critical Analysis of One US Newspaper’s Discourse on Education, 2006–2007,” Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education 31, no. 1 (2010): 105–119.

29 Frances Goldin, Debby Smith, and Smith Michael, Imagine: Living in a Socialist USA (New York: HarperCollins, 2014).

30 Jan Blommaert, Discourse: A Critical Introduction (Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 2005), 25.

31 There are a couple of exceptions; see, for example, John Richardson and Monica Colombo, “Continuity and Change in Anti-Immigrant Discourse in Italy: An Analysis of the Visual Propaganda of the Lega Nord,” Journal of Language and Politics 12, no. 2 (2013): 180–202.

32 The word moderate (or centrist) refers to a political view that endorses neither left-wing politics nor right-wing politics and that supports the equilibrium of the left-right political views; S. Kim, Y. Yoon, and J. Ha.

33 As the web archive of HKI was under construction, I used a Korean web services provider called Naver (www.naver.com) to gather HKI’s news articles.

34 Hsiu-Fang Hsieh and Sarah E. Shannon, “Three Approaches to Qualitative Content Analysis,” Qualitative Health Research 15, no. 9 (2005): 1277–1288.

35 All newspaper articles were originally written in Korean; I translated the excerpts into English.

36 Yugyeong Jeong, “Gajeong patan, ganane ‘tbeoryeojineunt’ damunhwagajeong aideul,” Hankyoreh, September 2, 2009, http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/PRINT/374602.html (accessed December 19, 2015).

37 Yangjung Kim, “Damunhwagajeong 60%, wol 200manwon motbeonda,” Hankyoreh, March 17, 2010, http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/PRINT/410719.html (accessed December 24, 2015).

38 Woosung Kim, “Sotong bulhwa, gajeongpongnyeogeuro ieojin bulhaeng,” Chosun Ilbo, January 28, 2009, http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/01/27/2009012700457.html (accessed February 9, 2016).

39 Kyunghwa Kim and Injoon Choi, “Gyeolhonijuyeoseong ttaraon 2sedeul, hakgyo bujeogeung simgak,” Chosun Ilbo, March 8, 2010, http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/03/07/2010030700991.html (accessed February 10, 2016); for more information about female marriage migrants in Asia, see Danièle Bélanger, Hye-Kyung Lee, and Hong-Zen Wang, “Ethnic Diversity and Statistics in East Asia: ‘Foreign Brides’ Surveys in Taiwan and South Korea,” Ethnic and Racial Studies 33, no. 6 (2010): 1108–1130.

40 “Damunhwa gajeong janyeoui 10nyeon dwi moseup saenggakaebwaya,” Chosun Ilbo, March 8, 2010, http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2010/03/08/2010030801820.html (accessed February 10, 2016).

41 Yoonbum Lee, “Damunhwasahoereul wihae,” Hankook Ilbo, May 12, 2011, http://news.naver.com/main/tool/print.nhn?oid=038&aid=0002150402 (accessed November 6, 2015).

42 Inbeom Kang, Jungsik Woo, and Sooho Choi, “2sedeuri alko itda,” Chosun Ilbo, January 17, 2009, http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/01/16/2009011601542.html (accessed February 9, 2016).

43 Ibid.

44 Sangwook Nam, “‘Babo’ ‘kkamdungi’ ttadollyeo deunggyo gongpojeungkkaji,” Hankook Ilbo, September 14, 2010, http://news.naver.com/main/tool/print.nhn?oid=038&aid=0002091312 (accessed November 4, 2015).

45 Eduard Bernstein, Evolutionary Socialism (New York: Schocken Books, 1961), 21.

46 Elizabeth Anderson, “What Is the Point of Equality?” Ethics 109, no. 2 (1999): 287–337.

47 Across the collected newspaper articles, “events for multicultural families” was the second most frequent theme.

48 Minseung Jeong, “Nongeochon gyeolhoniminyeoseong gyoyukullyeon saeop beorinda,” Hankook Ilbo, February 2, 2010, http://news.naver.com/main/tool/print.nhn?oid=038&aid=0002051573 (accessed November 5, 2015).

49 Kang, Woo, and Choi, “2sedeuri alko itda.”

50 Yeonju Kim, “‘Idaero Gamyeon Hangugedo Iminja Pokdong,’” Chosun Ilbo, January 10, 2012, http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/01/10/2012011000115.html (accessed February 10, 2016).

51 Daehyun Lee, “Beteunam oegae ganeun ai,” Hankook Ilbo, February 12, 2010, http://news.naver.com/main/tool/print.nhn?oid=038&aid=0002053469 (accessed November 5, 2015).

52 Byungki Heo, “Damunhwajeongchaek, cheot danchubuteo dasi kkiuja,” Hankyoreh, May 6, 2011, http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/PRINT/476702.html (accessed January 19, 2016).

53 The case of Min-woo Hwang is not a single example of threat discourse. For instance, several news articles in 2012 spotlighted arson committed by a multicultural adolescent whose mother was white and migrated to Korea from Russia. Yet, it is important to note that the discourse of threat most likely excludes mixed-race children with Euro-/white fathers whose families tend not to belong to lower class (e.g., William Hammington). This implies that despite the inclusive category of multicultural children (see Endnote 2), the term typically refers to children born into transnational marriage families in lower social stratum in Korea.

54 “Nara amnal mangchil nunmeon injong sunhyeoljuui,” Chosun Ilbo, May 2, 2013, http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2013/05/02/2013050202962.html (accessed February 10, 2016).

55 Ernest Gellner, Nations and Nationalism (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1983), 1.

56 Lee Seonghee, “Damunhwagajeong cheongsonyeonhwaldong naseon jeon samseongjeonja sajang Han Yongoe,” Hankook Ilbo, March 4, 2010, http://news.naver.com/main/tool/print.nhn?oid=038&aid=0002056714 (accessed November 4, 2015).

57 Descriptors, including “leading figures” and “ambassador,” were widely used to celebrate multicultural children’s linguistic and cultural capital and to characterize their potential.

58 David Harvey, A Brief History of Neoliberalism (Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2005).

59 Seongjin Chae et al., “‘Eommanaraui mal’ gareuchimyeon ‘hangugui geullobeol in jae’ro jaranda,” Chosun Ilbo, August 13, 2009, http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/08/13/2009081300085.html (accessed February 9, 2016).

60 Heedong Yang, “Damunhwa gajeong aideul jinjja hangugin mandeureoyajyo,” Chosun Ilbo, June 18, 2012, http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2012/06/17/2012061701638.html (accessed February 10, 2016); the metaphor of “bridge (dari)” that connects Asia recurs when the newspapers discussed multicultural children’s multilingual/multicultural competence.

61 Daeseon Koo, “Damunhwagajeongseo taeeonan thanja sindong,” Hankyoreh, December 31, 2009, http://www.hani.co.kr/arti/PRINT/396558.html (accessed December 19, 2015).

62 Seongjin Chae, et al., “Doelseongbureun ai balgulhaneun ‘eommanara mal gyeongjindaehoe’,” Chosun Ilbo, August 13, 2009, http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/08/13/2009081300078.html (accessed February 9, 2016).

63 Bora Nam, “‘Hangungmalgwa eomma naramal da jalhaneun oegyogwani doellaeyo’” Hankook Ilbo, November 25, 2012, http://news.naver.com/main/tool/print.nhn?oid=038&aid=0002325026 (accessed November 27, 2015).

64 Seongjin Chae, et al., “‘Anae gi sallyeojwoya ‘hangugui obama’ kiwo naejyo’,” Chosun Ilbo, August 14, 2009, http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2009/08/14/2009081400089.html (accessed February 9, 2016).

65 John Lie, “Introduction: Multiethnic Korea,” in Multiethnic Korea? Multiculturalism, Migration and Peoplehood Diversity in Contemporary South Korea, ed. John Lie (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, 2015), 1–30.

66 Jeff Spinner, The Boundaries of Citizenship: Race, Ethnicity, and Nationality in the Liberal State (Baltimore, MD: The John Hopkins University Press, 1994).

67 Timothy Lim, “Who is Korean? Migration, Immigration, and the Challenge of Multiculturalism in Homogeneous Societies,” Asia-Pacific Journal 30, no. 1 (2009): 1–21.

68 Ronald Dworkin, “What is Equality? Part 2: Equality of Resources,” Philosophy & Public Affairs 10, no. 4 (1981): 283–345.

69 Slavoj Zizek, “Multiculturalism, or, the Cultural Logic of Multinational Capitalism,” New Left Review 1, no. 225 (1997): 28–51.

70 United Nations, Report of the Concluding Observations of the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (Geneva: United Nations General Assembly, August 2007), www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cerd/docs/CERD.C.KOR.CO.1.pdf (accessed March 28, 2018).

71 N. Kim.

72 Iain Watson, “Multiculturalism in South Korea: A Critical Assessment,” Journal of Contemporary Asia 40, no. 2 (2010): 337–346.

73 Chung.

74 Legislative and policy reforms like the passage of bills for integrating multiracial individuals and female marriage migrants in 2006, and the revision of the Korean Nationality law in 2010 could be some examples; Katharyne Mitchell, “Education for Democratic Citizenship: Transnationalism, Multiculturalism and the Limits of Liberalism,” Harvard Educational Review 71, no. 1 (2001): 51–79.

75 Chung.

76 Zizek.

77 N. Kim.

78 Chung.

79 Teun A. van Dijk, Communicating Racism: Ethnic Prejudice in Thought and Talk (Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1987).

80 Jodi Melamed, “The Spirit of Neoliberalism: From Racial Liberalism to Neoliberal Multiculturalism,” Social Text 24, no. 4 (2006): 1–24; Zizek.

81 Mitchell.

82 Ibid.; Stuart Hall, The Hard Road to Renewal: Thatcherism and the Crisis of the Left (London: Verso, 1988).