[Times] Multicultural controversy? Generational conflict caused by the past framework of ‘Rural Bachelor’

In the late 1990s, sending married off rural bachelors was a long-awaited national project. The government, agricultural cooperatives, and local governments stepped in to help bring brides from Southeast Asia and even paid for wedding expenses. In 2005, the number of foreign spouses increased to the extent that 13.5% of all marriages were international marriages, and civic groups suggested 'multicultural' as a replacement for the discriminatory expression 'mixed race child'. This is the background of the era that led to the enactment of the Multicultural Family Support Act in 2008.

Even now, 30 years later, when thinking of multiculturalism, many people think of the marriage of a middle-aged rural bachelor and a Southeast Asian woman in her 20s. Families with a Chinese compatriot and a Japanese spouse also receive various preferential treatment as they belong to a multicultural family, but not many people think that this is the case. It is a prosperous country and our skin color is the same, so it is not considered multicultural.

This gap is clearly visible when looking at the government's latest international marriage statistics. The rapid increase in ‘one man, one woman’ couples is symbolic. Last year, the number of marriages between Korean men and foreign women in Japan was about 1,500, ranking fourth after Vietnam, China, and Thailand. It has increased nearly 2.5 times in three years. If this trend continues, some predict that it will soon catch up with Vietnam.

The perception of Southeast Asia as only a 'bride exporting country' 30 years ago cannot keep up with the changed reality. Vietnam has continued to grow rapidly and entered the upper-middle-income class classified by the World Bank this year. In terms of the number of foreign students studying in Korea, it surpassed China and ranked first for the first time. A country that once welcomed brides has now become a country that seeks to attract students.

On the other hand, there is growing controversy that Vietnamese women are exploiting loopholes in the Korean marriage system. The number of Vietnamese women who are abusing marriage with Korean men as a way to acquire nationality and receive welfare benefits is increasing, so much so that even local Vietnamese media has covered it. Last year, the nationality of foreign husbands who married Korean women (including naturalized and remarried women) was American at 28%, Chinese at 17%, Vietnamese at 15%, and Canadian at 6%. However, it turned out that nearly 90% of Korean women who remarried Vietnamese men were naturalized Vietnamese.

President Lee Jae-myung is being criticized by civic groups for encouraging discrimination and hatred after pointing out the reverse discrimination problem in multicultural support policies and raising the need for reform. Perspectives on this controversy vary depending on generation and ideological orientation. While young people in their 20s and 30s, moderates, and conservatives who grew up with children from multicultural families consider the fairness of multicultural preferences, middle-aged people in their 40s and older and progressives who have seen the difficulties of Southeast Asian brides mainly through the media place more emphasis on protecting minorities.

Add to this the Koreans' unique culture of affection and the standards of political correctness (PC), and multicultural support policies have become a sanctuary where even questioning their validity has become a cautious sanctuary. The ignorance of failing to distinguish between naturalized multicultural families and foreign workers and lumping them together as a minority also clouds the discussion.

This multicultural controversy shows that a change in social perception of multiculturalism is as urgent as a rational reorganization of policies. If we remain stuck in the past framework of 'preferential treatment for minorities' while ignoring the changed reality, the controversy over reverse discrimination and conflict between generations will inevitably deepen. We must face the fact that the biggest victims are ultimately minority multicultural families. I hope that we will expedite the improvement of the system so that multicultural support can become established as a value of ‘coexistence within the process’ rather than a preferential treatment.