사회과학논총 제33집 2호

The Journal of Social Sciences

2014. Vol. 33, No. 2, pp.179~205

“Multicultural families” in Asia:

Examining the past, analyzing the present,
projecting future policies

Robert J. Dickey*
1)

목 차
Ⅰ. Introduction Ⅳ. Analysis
Ⅱ. Situation in Asia Ⅴ. Conclusion
Ⅲ. Data Design and Collection References
Appendix

Ⅰ. Introduction
“Multicultural families” (damunhwa-gajeong, 다문화가정) have been a major policy focus in
the Republic of Korea (South Korea, hence Korea) over the past two decades. Locally-residing
“international marriages” and their children have become newsworthy on several levels: as a
growing segment of society, as a significant economic and social underclass, and as a perceived
threat to national culture and identity (see N. Kim, 2012). Policy choices have been made with
little reference to the socio-economic issues of neighboring states and are often couched in terms
borrowed from western immigrant-based societies without close scrutiny of their historical
settings. This investigation begins from the perspective that there is much to learn from
immediate neighbors who share much in common, that the past can be a guide for future
policies and social mood, and that this fundamentally transnational issue of migration must be
viewed from the perspective of both sending and receiving lands, not merely the local history

* 계명대학교 행정학과 외국인조교수

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and claimed heritage. The question is less about citizenship within Korea (a question of legal
status), but role in society, or in Seol's (2012: 120) perspective, status and rights.
In the Korean setting, it is a foreign spouse that determines the multicultural family rather
than the children, therefore all multicultural families in Korea are based on so-called
“international marriages.” This contrasts with the case in some other lands, where parents of a
same socio-cultural-ethnic background may adopt a child of a different background, thereby
generating a multicultural family, and is a change from past use of the term in Korea, when it
included families of foreigners who migrated to Korea and North Korean families (Olneck, 2011).
The term “international marriage families” is used here to distinguish from so-called
“multicultural families” -- the distinction is the subject of this study. Stated another way,
multicultural families may be considered as a subset of international marriage families, or as
intersecting sets (see Figures 1 and 2).

Figure 1. Multicultural Families as Figure 2. Multicultural Families

subset of as intersection with
International Marriage Families International Marriage Families

Concerning terminology, we should also distinguish between culture, race, and ethnicity. In the
English language, “race” is more often reserved for distinctions between the Caucasoid, Negroid,
and Asiatic peoples, whereas the term “ethnicity” is often preferred when discussing more specific
subdivisions of these groups, and may include considerations of culture, language, blood-heritage,
or geography. “Culture” refers to the behaviors, beliefs, and ways of living characteristic of a
particular social, ethnic, or age group, transmitted from one generation to another. Thus, ethnic
Koreans who have been born in Canada of immigrant parents and ethnic Koreans born in Japan
from emigrant grandparents pose different questions of culture, as do the Joseonjok (조선족) who
remain ethnically Korean but who have remained apart from geographic Korea for over a century.
Escapees from North Korea and the Goryeoin (고려인) of Central Asia are unquestionably ethnic
Korean, but face severe cultural challenges in modern South Korea.

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Finally, we must examine the nature of the relationship as perceived by local society: more
specifically, the salience of the status of the foreign spouses’ homeland and race/ethnicity/culture,
or what Olneck (2010, citing Minow) refers to as “dilemmas of difference.” Homeland status, in
fact, is the central concern of this study. Here there are three possibilities: society views that the
spouse's country of origin is important (prejudicial in favorable or unfavorable ways), country of
origin as unimportant, or as Nora Hui-Jeong Kim (20012) suggests, that ethno-cultural identity
with country of origin is to be suppressed (assimilation into the new society).
So-called “multicultural families” are not, as current Korean policies appear to presuppose,
merely the outcome of importing brides to counter-act a lack of potential spouses for rural men,
or to encourage population growth in a rapidly-aging society. Other factors are at work in
society, and other families deserve consideration, such as Koreans' marriage to foreign workers
already residing (temporarily) in Korea.
Three countries are the focus of discussion here: Korea, Japan, and Vietnam. While inclusion
of Japan may seem obvious here, both for colonial heritage and as a former sending nation that
is now a receiver of foreign brides, Vietnam is another Confucian-heritage land that has
undergone war, occupation by US forces (at least in part), the sending of foreign brides, and
significant rapid economic growth. Similarly, all three countries have dealt with an underclass of
“service orphans”: children born of foreign servicemen who did not marry the mother and left
child and mother behind when they departed the country. In contrast, while Japan and Korea
have been particularly fervent advocates of so-called pure-blood societies (Nagy, 2014), Vietnam
is in many respects a new country: the Viet (Kinh) people have a long history, but they account
for only 86% of the population in Vietnam, with many other ethnic groups and mountain tribes
present on a territory that was defined less than 70 years ago. In any case, it is indeed possible
that 20 years from now Vietnam too may become a receiver of foreign brides from
“lesser-developed” neighbors. Taiwan is another region that could come under study, as it
emulates the Korean and Japanese history in many respects and is also a current “importer” of
Vietnamese brides (see Le, Truong, & Khuat, 2014; Kim & Oh, 2012), however, Taiwan is
excluded here for reasons of space.
This study addresses families in contemporary Korea rather than those who have moved
abroad. How does society identify these families? How similar are the “multicultural families”
experiences of Korea and Japan, and how might these experiences inform Vietnam, when it
replicates these experiences in the future?

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A commonly-held assumption on the question of identification of multicultural families in

Korea -- that multicultural families are composed of a Korean husband and a wife from a
lesser-developed Asian nation, and that other “international marriages” are not “multicultural
families” -- is tested through a pilot study of university students.

Ⅱ. Situation in Asia
1. Nationality and National Society

This study centers on Korea's current situation. Korea is not the first Asian nation to face new
homegrown multiple ethnicities, nor will it be the last. Where foreign spouses and their
multi-ethnic (or multi-racial) children are less well-received, we may refer to the sociologists’
term of “marginalization” -- for as Burkhardt observed four decades ago, Japanese and Koreans
take considerable pride in the relative absence of racial mixture in their culturally and racially
homogeneous nations (1983: 523) and those who do not meet the pure-blood standards can be
treated as an outsider. The history in modern South Korea is clear: mixed-race children in Korea
born from 1945 through the 1980s were viewed as principally the product of “camptowns” (기
지촌) outside U.S. military bases, where prostitutes gave birth to bastard children of American
soldiers, and therefore whether the mother was a prostitute or married to an American
non-serviceman was unimportant (see Yuk, 2011). Furthermore, until change through the Korean
Nationality Act of 1997, children lacking Korean paternity were not eligible for Korean
citizenship (Lee, 2008: 112-13). On the other hand, it is not unusual in Korea and many
countries for small children of mixed race to be considered especially pretty, particularly in the
case where a parent is Caucasian. But the question of me´tissage, or “cultural braiding” (see
Nguyen, 2005) is never considered -- instead, as Watson (2010: 342) points out, multiculturalism
“promoted by the government means assimilation and continued cultural homogenisation into a
privileged and homogeneous Korean society” (emphasis in original) and even as a “paradox”
violating received opinion (2012: 236).
The concept of nationality is a legal and social construct which differs in different lands and
through different languages. In English. nationality is often roughly equal to citizenship, in other
lingua-cultural perspectives it may be more closely tied to ethnic (blood) and cultural ties. Two

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legal frameworks structure most discussions on citizenship: jus soli (citizenship based on place
of birth, also known as ius soli) and jus sanguinus (based on blood lineage, most often
patrilineal descent, ius sanguinus). While Japan and Korea have taken steps towards the blending
of these two frameworks in terms of citizenship for immigrant families and the children of
bicultural families, they are still largely driven by the patrilineal social construct (see Seol, 2012:
126; Ito, 2011).
While many delineate inclusion within a national society based on citizenship and ethnicity,
Fukuoka (1998) offered an 8 degrees framework that includes cultural fit as well. Using a
Japanese social framework, these eight degrees are calculated based on positive fit or inclusion,
and can be summarized as:
1. pure Japanese – ethnic fit, cultural fit, and legal fit.
2. returnees / reverse migration (not renationalized Nikkeijin ( 日経人) ethnic Japanese repatriate
non-citizens)
3. raised abroad (Japanese ethnic Japanese citizens)
4. naturalized (include naturalized Zainichi Koreans1))
5. emigrants, foreign adoptees (ethnic Japanese)
6. raised in Japan, non-national (include non-naturalized Zainichi Koreans)
7. Ainu, Okinawan, citizens without Yamato Japanese ethnic lineage or culture
8. gaijin - pure foreigner ( 外人)
(Fukuoka uses the term “nationality” to represent “legal citizenship.”)

Table 1. Fukuoka’s (1998) eight degrees of Japanese-ness

Types 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Lineage + + + - + - - -
Culture + + - + - + - -
Nationality + - + + - - + -

1) Japan
Japan has traditionally followed the rule of jus sanguinus. Originally limited to the citizenship

1) Zainichi (在日, “non-Japanese residing in Japan”) are ethnic Korean permanent residents of Japan who
trace their roots to Korea under Japanese rule (1910-1945), as distinguished from later arrivals and
pre-modern immigrants.

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of the father, amendments made to Japan's Nationality Law in 1984 allowed nationality based on
the child’s parents' citizenship. In 2008 the Japanese Supreme Court struck down a provision of
the nationality law that limited children to their mothers nationality where the claimed Japanese
father had not admitted patrimony prior to birth (strict patrilineage). Still, many perceive
Japanese ethnicity and citizenship under the simpler rubric offered by Willis (2002: 28) -- residents
who are Natural Japanese (ethnicity), Naturalized Japanese (legally), or Non-Japanese (28).
There are no current definitions of multicultural families in Japan, nor are there statistics on
their number, as official statistics are compiled in terms of nationality (citizenship?), not
ethnicity, and multiculturalism is a concept more linked to ethnicity than nationality (Yano,
2009). Instead we look to the numbers of residents who are registered as International. Japan has
a significant multi-generational non-nationals population, both Koreans and Chinese. Few have
become Japanese citizens, most are treated as a permanent underclass. The Japan Ministry of
Justice reported that in 2007 there were 2,152,973 foreign residents in Japan, 1.69 percent of the
total population of 127,771,000 (Caltabiano, 2009).
Marriage statistics from 2007 show that there were 40,272 international marriages, comprising
5.6% of the total 719,822 total marriages (Yano, 2009) while foreigners comprised roughly 2%
of the population in 2008 (see Table 2 for details). A significant number of these may have been
between resident Koreans or Chinese and Japanese citizens, but on the other hand there is
significant social distance between the Japanese and these permanent resident non-citizens. About
one of 30 children born in Japan in 2006 had one or both parents originating from other
countries (Japan Times, 2008).

2) Korea
Acceptance of Korean-ness among Korean ethnic non-citizens in Korea is not always clear.
The Korean diaspora is over 1,300 years in the making for a society that claims 5,000 years of
pure-blood history2). Lee (2012) points to the term “ethnizenship” for the status granted
non-citizen co-ethnics (외국국적동포), “dongpo” ethnic Koreans raised in other lands who can
trace recent family ancestry to nationals of the Republic of Korea, which legally means lawful
residents of Korea up to the time immediately preceding Japanese colonialism. H-2 visa holders

2) K.K Han (2007) and G-S. Han (2007) are among the many writers discussing Korean history and sense of
nation (pure-bloodedness); it might also be observed that for some "Koreans" in China, their ancestors did
not leave Korea: the fall of the Goguryeo Empire in 668AD made them "Chinese".

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(mostly from China) are one of the types of foreign spouses under consideration in this study.
The Overseas Koreans (F-4 visa status) are a similar but far larger group, limited to those who
can become employed in fields above menial labor, most typically the children of post-1950s
emigrants to western (developed) countries. These H-2 and F-4 visa holders can be called
“kin-foreigners.” Escapees from North Korea also face questions, but those generally focus on
socio-cultural fit rather than citizenship. Those whose ancestors left Korea longer ago have less
clear legal status as Koreans (see Lee, 2010). In any case, those who are identifiably Korean
through ethnicity, language skill, and cultural understanding are not generally understood to be
“foreign spouses.” Once married to a Korean citizen, all non-citizens are eligible to apply for
F-2 (spouse) status, and ultimately, Korean citizenship.
Statistics Korea reported that 4.7 percent of all newborn babies in 2011 were from
multicultural families (Editor, 2012). The social status of these Korean-born citizens of
multicultural families is a mounting social concern.

3) Other
The European Convention on Nationality (1997) stipulates that member states can define their own
citizens, but must allow children of international marriages and immigrants to hold dual nationality.
The United States and many other western countries allow children to be born as dual-nationals,
though many have rules requiring selection of a single nationality at the age of adulthood.

2. Historical Homogeneity and Caste

As noted above, Korea and Japan have claimed a heritage of homogeneous society. Endogamy
has been claimed as a social strength, which generates a “outsider class” environment for
immigrants. Similarly, a caste system will identify higher and lower classes of society based on
ethnic or cultural markers. Marriage across castes may be labeled as upward (or forward) in the
case of one marrying into a higher caste, downward (or backward), or equal.

1) Japan
Over the past twenty years, the predominant academic discourse in Japan has focused on a
multicultural society and dismissed as myth the idea of a homogeneous Japanese society (Burgess,

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2007), which, as Willis (2002: 23) pointed out, is (still) officially 99% Japanese. Burgess further
notes that multiculturalism as a political ideal in Japan has often traced to the influx of racially
distinct migrant workers in the late 1980s. At the same time, various political leaders, including
then-Prime-Minister Nakasone, have spoken of the racial homogeneity of the Japanese people, in
spite of the long-standing Burakumin (ancient outcast) and Ainu and Okinawan (indigenous)
populations and the growing immigrant community. The concept of Nihonjinron ( 日本人論)
describes pre-war Japanese identity minus imperialistic and war-time symbolism: a central premise
of Nihonjinron is that the Japanese are a homogeneous people which constitute a racially-unified
nation (Burgess, 2012). Conversely, writers such as Tarumoto (2003) argue that prior to 1945
Japan granted “nationals” status to all residents of occupied territories and that the concept of a
unified (pure) nation-state was only developed at the collapse of the empire in 1945, and that
since the 1980s Japan has (once again) become a multicultural society.

2) Korea
The only significant permanent foreign population in Korea prior to the 1990s were Taiwanese
nationals known as hwagyo (화교) who arrived in Korea from 1882 when Korea and China
signed a trade agreement allowing Chinese merchants to own and lease land (Chung & Kim,
2012: 206). As the middle-ground between Japan and China, it is likely that various invading
forces left genetic code in the Korean population as well. Is the myth of ethnic and cultural
homogeneity in South Korea crumbling, as Cho (2007: 7) suggests? Some studies and surveys
of society are suggesting that the bloodline may be becoming less important in identity of
Korean-ness (see, for example, Lee, 2009). Kyung-Koo Han (2007: 9) argues that it is, that the
government-led process for multiculturalism is in fact a far cry from the official affirmation of
a single nation-state, the Korean minjok (민족; 民族) proclaimed by President Park Chung Hee,
or, in the more extreme case, the idea that there is a single bloodline for the Korean nation:
danil minjok (단일민족; 單一民族) as taught in Korean schoolbooks until 2007 (Moon, 2010:5).
There were Japanese Imperial forces and government officials in Korea in the first half of the
20th century, and American solders in the second half. Since the 1990s migrant laborer programs
have been instituted, and foreign language teacher resident numbers have climbed as high as
24,000 residents in the early years of the 21st century3), but neither the laborers nor teachers

3) Korea Immigration Service Website: http://immigration.go.kr

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were considered permanent.

3. Economy

Marital migration is often based on economic factors. Poor economic conditions in the home
country and a desire for a more prosperous future, particularly in order to support family
members in the home country, push worker and new brides (Le, Truong, & Khuat, 2014) from
their homelands. A pull for foreign brides in the receiving land may include social and economic
advantage to marriage, a shortage of local women, and the increased mobility of local women
(less need to marry). As rural men age without wives, the familial goal of maintaining the
patriarchal line encourages each to seek a wife from overseas.
Japan and Korea both, during their economically less-developed eras, were exporters of brides
(push factor), as Vietnam remains today. Japan has passed major economic thresholds (e.g., GDP
US$10,000/person) twelve to fifteen years earlier than Korea; Vietnam is perhaps thirty years
behind Korea. As economic conditions improved, Japan and Korea have become receivers of
brides; Vietnam has not yet crossed that threshold. While Vietnamese women seek a better life,
particularly from the poorest fishing/farming areas of Vietnam (Hong, 2005), over 50% of the
bicultural families in Korea are living below the minimum cost of living (Bae & Oh, 2010).
Marital migration also occurs where the foreign spouse originally migrated to Japan or Korea
for employment, and married a local person. This was traditionally more frequent when the
husband is a foreigner, but an increasing number of women brought to Korea as factory workers
are finding Korean husbands.

4. Societal inclusion (Internationalization)

Societal inclusion (internationalization), as used here, refers to domestic policies that cause
citizens to consider social inclusion beyond the traditionally-defined national peoples.

1) Japan
When foreigners are admitted into Japanese society, they are categorized as foreign, and it is
made clear that they are expected to perform the role of foreigner with as much cultural

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difference as they can muster (Walker, 2005). The Supreme Court ruling on the Chong Hyang
Gyun case, which allowed a local government to reject the promotion of an ethnic Korean on
the grounds that she lacked Japanese nationality, would seem to substantiate the claim that
multiculturalism masks overt exclusion by the state to maintain the idea of a nation composed
only of Japanese citizens (Walker, 2005).
The 1980s/1990s idea kokusaika ( 国際化, internationalization) was often a way to delineate
and reinforce the boundaries of Japaneseness (Willis, 2002, 24), reinforcing the idea of a
mono-ethnic nation through adding a Japanese perspective to the international order, spreading
Japanese culture, values, and history, and helping people see the world through Japanese eyes
(Burgess, 2012). Japanese multiculturalism (tabunka, 多文化) has been criticized as a shift in
official presentation of national identity, as a move towards cosmetic multiculturalism, the latest
ideological tool to put Japanese under pressure to become more Japanese and foreign residents
under pressure to become more ethnic (Burgess, 2012).

2) Korea
Korea’s segyehwa (세계화) of the 1990s was a replacement word – originally the Korean
government used the English-derivation globalhwa (글로벌화, globalization) to describe a set of
policies aiming toward economic and social development. Discovering that other countries would
expect a partnership of inbound and outbound trade, finance, and ideas, the government moved
to the more-Korean term in order to explain that this was globalization on Korean terms –
something closer to Japans kokusaika.
Similarly, Geon-Soo Han (2007) finds that multiculturalism in Korea appears to be oriented to
how well foreign brides can act as traditional Koreans, and that current discourse on
multiculturalism is based on a rosy vision of the ideals of multiculturalism. Despite the fact that
diverse multicultural players have different interpretations of and prospects for multiculturalism,
there exists virtually no debate or accord on the specific policies of and prospects for the
multicultural society each is pursuing (36). Similarly, H.M. Kim (2007) argues what the Korean
government wants from the multicultural family is a family based on traditional family values, that
is, one that upholds patriarchy and emphasizes reproduction (101). J.K. Kim (2011) goes further
and claims the Multicultural Family Center are in fact a form of paternalism to aid in assimilation.

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5. Importing Brides

Marital migration (also known as “mail order brides”) are hardly a new phenomenon, and not
unique to Asia. This type of migration, as with most migrations, has both push and pull factors.
More specific to this investigation, all three countries have been source countries for brides
leaving for other lands; Korea and Japan have both graduated to receiver nations of foreign
brides. One factor in marital migration is gender imbalance in sender and/or receiver countries,
an additional factor is the willingness for women to live independently, and/or refusal to marry
poor or rural men. At the governmental level, part of the concern may be a need for more
children – the Total Fertility Rates in Japan and Korea declined from 4 to 2 children per woman
in only one decade, starting from late 1940s in Japan and early 1970s in Korea (Tsuya &
Bumpass, 2004, p. 3), both countries are now about 1.4 (p. 5).

1) Japan
There have been increasing numbers of young women in Japan who do not marry: higher
education of women causes both economic freedom of women and less willingness to be
subjugated in traditional high gender division households (Fukuda, 2009). There has been a shift
in the foreign partner: while before 1975 it was mostly Japanese women marrying foreign men,
since then more men have been marrying outside the nationality (Nitta, 1998). Local governments
in Japan were encouraged to import foreign brides as a crucial element of rural revitalization
even while the national policy does not welcome and only reluctantly recognizes the settlement
of foreign migrants in Japan (Burgess, 2012). The importing of Asian brides in Japan started in
the late 1980s: the number of Japanese men who married non-Japanese women increased 1,000
percent from 1970 to 1990, up to 20,026, and has climbed since (Sakurai, 2002, 131). By 2009
international marriages comprised nearly 5% of all marriages (Chung & Kim, 2012, 198).
Sakurai (2002) pointed out that the unwed ratio of men aged 30-34 and above in 1990 is
particularly severe in mountain farm areas (134) and that, upon marriage, the husbands are much
older than their foreign wives (138).

2) Korea
A strong preference for boys, combined with (often illegal) fetus testing in the 1990s, has

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created a gender imbalance in Korea. Add to this, many Korean women have abandoned rural
life for better education and job prospects in the cities, and it becomes clear why rural men
can’t find brides.4) International marriages of Koreans shifted, as had the Japanese, from local
women marrying foreign men to local men marrying foreign women in the early 1990s (Kong
et al., 2010: 262): these foreign-bride marriages are generally described as multicultural families.
The number of marriages also increased significantly in the ten years between 1994-2004 (see
Table 2). The initial multicultural marriages were arranged between farmers and Joseonjok
(ethnic Korean from China) women (Chung & Kim, 2012, 209) during the mid-1990s. The pool
of potential brides expanded as demand for foreign brides increased. More than four out of ten
single farmers married foreign women in 2006 (G-S. Han, 2007). While the “Getting Rural
Bachelors Married” project began in the 1990s, international marriages between Korean men and
Asian women took off from the year 2000 (H.M. Kim, 2007). Table 3 indicates the source of
most migrants to Korea (the United States and Canada are presumed to be mostly English
teachers, some percentage of the others are factory workers, mostly males).

Table 2. International Marriages by Year and Foreign Wives/Husbands

Total Int'l Ratio of Foreign Wives Foreign Husbands

Marriages Marriages Total No. of Ratio of Int'l No. of Ratio of Int'l
Marriages Marriages Marriages Marriages Marriages
1994 393,121 6,616 1.7 3,072 46.4 3,544 53.6
1996 434,911 15,946 3.7 12,647 79.3 3,229 20.2
1998 375,616 12,188 3.2 8,054 66.1 4,134 33.9
2000 332,090 11,605 3.5 6,945 59.8 4,660 40.2
2002 304,877 15,202 5.0 10,698 70.4 4,504 29.6
2004 308,598 34,640 11.2 25,105 72.5 9,535 27.5
2006 330,634 38,759 11.7 29,665 76.5 9,094 23.5
2008 327,715 36,204 11.0 28,163 77.8 8,041 22.2
2009 309,759 33,300 10.8 25,142 75.5 8,158 24.5
Source: Yang (2011).

4) see Kim & Kwon (2012) concerning the pull for foreign migrants as brides and laborers in Korea.

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Table 3. Foreigners entering South Korea in 2009 by nationality

Nationality Entries (1,000 persons) Composition

China 121 50%
[Korean-Chinese] [76] [31%]
USA 28 11.6%
Vietnam 16 6.8%
Indonesia 9 3.7%
Uzbekistan 7 2.8%
Philippines 6 2.5%
Thailand 6 2.5%
Mongolia 5 2.2%
Canada 5 1.9%
Japan 3 1.4%
Others 36 14.7%
Total 243 100%
Source: Korean National Statistics Office Reproduced by Kim & Kim (2012)

6. International Marriages, Bicultural Families & Children, and

Racial (Ethnic) Identification

International marriages and bicultural families refers to the household, and indeed to some
extent even beyond the extended family beyond the immediate household, where a spouse is
from another country. While there is of course concern for the immigrant spouse, much of the
attention has focused on the children of international marriages. As noted in the above sections,
economic factors along with other social issues have affected emigration and the nature of
marriage, this is part of the distinction between terms, along with the consideration of children.

1) Japan
Japan has used a variety of terms to address the children of mixed-race and bicultural
parentage. Similar to “one-drop rule” (prevalent in many Western countries in the past) that
makes one black, any amount of non-Japanese blood is thought to make one not Japanese
(Murphy-Shigematsu, 2001, p. 214). The following labels (from Murphy-Shigematsu 2001) are
often not kind:

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∙ Ainoko - child of mixture - was most used during American occupation of Japan and
refers to children born of US servicemen - is considered derogatory, used for animals
as well, evoking a sense of poverty, illegitimacy, racial impurity, and discrimination (p. 210)
∙ Konketsuji - mixed-blood child - became more used after the occupation, but continued
much of the same negativity (p. 210) although also associated with professional
entertainers in sports, music, etc.
∙ Haafu – (half) an attempt to find a trendy label that applied particularly to those
considered phenotypically white (p. 211)
∙ Dabaru - double (having both cultures) (p. 211)
∙ Kokusaiji - international child - introduced in 1979 (The International Year of the
Child) (p. 212).

In more current times, Murphy-Shigematsu notes, mixed blood are often children of intact and
well-to-do families that have lived abroad (p. 214). The final two labels in the list are more
common for these children.

2) Korea
Traditionally there have been strongly negative stigmas associated with marriages between
Koreans and non-Koreans, and most cases were restricted to Korean women who married foreign
men and promptly moved abroad (Kim & Kim, 2012, p. 244). The contemporary word for
mixed-blood – honhyeol – was claimed in 2003 to be a human rights violation (Kim, 2007, 103),
and the term multicultural family – damunhwa gajok (or gajeong) - came into use. Similar to
Japan, a variety of labels have been affixed to children of mixed Korean/Non-Korean parentage:

∙ Honhyeol (혼혈) - mixed-blood (somewhat negative), converse to pure-blood, i.e., danil

minjok 단일민족 (“pureblooded Korean race, ethnicity, and/or nation”), a term
previously strongly associated with the children of U.S. servicemen (whether Caucasian,
Negro, or other)
∙ Kosian (코시안) - child of Korean father and Chinese, Japanese, or SEAsian mother
(somewhat negative or neutral, not yet commonly used though increasingly for children
of multicultural families)
∙ Kopino (코피노) - child of Korean father and Filipino mother, most widely understood as

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 “Multicultural families” in Asia: Examining the past, analyzing the present, projecting future policies (Robert J. Dickey)

the product of overseas dalliance by Korean men (negative connotation but perhaps evolving)
∙ Ainoko (아이노코) - see above (derogatory, but considered an antique word), from the
early 20th century (under Japanese rule) when children were born between Korean and
Japanese couples.
∙ Twiggi (튀기) - lion-tiger mix or crossbreed (negative, used more during the Japanese
colonial period)
∙ Jabjong (잡종) - cross-breed, hybrid, mule (highly negative)
∙ Jjambong (짬봉) - referencing a Chinese soup that is made with leftover ingredients
∙ Ggamdungi (깜둥이) - “Blackie” (highly perjorative)
∙ Onnuri-a (온누리아) - “Child of the world” (term created by Daegu NGO staff, not
widely used)
∙ Lai Taihan (라이따이한) - child of Korean father and Vietnamese mother during the
Vietnam War, largely unknown in Korea
∙ Amerasian (아메라시안) - this term appears to be largely unrecognized by Koreans
∙ Han-mi (한미) - Korean-American (not generally used in reference to people)

Under a new legal definition through the Multicultural Families Act of 2008, as amended in
2011, a multicultural family refers to a family of international backgrounds and cultures,
consisting of a Korean by birth or naturalization and a migrant spouse, such as marriage-visa
immigrants, migrant workers, international students and North Korean escapees, but does not
include non-citizen families. However, there is a widespread perception in Korea that
multicultural families do not include those consisting of a Korean wife and foreign husband,
particularly husbands from lands thought of as “more-developed”: the United States, Canada,
Europe, Australia, and Japan (i.e., upward marriages).
More than 200 government-funded Multicultural Family Centers are now spread across the country.
The election of Jasmine Lee, a native Filipino who married a Korean, to the National Assembly has
raised the visibility of bicultural families to the highest level since Hines Ward, Most Valuable Player
in the American football Superbowl of 2006, visited the country that year and was recognized as a
bicultural son of Korea (his father was a black American serviceman stationed in Korea).
Korea's efforts towards acceptance of non “pure-bloods” is making an impact. A Ministry of
Gender Equality and Family survey in the year 2010 indicated that 79.5 percent of people were
positive to the growing number of multicultural families (R. Kim, 2011). Nevertheless, absorption

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社會科學論叢 第33輯 2號

into Korean society is not easy for many children. Roughly 42 percent of students from
multicultural families said they were taunted by classmates in a 2010 survey conducted by the
National Human Rights Commission, and another survey by Seoul City showed that four out of
five foreign teenagers were not in school, largely because of discrimination and bullying (Y-w.
Kim 2012). The Center for Multicultural Korea reports that 70 percent of multicultural children
either do not advance to high school or drop out (BlendedPeople, n.d.).

3) Vietnam
There is little information currently available on mixed-race families in Vietnam. There is over
100 years history of mixed-race children, principally of French colonial men and soldiers from
France, the United States, and Korea. The general term for those of mixed-blood parentage is
Con lai, whether the mother or father is Vietnamese. One scholar has suggested that modern
Vietnamese society considers mixed-blood (Caucasian) parentage as relatively positive, but not so
with Black parentage, and, consistent with the literature, observes that in the past mixed-blood
children were not treated well.5)

Ⅲ. Data Design and Collection

An online survey was developed to solicit university students' perspectives on the distinctions
between families of international marriages and multicultural families. The survey was designed and
posted on Survey Monkey in the Korean language, and then a generic link to the survey was
distributed to university students in the Daegu region in October 2014 through faculty's electronic
media: campus-based SMS, class E-board (both campus and commercial systems), and commercial
social media (in each case, the normal means of communication to students by the particular professor).
An unknown number of invitations were sent by unidentified faculty members at four universities.
The target of the survey was student identification of marital type for 14 multi-ethnic
(multi-racial) families as “International Marriage Family” (국제 결혼 가족), “Multicultural
Family” (다문화 가정), “Both”, or “Neither”. (See Appendix for the original text of the survey,
in Korean language.) Nationality of marital partners was designed to elicit strong cultural

5) Nguyen, T.K.C. (National Academy of Public Administration, Hanoi Vietnam), personal correspondence
October 24, 2014.

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 “Multicultural families” in Asia: Examining the past, analyzing the present, projecting future policies (Robert J. Dickey)

reactions: Americans and Japanese have strong local identification as economically and socially
developed societies, Joseonjok as lesser-developed kin-foreigners, Vietnamese as lesser-developed
Asians, Polish as an economically lesser-developed Europeans (i.e., a developed Caucasian
culture), Brazilians as lesser-developed non-Asian/non-“White”, and Nigeria as lesser-developed
African. Pairings were created for each nationality: Husband as Korean, or Wife as Korean.
Data was collected from the online survey dataset on October 23rd 2014. 92 responses are
treated here, one respondent did not respond to one item. Respondents' demographic data will
not be treated in this pilot study.
In Table 4, the first nationality listed is husband [H], the second is wife.

Table 4. Survey Response Data

국제 결혼 다문화 어느 쪽도
둘 다 Total
가족 가정 아니다
미국 남편, 한국 부인 53.26% 4.35% 40.22% 2.17%
US [H] Korean 49 4 37 2 92
한국 남편, 미국 부인 48.91% 10.87% 36.96% 3.26%
Korean [H] US 45 10 34 3 92
일본 남편, 한국 부인 53.26% 9.78% 33.70% 3.26%
Japan [H] Korean 49 9 31 3 92
한국 남편, 일본 부인 46.74% 15.22% 33.70% 4.35%
Korean [H] Japan 43 14 31 4 92
조선족 남편, 한국 부인 22.83% 27.17% 28.26% 21.74%
Joseonjok [H] Korean 21 25 26 20 92
한국 남편, 조선족 부인 19.57% 32.61% 29.35% 18.48%
Korean [H] Joseonjok 18 30 27 17 92
베트남 남편, 한국 부인 30.43% 27.17% 38.04% 4.35%
Vietnam [H] Korean 28 25 35 4 92
한국 남편, 베트남 부인 19.57% 41.30% 35.87% 3.26%
Korean [H] Vietnam 18 38 33 3 92
폴란드 남편, 한국 부인 53.26% 5.43% 38.04% 3.26%
Polish [H] Korean 49 5 35 3 92
한국 남편, 폴란드 부인 47.25% 10.99% 38.46% 3.30%
Korean [H] Polish 43 10 35 3 91
브라질 남편, 한국 부인 46.74% 7.61% 42.39% 3.26%
Brazilian [H] Korean 43 7 39 3 92
한국 남편, 브라질 부인 42.39% 13.04% 40.22% 4.35%
Korean [H] Brazilian 39 12 37 4 92
나이지리아 남편, 한국 부인 40.22% 18.48% 38.04% 3.26%
Nigerian [H] Korean 37 17 35 3 92
한국 남편, 나이지리아 부인 31.52% 29.35% 36.96% 2.17
Korean [H] Nigerian 29 27 34 2 92

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社會科學論叢 第33輯 2號

Ⅳ. Analysis
This pilot study is limited to non-demographic analysis of all respondents, testing the main
hypothesis and four alternate hypotheses, as follows:

H: Multicultural families are identified by Korean society as being composed of a

Korean husband and a wife from a lesser-developed Asian nation.
H1: More respondents will identify couples with a Korean husband as Multicultural than
the same nationality pairing with a Korean wife (converse pairings)..
H2: Most respondents will identify couples with Korean husband and wife from
lesser-developed Asian nations (Joseonjok and Vietnam) as Multicultural families or
both; with a lower rate when the husband is from those lands (converse pairings).
H3: More respondents will identify couples with a spouse from the US or Japan as only
international marriage families than as multicultural families or both.
H4: Darkness of skin will affect non-Asian ratings
H5: Identification in the other racial pairings will be inconclusive.

Multicultural families are identified as M, International Marriage Families as I, Both as B, and

Neither as N below. In this analytic design, identification as Both will often be calculated along
with Multicultural, since Multicultural Families are treated as a subset of International Marriage
Families.

1. Alternate Hypotheses

1) H1: Korean husband versus Korean wife

Accepted. In every nationality pairing both the percentage of Korean husband couples
outnumbered the Korean wife couples in Multicultural or Both identifications, and Korean wife
couples outnumbered Korean husband couples for International Marriage Family identifications
by nearly 10%.

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 “Multicultural families” in Asia: Examining the past, analyzing the present, projecting future policies (Robert J. Dickey)

Figure 3. Graph of Response Data

2) H2: Korean husband, lesser-developed Asian wife

Accepted but with two surprises. While Korean husband/Vietnamese wife was identified as
Multicultural or Both in approximately 77% of responses (M 41.30%, B 35.87%), and a lesser
degree as Multicultural or both when the husband is Vietnamese (approximately 65%: M 27.17%
B 38.04%) ; only 62% of responses indicated a Joseonjok wife created a Multicultural or Both
family (M 32.61%, B 29.35%) and barely 55% accepted a Joseonjok husband in this
classification (M 27.17%, B 28.26%). More surprising still, approximately 20% of responses
viewed Joseonjok-comprised couples as Not Multicultural families.

3) H3: American or Japanese spouse

Accepted with an exception. The majority of responses indicated that American and Japanese
-husband families were International marriage families rather than Multicultural or Both. Where
the wife was American or Japanese, slightly less than 50% identified those families as
International only. The number of “Neither” responses in these two cases were sufficient that
Multicultural and Both, combined, failed to become the majority. However, the number of
Multicultural and Both, combined, was greater than the number of International in the case of
Japanese wife (I 46.74%; M 15.22% + B 33.70% = 48.92%).

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社會科學論叢 第33輯 2號

4) H4: Darkness of skin

Accepted. Outside of Asian families, only the couples with a Nigerian (Black African) or
Brazilian spouse were recognized as Multicultural or Both in half or more of the responses,
although the Brazilian husband reach only precisely 50% and the Polish wife was at 49.5%.

5) H5: Other observations

Accepted: insufficient data and analysis to draw conclusions. Interesting observations:

∙ 80-90% of respondents considered families with an American or Japanese spouse as

International Marriage or Both.
∙ More than 50% of respondents identified families with American, Japanese, and Polish
husbands as International, with families of Brazilian husbands and American, Japanese,
and Polish wives in the high 40 percents.
∙ Families not as highly indentified as Multicultural were those with American, Japanese,
Polish, and Brazilian spouses; only 18% of respondents identified families with a
Nigerian husband as multicultural.

2. Main Hypothesis

The main hypothesis is supported. The importance of this finding is that the responses of
university students are inconsistent with the law of the land, which treats all international
marriage families as multicultural families.

Ⅴ. Conclusion
Multiculturalism describes both an ideal (an ideology) and the official policies put into
practice by the governments of migration-friendly countries from the 1970s, claims Burgess
(2007), who goes on to observe that most multiculturalisms are a celebration of and a lesson on
the importance of maintaining equality and cultural diversity. The polite fiction -- or perhaps it
is earnest wish -- that multicultural families in Asia will fully assimilate and become

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 “Multicultural families” in Asia: Examining the past, analyzing the present, projecting future policies (Robert J. Dickey)

indistinguishable from the rest of society is probably unrealistic and certainly unfair to children
not permitted the freedom to choose which culture, or what mixture of cultures, they wish to
adopt for their own. As Caltabiano (2009) argues, there needs to be appropriate terminologies to
describe children’s multiple backgrounds, such as Japanese-American or Japanese-Peruvian (p.
16). Hyphenated identity states more clearly than any label who the bicultural child chooses to
be. Still, similar to what Murphy-Shigematsu (2001) states concerning the Japanese, it may be
several generations before most in Korea can fully appreciate a new multi-ethnic society of
citizens without racial undertone.
The data from this pilot study is inconclusive: although deeper investigation may reveal some
deeper meanings, the intention was primarily to field-test a short survey instrument. One
tentative conclusion in that vein is that Nigeria and Brazil, recognized soccer powers (and
selected on the basis of recognizability), may not have been the best options. Further
investigation may indicate that other Latin American and African country labels may be more
helpful than the nations chosen here. Similarly, incorporation of additional lands of origin may
provide clearer delineation for multicultural families, such as Philippines (English-speaking),
India or Iran (outside of SEAsia), and Russia or Bulgaria (“less Western” Caucasian).
A further concern on selection of identities is that skin coloration is high correlated with the
economic status of the countries selected. According to the World Bank (n.d.), the Gross
Domestic Product per capita for each country, commonly associated with national economic
status, is as follows: United States $53,143; Japan $38,492; Korea (Republic) $25,977; Poland
$13,432; Brazil $11,208; China $6,807; Nigeria $3,006; Vietnam $1,911 (all in US$, here China
is used to represent the Joseonjok). Alternatives might include Peru $6,660; Nicaragua $1,851;
Belarus $7,575; Bulgaria $7,296; or Ukraine $3,900.
Economic data is incomplete, but the literature seems to indicate that societal disadvantage
appears to remain beyond the first generation of Zainichi Korean children in Japan and the
bicultural children as adults in both Japan and Korea. Policies that fail to recognize the
socio-economic conditions of sender countries and the experience of neighbor receiving countries
are destined to failure. As such a failure has extremely negative impacts on the bicultural
families involved, we must hope for a more open perspective from governmental authorities.
It seems clear from even the little data gathered in this study that the Korean government
must re-think its labeling of multicultural familes, just as as segyehwa (세계화) replaced
globalhwa (글로벌화) to address misunderstandings in the early 1990s.

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Facing the real possibility that Vietnam, as one of the newly-emerging “Baby Tigers” of
Asian economic growth, may trace the economic and social paths of Japan and Korea, Korea
and Japan would do well to consider the steps taken by each other, and Vietnam to monitor the
progress of both, as they all prepare for new aging and multicultural societies with bicultural
families.

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[Appendix]

Survey Questionnaire
국제가정: International Families in Korea
이 미니 설문 조사는 다문화 가정의 구성원에 대한 생각을 요청하는 것입니다.

1. 밑의 예시에 적힌 가족 구성원이 한국에 살고 있다고 가정한다면, 그들은 옆의 보기 4개 중

어디에 해당한다고 생각합니까?

국제 결혼 가족 다문화 가정 둘 다 어느 쪽도 아니다
미국 남편, 한국 부인 ○ ○ ○ ○
한국 남편, 미국 부인 ○ ○ ○ ○
일본 남편, 한국 부인 ○ ○ ○ ○
한국 남편, 일본 부인 ○ ○ ○ ○
조선족 남편, 한국 부인 ○ ○ ○ ○
한국 남편, 조선족 부인 ○ ○ ○ ○
베트남 남편, 한국 부인 ○ ○ ○ ○
한국 남편, 베트남 부인 ○ ○ ○ ○
폴란드 남편, 한국 부인 ○ ○ ○ ○
한국 남편, 폴란드 부인 ○ ○ ○ ○
브라질 남편, 한국 부인 ○ ○ ○ ○
한국 남편, 브라질 부인 ○ ○ ○ ○
나이지리아 남편, 한국 부인 ○ ○ ○ ○
한국 남편, 나이지리아 부인 ○ ○ ○ ○

2. 어느 대학교에 다니고 있습니까?

○ 계명대힉교 ○ 경북대학교 ○ 대구대학교 ○ 영남대학교
○ 기타 _________________

3. 단과대학(학부). 학과는 어디에 속합니까? ___________________

4. 혼혈 친구가 있나요?
○ 있슴 ○ 없음

5. 나이
○ 21세 미만 ○ 21-24세 ○ 25세 이상

6. 성별
○ 남성 ○ 여성

감사합니다.
계명대학교행정학과 Dickey교수.

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 “Multicultural families” in Asia: Examining the past, analyzing the present, projecting future policies (Robert J. Dickey)

<Abstract>

The future of multicultural families in Asia:

Examining the past, analyzing the present,
projecting future policies

6)Robert J. Dickey*

South Korea's “Multicultural families” (damunhwa-gajeong, 다문화가정) have been a

major policy focus over the past two decades, yet there is uncertainty in society of the
meaning of the term despite specific language in the law. Migrating workers and brides
lead to international marriages and questions of citizenship and social fit for spouses and
children alike in the historically homogeneous society. Comparisons are made to Japan and
new-developing Vietnam, each of which have faced occupation by foreign troops and share
a history of Confucianism along with that of exporting brides and orphans.

Key words: Multicultural Family, International Marriage, Transnational Gendered Migration,

Citizenship, Multiculturalism, Assimilation, Kin-foreigner, Public Policy.

* Assistant Professor, Keimyung University Dept of Public Administration

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