Is South Korea Ready for Multicultural Families(“다문화”)? An Analysis of Social Media

The Republic of Korea is known as a homogenous country; a recent trend, however, is an increase in young women from other Asian countries who marry Korean men, which challenges the normative familial structure of Korean families and communities. Our analysis uses social media to examine the narrative of Koreans as they discuss what will be required of Korea to accept multicultural families and children. Three Korean web portals—Daum, Nate and Naver—were surveyed over the summer of 2012 for articles and comments on multicultural families. While we acknowledge that posters are not a representative sample of all Koreans, the web portals offer a slice of information about the public debate surrounding multicultural families. Korean web portals are a form of social communication that is not replicated in countries such as the United States; the web portals offer a timely assessment of public opinion that would be missed in nationally representative surveys. Preliminary findings show that the number of postings and concern about multi-cultural families has increased and that the public discourse on the internet is meaningful in the development of a community of “netizens” as a reflection of contemporary Korean society.