Looks on the subway, and a child who learns to mind every gaze

The essay places racism in Korea as often more open than in the West: a Black child stared at on the subway, or asked whether the family came from Africa, and a blunt preference for white people when they stand beside someone Black, Filipino, or Vietnamese. Those habits, it says, show a civic sense that has not matured, and they wound children in multicultural families.

After that treatment, a child may avoid crowds and grow sensitive to other people’s eyes, only because the family is multicultural. Passers-by do not usually interrogate other Korean children; children from Black or Southeast Asian backgrounds still meet questions about where they came from and what their parents do. Words such as “go back to your country” can make a child resent the family itself.

School, hiring, and a short-term labor policy

Even after learning Korean, multicultural children are often not readily taken into school, on the prejudice that they will not adapt — compared here to a Korean child refused a school abroad. Later, even with citizenship, a person who looks foreign may be steered toward language teaching, or refused a job at a Korean firm, on appearance alone.

The essay looks to Canadian and European settlement programs, including, as it places them, Canadian culture and language courses tied to eligibility for citizenship, and it asks Korea for local settlement support and a longer view than short-term cheap labor. Shin Ji-won’s 2017 sociology textbook and Kim Hye-gyeong’s 2014 Family Welfare Theory are the named sources. This page stays with that diagnosis and those two books, and does not add later official discrimination or enrollment figures. The same Korean report, at fuller length, is on CampusDown.

Sources

1. As more countries become mixed places to live, multicultural households have grown, and so have conflicts: over religion, race, age, country of origin, and sex. The root is a refusal to live with cultural difference. The United States and Europe are also still thinking through racist crime and policy toward refugees. Korea has long been a multicultural society; problems come not only from difference itself but from civic habits that have not matured, and from government support that does not go far enough. Racism in Korea is often more open than in the West. A Black child riding the subway with family may be stared at, or asked, without much hesitation, whether they came from Africa. Preference for white people is also placed as more blunt than in the West: when a white person stands with someone Black, Filipino, or Vietnamese, favors go more readily to the white person; that is racism, even when it is not intended. Those looks and whispers wound children in multicultural families. After racist treatment, a child may avoid crowded places and grow sensitive to other people’s eyes, only because the family is multicultural, which the essay calls unfair. Passers-by do not usually stare at other Korean children, whisper about them, or ask where they came from and what their parents do; children from Black or Southeast Asian backgrounds still meet that. Second-generation children, or those who immigrated, may also be unsure which culture they belong to. Words such as “go back to your country,” or “why is a Black person here,” can make a child resent belonging to a multicultural family. Even after learning Korean, multicultural children are often not readily taken into school, on the prejudice that they will not adapt — compared to a Korean child being refused a school abroad, and called a denial of a chance at education. Restrictions may reach even the fact of going to school. When those children grow up, even with Korean citizenship, discriminatory looks still follow them into hiring. Someone who looks Black but has spoken Korean from childhood, and is stronger in Korean than in English, may still find few people willing to accept that, and may be refused a job on appearance, or told to do foreign-language teaching or other foreign-language work instead of joining a Korean firm. For a way through, the essay looks to Canada and to European welfare states, which it says accepted multicultural families earlier and run programs so people can settle: in Canada, a program on Canadian culture and state-supported language education, with completion tied to eligibility for citizenship, as the essay places that link. Such teaching also helps citizens take families in more naturally, and can lessen racist treatment. Korea should run settlement programs linked with local communities, so families are no longer treated as outsiders. Present Korean multicultural support is called entirely short-term, aimed at securing cheap labor rather than a long stay, and therefore not a root remedy. What is needed is school support for these children and measures so that hiring does not put them at a disadvantage. The close: citizens should drop racist looks and grow a more mature civic sense; methods should be considered in light of cases from more experienced countries; government should reduce the harms these children meet and work to protect them, so that in time they can belong as citizens without apology. Named sources: Shin Ji-won, Introduction to Sociology, self-study (dokhaksa) textbook, 2017; Kim Hye-gyeong, Family Welfare Theory, Gongdongche, 2014. This page stays with that diagnosis and those two books, and does not add later official discrimination or enrollment figures.

Last updated: 14 November 2026