Multicultural Children Still Face Discrimination

Children born from cross-cultural marriages have steadily increased their presence in Korea but they still face serious discrimination and bullying at school. According to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, their number rose about 3.4 times in less than four years, or 25,000 annually, from 44,258 in May 2007 and 151,154 in January last year, as the country has seen increasing migrant workers and cross-cultural couples.

In a survey of 186 children from cross-cultural homes last year, the National Human Rights Commission found that 37 percent had been bullied at school. Some 41.9 percent were ridiculed because of their strange accent, and 21 percent were told by their classmates to "go back your country."

Many of the children come from poor families and their Korean is faulty. Due to persistent bullying and because they find it difficult to keep up, they often lose interest in their studies and even drop out of school.

"Some of them decline scholarship offers because they don't want other people to know that they're of mixed parentage," said Kim Jae-woo of charity Rainbow Youth Center. "We should raise awareness that multicultural families are simply our neighbors, rather than attempt to give them special support or benefits."

The children sometimes suffer discrimination even from their teachers as well as their peers. Dr. Kim Yi-sun of the Korean Women's Development Institute said, "Some teachers do not take the bullying of those children seriously or hurt them themselves without realizing that it is racial discrimination. We need to educate teachers from the early stage on how to be considerate of those children's feelings."