귀화 이주민과 문화적 권리 = Naturalized Citizens and Cultural Rights

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Korea’s long-cherished cultural concept of the nation based on a homogenous Korean essence is being challenged by the rapid increase in marriage migrants and labor migrants from East and Southeast Asia. These challenges create a pressing dilemma of how to preserve a homogenous ethnic society in the face of the increasingly hybrid cultures generated by a reliance on transnational migration to maintain and reproduce Korean families. Since 2006, the state has strongly emphasized an assimilationist model to quickly“Koreanize”the ethnically diverse marriage migrants. Hence, the South Korean government announced its transition towards the multi-cultural and multi-ethnic society in 2006; afterwards, the term multicultural society has been commonly used in daily language. This article analyzes how the current situation of the naturalization of foreigners in South Korea is brought to terms with the cherished notion of Korean-ness. The current state of research on naturalization has led to an exclusive focus on the changing nature of naturalization law itself, and assessment of why certain groups of migrants fail to or are not willing to be naturalized. However, this article addresses the issue of cultural rights of the new citizens of South Korea who have become naturalized.