In Korea, the discourse on multicultural family is rapidly spreading across the country, as the increase in the number of international marriages has been drawing public attention since the mid-2000s. Throughout the years, Korean media have played an ...
In Korea, the discourse on multicultural family is rapidly spreading across the country, as the increase in the number of international marriages has been drawing public attention since the mid-2000s. Throughout the years, Korean media have played an important role in shaping the concept of multicultural family. The Korean television documentary series, in particular, have continued portraying the real stories of these families. Thus, the present dissertation analyzes the ways in which these Korean TV documentary series construct the concept of multicultural family and examines the selected documentaries diachronically to provide a critical analysis of the multicultural family discourse.
The periods can be divided into four according to the paradigm changes in the policies for multicultural families: (1) the early 2000s: the absent of public discourse on multicultural families. (2) the mid 2000s; the beginning of public discourse on multicultural families and Korean government support for multicultural families (3) the late 2000s; the enhancement of the governmental support for multicultural families, (4) the early 2010s: the integration policy of multicultural families into mainstream Korean families. This study focuses on four TV documentaries that were produced during each period: “Ingan geukjang” (Human Theater) and “Love in Asia” by KBS, “We Are Koreans – A Vision Project for Multicultural Society” by MBC, and “Mothers and Daughters-in-Law in Multicultural Families” by EBS. The result shows that each program takes very different stances in constructing the discourse of multicultural family, and that those differences are the result of the interrelation between the familial situation and the policies about national family planning of the times.
“Ingan geukjang” by KBS, produced in the early 2000s, when the concept of multicultural family was absent, shows nationalistic views on international marriage. On the contrary, “Love in Asia” by KBS which was produced in the mid 2000s, when the concept of multicultural family was beginning to be acknowledged, takes a rather anti-nationalistic approach, by emphasizing the Asian identity. “We are Koreans” by MBC which was produced in the late 2000s, when the government enhanced the support for multicultural families, tries to deviate from the biased, stereotypes about multicultural family by starring North Korean defectors. Finally, “Mothers and Daughters-in-Law in Multicultural Families” by EBS emphasizes the discourse of conflicts and tensions within multicultural families. While previous television documentary series tend to depict the foreign migrant women in multicultural families as submissive and devoted as a member of a Korean family, the recent series show a change in the discourse about multicultural families.
The changes of the family discourses in documentary series about multicultural family are a reflection of the family issues observed in Korean society which include an increase in the divorce rate, low birth rates, the aging population, supporting working moms, and generational conflicts. These television documentary series are constructing the discourse of multicultural family in ways that can suggest values and stabilize the familial issues in Korea.
In conclusion, the television series cannot be seen as representative and show limitations as they often focus on expected roles and ideal images of migrant women in multicultural families. Despite such limitations, one can observe that the documentaries have gradually changed their focus from migrant’s cultural differences to intercultural relations between the family members. Such a shift of focus can be regarded positively as it shows the possibility for immigrants to play an independent, integral role within the family. Therefore, the discourse of multicultural family in television documentaries series can be regarded as a discursive field of family discourse attempt to not only educate immigrants about the Korean family culture but also to possibly suggest new values and practices between family members for the prevalent Korean families.