According to the National Statistical Office (2006), it was estimated that in the year 2020 one out of five people under the age of 20 (21%) will be from multi-cultural families and one out of three (32%) newborn babies (32%) will be from multi-cultur...
According to the National Statistical Office (2006), it was estimated that in the year 2020 one out of five people under the age of 20 (21%) will be from multi-cultural families and one out of three (32%) newborn babies (32%) will be from multi-cultural families. Increasing numbers of youth from multi-cultural families will have a substantial influence on establishing a national identity and new societal culture; therefore, integrating those young people through programs designed to maximize their capacity is considered very important.
This article aims at emphasizing plans to maximize the capacity of the youth from multi-cultural families by helping them to cope with their lives through establishing the positive self identities and becoming significant assets in society, especially in Gwangju.
Programs to maximize the capacity of the youth are based on fundamental factors such as social, cultural, cognitive, emotional and civil capacities. Such factors are imperative in that they help establish desirable images, plan healthy, creative lives and undergo socialization process. However, programs to maximize the capacity of the youth from multi-cultural families should not be general and uniform but diversified in terms of their emotions, surroundings and social integration in the near future. In order to achieve these goals, multi-cultural families should be supported in the field ranging from national policy, educational institutes, local society to school education.
Today's multi-cultural families-related policy support plans from different government departments are quite similar in name and tend to be somewhat overlapping. They should be run in a unitary, integrated way within a single system combining such factors as manpower, material support, emotional support, educational support, welfare support, administrative support, nurturing support, youth support, etc. rather than unsystematic, impromptu support lacking professionalism. Accordingly, dedicated policy managers and experts for this field should be trained.
The youth from multi-cultural families tend to show confusion caused by their dual cultural identities, emotional instability, violent, non-normative behaviors and lack of personal relationships. Therefore programs for childhood and youth should have unified flow and connection.
Ehthics education for the sense of national identity should be provided for youth from multi-cultural families because compared with others, they need more the sense of nationalism and community spirit. Therefore, programs provided for youth from multi-cultural families by Gwangju Metropolitan City should be supplemented. Meanwhile, some of the 'programs for multicultural-based schools' at elementary schools funded by the Ministry of Education turn out to be a plain, tour-like cultural experience or exclusive program in which other parents and students feel discriminated. It is essential to create programs needed for national interest and national unity not by wasting money, but by training experts for the education of youth from multi-cultural families.
More local children's centers should be established to maximize the capacity of youth from multi-cultural families as well as bring satisfaction to mono-cultural and underprivileged families in the community. In addition, educational programs for parents of multi-cultural families, networking educational institutes in the local community, multicultural-related curriculum from education colleges, various club activities for multi-cultural youth, mentoring projects in conjunction with volunteer work, and textbooks available at schools are needed.
Maximizing the capacity of youth from multi-cultural families helps improve their bilingual, bicultural abilities, perform social obligations and duty, have an appropriate value of self identity and humanitarianism, and contribute to a peaceful international exchange socially.