Limiting Multiculturalism Discourse by Legislating Support for Multicultural Families in Korea

Abstract

Drawing on the Foucauldian theoretical concepts of governmentality and genealogy as a method for grasping the unconventional reality of multiculturalism discourse in South Korea, this paper aims to go beyond ahistorical accounts of multicultural policy. The article offers an analysis of policy discourses relating to multicultural families in South Korea, and it examines the strategies utilized by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family to maintain and expand its ministerial jurisdiction. Such analyses reveal how policy discourse has shifted away from Korean blood-based ethnicity and the “mixed-blood” category of people in favor of focusing on female marriage migrants and their families. Furthermore, the examination highlights how legislation that supports these families conceptualizes female migrants as apolitical, family-oriented, and maternal beings. This conceptualization is legitimized by the ministerial strategies adopted by “femocrats,” government officials affiliated with the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family.