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CommunityEditorials and Opinion |
Jeju Multicultural Family Center serves foreign communityInterracial families find support, training and advice at volunteer-run center |
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| Jeju's Multicultural Family Center organizes community-based activities and days out to combat the isolation many non-native families often experience. Photos courtesy Jeju Multicultural Family Center |
As with most small islands, Jeju itself could be seen to carry a somewhat isolationist mentality with regard to visitors and foreign inhabitants. The island’s turbulent history and the Sa-sam massacre in 1948 in which nearly half of the island’s population was killed, makes wariness of outsiders understandable.
However, Oh Myung- chan, founder of the Jeju Multicultural Family Center, Jeju-si, believes this fear will keep the “Free International City” ideal merely a slogan until the people are again ready to accept and embrace other cultures. This is why he is fighting so hard through his efforts in the Jeju Multicultural Family Center to make Jeju not only a place to live for foreigners, but their home.
Oh started the facility two years ago with the support of his Chinese wife, Kim Jeong-rim. Their union may not surprise western foreigners who are somewhat accustomed to multiracial families but for Jeju people it is more of an issue.
Two years ago the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination expressed concerns that Korean emphasis on national homogeneity could hinder tolerance for other cultures living in Korea. Oh feels this intolerance is due to an attitude of superiority among Koreans. He explained that people who appear Caucasian are assumed to come from a developed country, a prosperous country and that people from Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia and other more underdeveloped nations are looked down upon because of their country’s poor economic standing.
According to the Ministry of Justice, 56% of the foreign population belongs to migrant unskilled workers. Most of these individuals in Jeju work in the fishing sector.
Oh says it took seven months for the Jeju Provincial Government to approve his center. He applied only for approval, not monetary support, because with money comes obligation such as having to provide government selected programs rather than the ones he knows are needed.
He started his center because of all the complaints he was hearing from multicultural families. While the island’s government-funded Jeju Immigrant Center provides festivals and gifts for the foreigners, it does not supply what is needed- survival skills. The current government facility reports only the good news, says Oh, which is why the real problems are being ignored. He feels that multicultural families have lost trust in government support.
Not knowing the local language can be frustrating for foreigners, especially when their wages are being withheld by their employer for apparently no reason. The Jeju Multicultural Family Center often provides a translator to resolve disputes like this which often originate from a miscommunication between foreigners and their native employers and landlords. The center also provides computer courses, arts and crafts activities, education programs such as photography classes, translation assistance, Korean language courses, and a place where people of differing backgrounds can come together to embrace their differences.
Oh says the multicultural families are dispersed all over the island, but few of their neighbors know their stories. It is his hope that through social events at the center, and opportunities to meet others, the families will begin to develop a sense of pride and be able to build a community here on the island.
The foreigners are not refugees and they are not charity cases, nor do they desire to be, says Oh. He feels that the work of the Jeju Immigrant Center is not sufficient to support this type of community. However, he is optimistic for the future as two years ago his center was serving twenty families whereas now it helps 900 a year. Fifteen years ago interracial marriage was completely taboo; at least now it is a topic of discussion. Oh says his hope is that the Jeju Multicultural Family Center will create competition for the Jeju Immigrant Center; which he hopes will ultimately lead to better services for the families.
More information about the Jeju Multicultural Family Center can be found at: http://www.multicultural.co.kr (Korean only), or by calling 064-727-2114
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ⓒ Jeju Weekly 2009 (http://www.jejuweekly.net)
All materials on this site are protected under the Korean Copyright Law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published without the prior consent of Jeju Weekly. |
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Title:The jeju Weekly(제주위클리) | Mail to editor@jejuweekly.net | Phone: +82-64-724-7776 Fax: +82-64-724-7796
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Registration Number: Jeju, Ah01158(제주,아01158) | Date of Registration: November 10,2022 | Publisher&Editor : Hee Tak Ko | Youth policy: Hee Tak Ko
Copyright ⓒ 2009 All materials on this site are protected under the Korean Copyright Law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published
without the prior consent of jeju weekly.com.
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