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Foreign-born mothers attending a program to help easing their potential problems.
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Parents worry about discrimination, paying for private study
SEOUL, TAIPEI - According to a survey on multicultural families in South Korea, the toughest challenge they face is providing a good education for their children, rather than problems they themselves faced with social assimilation or the language barrier. Living here in Korea for 12 years, Im Ok, a foreign-born mother of a fourth-grade elementary school student, agreed, saying that her child’s education is the first concern. She confessed that she has to visit her child’s school to ask for special care whenever a new semester starts for fear that her child might be discriminated against. "If my child takes the wrong path in life, it is not just my problem but the problem of this society, as well, isn’t it?" she said. Often the discrimination felt by foreign-born mothers starts right at their child’s birth. An Indonesian woman who migrated to Taiwan and started a family there said, "Migrated mothers such as I receive only 50 points out of 100 at best [from society], though we always are thinking about how we take care of our baby...However, when the baby starts crying, parents-in-law always blame us as if it is our fault," she said. This is just the tip of the iceberg of challenges facing foreign-born mothers. Sometimes, the language barrier causes a clash with their South Korean family members. A Vietnamese woman who gave birth to her first baby last year said she feels saddened when her parents-in-law prevent her from using her native language in taking care of her baby. "They said that my using Vietnamese is not helpful for the baby to learn Korean. I hope that my baby grows well accustomed to Korean society, but still think that it has to know the culture of Vietnam, where I was born and grew up."The identity of these children remains a long-standing issue. A Vietnamese woman who married a Taiwanese man and is raising two children in Taiwan said, "I am frustrated regarding how to respond to my children’s questions as to where they came from, whether they are Vietnamese or Chinese." Some people call a mixed blood between Koreans and East Asian countries "Kosian" (Korean + [other] Asian) or "Onnurian" (a person ‘of the world’). The words were obviously coined with good intentions, but they are also used to single the children out, so many mulitracial families and some native Koreans reject the terms. "I am saddened by the fact that children of international marriages are called Kosian and Onnurian. I want them to be called Korean, not such special names," a netizen said on an Internet bulletin of an elementary school. The complaint highlights the widespread concerns that such children fall victim to discrimination. According to a government survey, 17.6 percent of children from multicultural families said that they experienced discrimination. Along with the cultural issue, economic difficulty is another challenge that complicates these children’s education. More than 50 percent of couples in international marriages get by with earnings just below the nationwide average minimum cost of living, making it almost impossible to pay for afterschool educational programs for their children, to which a great deal of Korean parents subscribe. Also, only 27.3 percent of such families send their children to kindergarden, compared with the nation’s average of 56.8 percent. Helping children with homework is another headache. According to a survey, 20 percent of those polled said that they cannot help their children with their homework at all. "I learned Korean and graduated from college in the Philippines but still find it difficult to help my children with homework," a mother said. She suggested that local college students should volunteer to help such children. Another foreign-born mother said, "What is more difficult is the looks on people’s faces that seems to judge my children as inferior." She said that "My children are just as smart as other people’s children. Don’t cast a suspicious glance at my children." Please direct questions or comments to [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
