It has become a clich to say that multicultural families are fast changing Korea’s demographic landscape.

Once a homogenous society, the country is welcoming diverse cultures and races as more people from abroad start families with Koreans and adopt the country as their home.

State figures show that there are up to 60,000 students in schools nationwide who hail from multicultural households.

For these second-generation kids, Korea is actually the only home they know.

But despite the fact these new types of families are adding a new flavor to society and helping Koreans understand that there is not only one way to live, many of them are far from being financially well-off, and their children usually lack access to adequate education.

That they mostly reside in rural areas is one reason why, in addition to the fact that in many cases, their parents were not affluent to begin with.

To help make it a better place for them to live, the country’s corporate sector is increasingly joining in efforts to support them.

In addition to monetary donations and fund-raising, firms are now unleashing campaigns aimed to make the families truly feel like a part of Korean society and help their youngsters grow into healthy and intelligent adults.


What the companies are doing

LG Group is supporting youths from multicultural families through a special academy it opened in 2010 for youngsters highly talented in languages and science, hand in hand with the Education Ministry, along with Hankuk University of Foreign Studies and KAIST.

“Kids selected for our academy are given a chance at two years of education, free of charge,” said LG Group spokesman Chung Jung-wook. 

Currently, up to 400 students are enrolled in these classes that run both on-site and online. Up to 10 students from the LG academy has enrolled in international junior high schools and other schools for special talent.

Samsung’s social company “Global Together,” meanwhile, was formed as a kind of platform for easing multicultural families into Korean society.

The special part of this effort is that the three companies under Global Together are all located in provincial areas ― regions that really need such support, as many of the multicultural families are formed by Korean men who have married foreign brides.

One of the main business aspects of these companies is to create jobs for these brides. 

One of the businesses, a café called “E-um” that’s located in Eumsung, North Chungcheong Province, has gained much recognition in society for securing a stable source of income for these families, while at the same time contributing to job creation.

The six baristas who work here all came to live here through marriage to Korean men. They are working at this café after receiving special training to become baristas in a program sponsored by Samsung.

“All of my friends say it looks really cool for me to be making coffee and working here. They are all very envious of me and ask how they also might benefit from this program,” said Song Ga-in, a 29-year-old Vietnamese woman who has lived for eight years in Korea. “I’m also very, very happy to be working here, not to mention that my salary is a lot better than jobs I would have otherwise gotten.”

Another business Samsung is running to support multicultural families is the Hope Network, for which offers extracurricular support for up to 1,800 kids of such families in Seoul and Gyeonggi regions.

Fostering entrepreneurship is another way Samsung shows its support. The nine-week course sponsored by Samsung and operated at Sungkyunkwan University was meticulously designed to help nurture CEOs of social enterprises among members of Korea’s multicultural families.

“It’s really not even about whether we are recognized for these efforts. What’s more important is that these campaigns become more public so that more can follow and pitch in,” said Rhee In-yong, head of Samsung’s communications team.

Over in the financial sector, Woori Financial Group has put down some 20 billion won ($17.8 million) to launch a scholarship foundation for multicultural families that funds various scholarship and educational opportunities for their children.

Up to 680 million won has been doled out to more than 1,000 kids of underprivileged multicultural families so far, according to Woori.

These foundations also are now much more multifaceted than those launched earlier on, with a focus on all spectrums of life for the kids of multicultural families.

Overnight camps for educating on different languages, business knowledge and mentoring on school curriculum are some of them.

Hyundai Motor, meanwhile brought the campaign to another level with its Rainbow Festival.

Every year, the company hosts the Rainbow Festival, in which Hyundai Motor Group’s Happy Move Global youth volunteer group takes part.

The festival has a reputation of being one of the longest such campaigns around with a history of 11 years, and participants say it’s an experience that’s both educational and heartwarming.

“It was quite impressive to see and take part in a festival that was formed by different faces and cultural backgrounds, but yet were all fellow Koreans in soul,” said Yoo Soo-hyun, a 23-year-old college student who participated as a college volunteer. “I hope Korea can come to truly understand and gap these differences to become happier as one.”

This year’s Rainbow Festival took place at Nanji Park in Seoul, with up to 1,500 people including volunteers taking part.

In other campaigns, Hyundai Motor has been for 10 years supporting multicultural families by offering child care and medical support.

Hyundai also hosts a children’s singing contest for these families.

By Kim Ji-hyun (jemmie@heraldcorp.com)