Political Ideology and Cultural Diversity in South Korea: Toward a Theory of Group-differentiated Rights

Abstract

Korea has experienced ideological changes in the political sphere since society experienced ethnic diversity in the 1990s. The government urgently introduced new policy agenda ‘Damunhwa’ – multicultural – in the wake of up-surging social problems such as embracing cultural differences and human rights of foreigners as a salient issue following multicultural explosion with a large number of foreigners. As a result, many scholars argue that the Korean state response to cultural diversity has shifted from differential exclusion to assimilation toward immigrants in current society. However, it should be mentioned that it is implausible to link assimilation with a successful political ideology to manage ethnic diversity effectively. In this article, I argue that it is time to present a new political ideology for future directions in order to integrate ethnic minorities into a universally acceptable manner through consideration of the theory of group-differentiated rights in the context of Korean society.