A series of government support projects to establish a “multicultural society” has been facing discontinuation or reduction.

The foundation Multicultural Open Society announced Friday that it received a notice from the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on November 27 saying that support for Migrants’ Arirang would be discontinued from next year. Migrants’ Arirang is the largest event for migrants to Korea, held in May every year since 2005. This year, over 40,000 foreign workers gathered at Seoul’s Jamsil Sports Complex for the festivities. The government has provided 500 million won (US$340,414) a year in support for this event.

MCST multicultural policy team director Mun Jeong-seok said that support for Migrants’ Arirang is being discontinued in the interest of reducing overlapping support. “Next year’s budget has not been set in stone yet, but we plan to shift our support toward creating culture and art education programs,” Mun said. The government’s policy is not to provide support for either the publication of the multicultural guidebook supervised by this group or festivals for regional immigrants.

Multicultural Open Society Secretary-General Lee Wan said, “Migrants’ Arirang is a symbolic event representing the social integration of immigrants.” Lee added, “I don’t really know what other projects the government is preparing.”

Lee also said that the group printed 2,800 copies of its multicultural guidebook with its remaining government subsidy early this year, but that demand was so great that orders came in for over 8,000 copies by 24 groups. The guidebook has been published since 2005 to assist in immigrants’ understanding of Korean society, with over 100,000 copies distributed to date to groups connected with immigrants to Korea.

The Ministry of Gender Equality sent a notice of contract cancellation to Women Migrants Human Rights Center, which has been entrusted with the “1366 migrant women’s hotline” since October. The introduction of this project, which provides counseling support to immigrant women faced with urgent situations such as domestic violence, was requested in 2006 by civic groups, including WMHRC. Its operation was commissioned, and its contract has been renewed in yearly increments.

WMHRC director Han Guk-yeom said, “The Ministry of Gender Equality notified us of the contract cancellation, indicating that the government would be directly operating the program.” However, after groups with ample experience and results have been excluded, it is difficult to predict how the Ministry of Gender Equality will carry the project along, Han said.

Controversy is also raging over the Ministry of Labor’s support program for regional foreign workers. In October the ministry selected the Jabiwon, an auxiliary of Tongdo Temple, as the organization entrusted with running a support center for foreign workers in Masan, South Gyeongsang Province. According to current regulations, only non-profit organizations with expertise in support programs for foreign workers and with a public character can be selected as organizations entrusted with the operation of such programs. But the only project that Jabiwon has carried out for immigrant workers so far has been an invitational event for foreign workers held in October of last year. In connection with this, Ministry of Labor Foreign Workforce Policy Division director Ahn Gyeong-deok said, “I think the assessment was that things like the conditions to run the organization were better than activity experience.”

Joint Committee with Migrants in Korea General Secretary Lee Young said, “Behind the ignorance of the more than 10 years of experience accumulated by civic groups is a political logic of viewing all multiculturalism projects as a legacy of the previous government and trying to eliminate them.” Lee added, “I don’t think the meaning of multiculturalism can be preserved through the government’s one-sided assimiliationism.”

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