우리 사회가 다문화 사회로 변화되어 감에 따라 다양한 인종 등으로 이루어진 사회구성원을 통합하기 위한 논의가 부각되고 있다. 특히, 사회통합을 실현하기 위한 제도로서 다문화교육이 강조되면서 관련 법을 정비하는 입법의 노력이 지속되고 있다. 그러나 대부분의 다문화교육과 관련한 법이 이민자의 동화를 통한 사회통합을 지향한다는 점, 미등록 외국인 자녀 등의 교육권을 실효적으로 보장하지 않는다는 점, 모든 사회 구성원이 아닌 이민자를 위한 교육이 중심을 이루고 있다는 점, 중앙부처, 지방자치단체 등의 정책에서 중복ㆍ부재 등의 부작용이 나타난다는 점 등이 사회통합을 위한 다문화교육을 실현하는데 어려움으로 나타나고 있다. 따라서 사회구성원이 서로의다양성을 존중하고, 이주민이 우리 사회에 참여할 수 있는 여건이 마련된 사회통합과다문화교육의 의미를 구현해 나가기 위해서는 몇 가지 개선해 나가야 할 법적 과제가있다. 첫째, 적극적 우대 조치를 통한 사회통합의 의미 확대, 둘째, 교육권 보장을 통한 다문화 학생의 공교육 진입 강화, 셋째, 사회통합교육을 통한 다문화주의 실현, 넷째, 기본법 제정과 조례 활성화를 통한 체계적인 지원이 그것이다.
With Korea moving towards becoming a multicultural society, there has been much discussion about integrating the nation consisted of many different races. In fact, the government sees multicultural education as the key to realizing social integration and keeps trying to enact new laws for it. Unfortunately, however, we can find many difficulties in implementing multicultural education for social integration. To begin with, most laws on multicultural education don’t seem to go both ways. They just focus on assimilation of immigrants into mainstream society, not the other way around. Next, the laws can’t practically protect education rights for children from undocumented multicultural families. Besides, they only say about educating immigrants, not all members of society. We can also easily find duplicate policies of central and local government, or even none at all. Therefore, we need to make some legal improvements for social integration and multicultural education so that people can respect each other’s differences and more immigrants can participate in society. First, affirmative action in multicultural education should be made for meaningful social integration. Second, education rights of students with multicultural backgrounds need to be protected so that they can find their ways into entering public schools more easily. Third, we need to educate people about social integration for the sake of realizing multiculturalism. Last but not least, the government should provide systematic support by making ‘Basic Multicultural Act’ and more decrees.
With Korea moving towards becoming a multicultural society, there has been much discussion about integrating the nation consisted of many different races. In fact, the government sees multicultural education as the key to realizing social integration and keeps trying to enact new laws for it. Unfortunately, however, we can find many difficulties in implementing multicultural education for social integration. To begin with, most laws on multicultural education don’t seem to go both ways. They just focus on assimilation of immigrants into mainstream society, not the other way around. Next, the laws can’t practically protect education rights for children from undocumented multicultural families. Besides, they only say about educating immigrants, not all members of society. We can also easily find duplicate policies of central and local government, or even none at all. Therefore, we need to make some legal improvements for social integration and multicultural education so that people can respect each other’s differences and more immigrants can participate in society. First, affirmative action in multicultural education should be made for meaningful social integration. Second, education rights of students with multicultural backgrounds need to be protected so that they can find their ways into entering public schools more easily. Third, we need to educate people about social integration for the sake of realizing multiculturalism. Last but not least, the government should provide systematic support by making ‘Basic Multicultural Act’ and more decrees.
