KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

South Korea has received (im)migrants since the mid-1980s. Recently the number of the migrants has dramatically increased, and consisted of 2.3% of the total population in 2008. Such a demographical change leads to introducing a series of laws and policies that aims to accommodate cultural diversity and understand differences. In spite of the fact, policies related to multi-ethnic society do not clearly suggest what the integration of immigrants is. This is because the issue of 'immigration and integration' has not been widely discussed among the academics and policy-making circles.

For a transition to multiethnic and multicultural society, however, it is necessary to discuss ways to integrate immigrants. There has been criticism of the fact that the state sponsors multiculturalism which actually intends to assimilate them. In this situation the study explores the various forms of  integration policy by looking at other receiving countries. Then, it recommends not only the ways in which immigrants and receiving countries integrate in two-process, in considering the integration policy of Korea, but also the ways in which integration governance is established in order to enhance the understanding of diversity and differences.