Exploring Public Perceptions and Media Representations of People with Displaced and Refugee Backgrounds and Their Education in South Korea

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Learning amid Migration, Displacement, and Division: Educational Practices, Community, and Peacebuilding

Proposal

The number of refugees seeking asylum in South Korea has increased significantly since the ratification of the Refugee Act in July 2013. As of December 2024, the number of refugee applicants reached 122,095, of which only 1,544 were officially granted the “recognized refugee” status, resulting in a very low recognition rate of 2.7% (Ministry of Justice, 2025). Among these recognized individuals, children under the age of 18 accounted for 38.5% (Kim, 2025). Despite this increase in refugee populations, general public were largely disinterested in and lacked awareness of refugee issues (Kim, 2015). However, political rhetoric inciting hatred and fear emerged in early 2018, when over 500 Yemeni refugees arrived on Jeju Island (Jeon, 2018). This event prompted the rise of public discourses (tensions) on refugee issues, as evident South Korean media (Paek & Koo, 2021).

Existing research on refugees in South Korea has primarily focused on the domestic trends on refugee issues since the 1990s (Baek & Koo, 2021), comparative narratives of left- and right-leaning newspapers (Kim & Cho, 2021), and public discourses surrounding refugees from specific countries or religious backgrounds (Kim & Cho, 2021; Moon, 2022). Some of these studies employed a media discourse approach, many of which asserted that Korean media is marked by a politics of hatred and exclusion (Jeon, 2018), often portraying refugees as “unlawful” and as “threats” to the national security (Lee, 2018; Shin, 2019). However, there remains a paucity of research examining news media across the full spectrum of political orientations—i.e., conservatives, moderates, and progressives. Moreover, there is scant research on refugee children—mainly focusing on their legal status, social welfare, and psychological well-being (Kim, 2025)— with limited to no attempts to analyze news media discourse concerning their educational conditions. Therefore, this study seeks to address these gaps by asking: How have major events related to refugee and immigrant education, and the experiences of displaced populations, been portrayed in South Korean mainstream news media across different political orientations? Herein, this research question adopts the terms “immigrant” and “displaced” backgrounds,” which encompass not only refugee populations but also other displaced backgrounds (e.g., multicultural families), whose shared educational challenges and social barriers are often portrayed together in news media.

This study employs a quantitative content and sentiment analysis to examine how major Korean news media with different political orientations have represented people with displaced and refugee background and their education-related experiences in the South Korean context. The dataset includes reporting from 22 high-readership domestic news outlets—five liberal, five moderate, and twelve conservative—between January 1, 2020 and June 30, 2025. Articles were collected using Korean’s BigKinds news big data platform in combination with web crawling, with additional filtering by keywords related to “displaced and multicultural backgrounds” and “education.” The final dataset comprises 3,921 articles, providing a robust basis for cross-orientation comparisons of how refugee and immigrant education issues were framed in public discourse.

Preliminary findings suggest that in general, articles (across three political orientations) conveyed positive sentiments, including but are not limited to legal and institutional development that support displaced populations’ educational needs and their achievements and resilience. Positive coverage included examples such as inviting foreign teachers to introduce their cultures, providing additional support centers for (im)migrant women to provide childcare, and students participating in a public awareness campaign advocating for their classmates' acceptance as refugees in the legal process. While conservative news articles also conveyed positive sentiments, they were relatively negative compared to liberal and moderate newspapers. These negative framings emphasized issues such as isolation and racial harassment faced in schools, uncertain legal status and restricted social benefits, general public’s xenophobic perceptions, and a focus on their crime acts—all of which collectively contribute to raising both sympathy and fear toward displaced and immigrant populations.

This study offers important insights into the dynamics of South Korean’s public perceptions of displaced populations through an analysis of the framing and sentiment of major Korean news media coverage. The findings aim to fill the gap in the literature by highlighting public perceptions on refugee and immigrant education in South Korea, an underexplored area in existing scholarship. By critically examining media discourses, this study emphasizes the media’s role in shaping perceptions and behaviors, offering insights into the roots of public sentiment and ways to foster inclusive attitudes. Ultimately, these insights will inform the design and implementation of policies that promote peace, social cohesion, and justice for displaced population in South Korea, in alignment with the objectives of CIES 2026.

Authors

• InJung Cho, The George Washington University

• Jihae Cha, The George Washington University

• INHOO CHO