이주민의 문해 특성 연구: 장기 거주 결혼이주여성 사례를 중심으로

Abstract

This study aims to identify the characteristics of married immigrant women's literacy in Korea. The expansion of school education lowered the rate of illiteracy in Korea, while the recent surveys report the gradual increase of the illiterate. Most of those who are not enough literate for their everyday life are married immigrant women, but their long residence in Korea as well as their completion of Korea Immigration and Integration Program (KIIP) is usually regarded as the mark of their successful adaptation into Korean society. Eight married women, who have lived in Korea for more than seven years and completed KIIP, were selected for this study, and the in-depth interviews were employed to analyze their development of literacy from the beginning of immigration. The result of the study is as follows: first, all the eight subjects are not as literate as the average Koreans. Second, all of them differ in their development of literacy: two reached the average level of Koreans, whereas the other six did not. Third, their development depends surely upon their attitude toward learning when they participated in the education programs for immigrants. The last is that the ongoing literacy development is identified even after the completion of the official education for immigrants, and even enhanced by several factors such as husband and family’ support, social support, Korean social network. The result of this study reveals the long residence itself does not lead to develop their literacy and suggests that the current education programs for immigrants should be redesigned in terms of lifelong education.