Labour Migration to South Korea: the Problem of Interaction Between the Host Society and Migrants (a Case Study of South Korean Media)

The total number of migrants to South Korea has been growing since 1990, and they reached approximately 3% of the total population in 2016. The South Korean nation being traditionally considered as one of the most homogeneous in the world, now faces an inflow of "strangers", more than half of whom are labour migrants. The media are not accidentally called the "Fourth Estate", because they can have a significant impact on public opinion and, to some extent, influence the reader's view on a particular situation. Therefore, an analysis of existing stereotypes about labour migrants in the South Korean media will make it possible to understand which views may probably exist among South Korean citizens and, thus, to further explore the problem of interaction between the host society and migrants. This study aims to identify the main trends in the formation of a media discourse on labor migrants in South Korea during the period of the Sixth Republic. We mostly applied a qualitative method of analysis. Discourse analysis is based on the selection of particular semantic text fragments and the values endowed. We use the articles published in the main mainstream media of South Korea, being bound to newsworthy events.