Divergent migration patterns and foreign community in urban neighbourhood: Multiculturalism directions observed from case study in Seoul, South Korea

In public realm, migration and social mobility constantly acquire a larger scale and affect societies in Asia and worldwide. However, they are very diverse as each migration group has its individual purposes and reasons. This article is focused on South Korea, where the percentage of immigrants still remain low, but have taken on increased importance with recent trends. This article regards multiculturalism, a prevailing approach to address the situation in many countries, and compares it with Korean immigration strategies. Then it draws attention to less numerous (compared to other foreign expats in Korea) immigration from post-Soviet countries and adaptation of ‘koryosaram’ (ethnic Koreans) in a host society. It presents the case of Gwanghui-dong near Dongdaemun markets— one of the urban neighbourhoods in Seoul, where a number of foreigners appear to become high. This study presents analysis of initial social survey at the area with 77 respondents in 2013 and is viewing recently appeared initiatives and facilities (2013–2016) with the connection to damunhwa Korean multiculturalism directions. Current study tries to enrich the understanding of migration patterns by considering lessons from particular case.