The Impact of International Students’ Language Proficiency, Discrimination Experiences, and Social Support on their Perceived Multicultural Acceptance in Korean Society

Objectives The aim of this study was to understand the degree of multicultural acceptance perceived by international students in Korean society and to examine the impact of language proficiency, discrimination experiences, and social support on their perceived multicultural acceptance. Methods This study was conducted as a secondary data analysis of the ‘Survey on Immigrants’ Perception of Multicultural Acceptance in Korean Society’ conducted in 2021. A total of 141 international students who were residing in Korea for academic purposes were included as the research subjects. Demographic characteristics, language proficiency, discrimination experiences, social support, and perceived multicultural acceptance were measured and analyzed using the SPSS program. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the characteristics of the variables. Differences in multicultural acceptance according to general characteristics and major independent variables were analyzed using independent t-tests and ANOVA. The impact of language proficiency, discrimination experiences, and social support on multicultural acceptance was analyzed using multiple regression analysis. Results The factors influencing the diversity dimension of multicultural acceptance were being female(β=.165, p=.042), language proficiency(β=-.256, p=.002), and having at least 5 Korean people who can help(β=.240, p=.018). The only factor influencing the relationship dimension of multicultural acceptance was being female(β=.262, p=.002). Conclusions Female international students tended to positively evaluate both the diversity and relationship dimensions of multicultural acceptance. Those with higher language proficiency tended to evaluate the diversity dimension negatively, while those with having at least 5 Korean people who can help positively evaluated the diversity dimension. These findings suggest that improving the social relationships of international students could lead to a positive change in their perception of multicultural acceptance in Korean society. Further research is needed to explore in more depth the impact of gender and language proficiency on multicultural acceptance.