This study examines the accumulative trends of “multicultural research related to Vietnam in South Korea” published in KCI-registered and candidate journals through a literature-based trend analysis. Going beyond the intent to essentialize a specific ethnicity, this study aims to critically trace the trajectory of knowledge production-specifically, how Korean multicultural discourse has represented and objectified groups with a Vietnamese migration background. Initially, 588 articles were collected from the KCI database using seven search terms; after reviewing thematic relevance and removing duplicates, 159 articles were finalized for analysis. The analysis reveals that related research has increased since the 2010s, peaking between 2016 and 2020 (58 articles), with studies targeting multicultural individuals comprising the overwhelming majority (78%). By academic discipline, the social sciences (59 articles) and education (31 articles) predominated, and case studies were the most prevalent methodology (55.3%). Thematically, the research was heavily concentrated on three main axes: marriage migration and family, cultural content-based intercultural education, and maternal-child health and mental health. However, since 2021, an expansion of new perspectives has been observed, including the multi-layering of migration pathways, digital identities, and regime and spatial analyses. Based on these findings, this study proposes that multicultural research should be reconfigured to move beyond the conventional focus on the adaptation of migrants themselves. Instead, it must foreground interactions with mainstream society-including non-multicultural members-and emphasize institutional and relational contexts.