KJCKorea
Journal Central

This study examines the relationship between Hallyu (the Korean Wave), multiculturalism, and diasporic belonging in contemporary Canada. While previous studies have primarily focused on the global expansion of Korean popular culture or the economic dimensions of cultural exports, relatively little attention has been paid to how Hallyu interacts with multicultural policy environments and contributes to identity formation among diasporic communities. Drawing on theories of cultural globalization, multiculturalism, and diaspora, this study investigates how Korean popular culture is received within Canada’s multicultural context and how it shapes cultural visibility and belonging among Korean Canadians. The study employs a qualitative content analysis of multiple secondary sources, including the 2023 Overseas Hallyu Survey, the Hallyu White Paper 2023, Canadian multiculturalism documents, and relevant scholarly literature. Particular attention is given to patterns of Hallyu consumption, cultural representation, and diasporic identity formation. The findings indicate that Korean popular culture has become an increasingly visible component of Canadian multicultural life. Survey data show substantial engagement with Korean cultural content, particularly Korean food, K-pop, and Korean dramas. The study further suggests that Hallyu functions not only as entertainment but also as a form of cultural mediation that enhances intercultural understanding, strengthens diasporic belonging, and increases the visibility of Korean Canadian experiences. Moreover, Canada’s multicultural framework appears to facilitate the acceptance and normalization of Korean cultural products. The study concludes that Hallyu contributes to multicultural participation, diasporic identity formation, and Canada–Asia-Pacific cultural exchange, demonstrating the broader social significance of Korean popular culture in contemporary Canada.

For half a century, international students and temporary workers in Canada have transitioned from a concern of foreign aid to a pillar of economic survival. Utilizing fifty years of policy documentation (Statistics Canada, IRCC reports, and Parliamentary Budget Officer report) and current 2024–2025 immigration reports, this research provides a longitudinal description of Canada’s Non-Permanent Resident (NPR) regime, supported by robust descriptive and statistical evidence. It identifies four distinct eras: the Visitor era (1970–1985); Institutional Marketization (1985–2001); the Two-Step Immigration era (2001–2014); and the current Stabilization Phase (2025–2027). A South Korean case study reveals a demographic providing a critical counter-narrative; unlike other source nations, this cohort exhibits exceptional gender parity and high human capital. However, South Korean NPRs face systemic challenges, including linguistic racism, financial precarity, and the psychological strain of permanent temporariness. This paper argues that while international students fueled post-pandemic recovery, the future will be defined by quality over quantity. As the state pivots toward a 5% NPR population target by 2027, institutions must move beyond revenue extraction to prioritize the holistic integration of highly skilled cohorts like the South Korean diaspora.

Although competency-based curriculum reform has become a global orthodoxy, the term competency carries divergent theoretical meanings that a shared policy vocabulary can obscure. This paper examines Ontario’s Grade 9 de-streamed English course (ENL1W, 2023), a reform that consolidated previously streamed Academic and Applied courses into a single competency-based course, to inquire what conceptions of competency the document inscribes and whether they cohere. Using a critical document analysis informed by Bacchi’s What’s the Problem Represented to Be? approach and treating three theoretically derived conceptions of competency as analytic categories, the study reads ENL1W against the policy texts that shaped it. The analysis finds that ENL1W inscribes three distinct and not fully compatible conceptions: a functional-technical conception grounded in the cognitive science of reading and concentrated in the structured literacy mandate; a critical-emancipatory conception grounded in sociocultural and critical literacy theory and distributed across the comprehension, composition, and transferable-skills strands; and a decolonial conception grounded in Indigenous education scholarship and expressed through the structural integration of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit perspectives and Indigenous Storywork. These three conceptions rest on incompatible assumptions about literacy, learning, and human capacity, generating tensions that are epistemological. ENL1W’s sophistication, the analysis suggests, lies in its refusal to reduce competency to any single conception; recognizing this layered structure is therefore essential to interpreting and enacting the curriculum.