Using the data of the 2012 National Survey on Multicultural Families, in this thesis, we estimated the effectiveness of the Multicultural Family Support Service (MFSS) and attempted to find a way in which MFSS can be effectively enhanced.
The effectiveness of MFSS was evaluated by the extent of integration, including citizenship, employment, Korean language skills, and life satisfaction of service-users and non-service-users, while controlling for selection bias. Based on the Propensity Score Matching results, there were insignificant differences in the integration levels between the two groups. The integration levels of service-users were no higher than those of non-service-users. As such, these results indicate that the use of MFSS by immigrant wives was not effective in enhancing the extent of their integration.
To identify ways in which MFSS can be effectively improved, this thesis focused on individual, ethnic-group, and organisational level variables that influence immigrant wives’ integration, based on the open system approach of the logic model. Using cross-classified multi-level analysis, we found that i) individual level factors, including demographic, social, economic, and household resources, had an effect on immigrant wives’ integration; ii) at the ethnic-group level, geographic distance, economic conditions, and political conditions had an effect on integration, but the size of the ethnic-group population did not; and iii) at the organisational level, financial resources and manpower had an effect on integration, but service delivery methods relating to the attributes of an effective service-delivery system had no impact. From these results, we consider that the effectiveness of MFSS could be improved by focusing on the factors at the individual, ethnic-group, and organisational levels that are positively associated with integration.
Based on our findings, three policy strategies are suggested to improve the effectiveness of MFSS: i) case management at the individual level, ii) cultural competence at the ethnic-group level, and iii) the use of different management practices according to regional differences at the organisational level.
