Guro Middle School is on the frontline of a war on immigrants waged by Korea's far-right

"350 schools nationwide with over 30 per cent of students from immigrant backgrounds."

"Emergence of schools with 97 per cent multicultural students…"

Schools in areas with large immigrant populations often abruptly find themselves the centre of media attention. News stories such as the ones mentioned above, generally compressed into 20-character headlines stripped of all context, trigger a flood of online comments – ranging from lamentations about South Korea's demise as a nation to anger over native Koreans being discriminated against.

While the increase in immigrant students is often sensationalised as sudden and precipitate, it's actually a steady trend that has been occurring for years. According to the Ministry of Education, as of 2025, the number of immigrant students enrolled in elementary and middle schools nationwide will have exceeded 200,000 – a 2.5-fold increase from a decade ago. The overall student population is steadily declining. The makeup of classrooms has already changed significantly. And it's expected to change even further in the future.

Neighbourhoods with high concentrations of immigrant residents have recently found themselves under attack. Far-right protesters have taken to the streets of Myeongdong and Daerim-dong in Seoul, and Suwon and Ansan in Gyeonggi Province, chanting hate slogans. Guro Middle School, located in Seoul's Guro District, has been one of the schools on the frontline. But while the school certainly felt the impact of these attacks, it wasn't entirely defenceless against them. After all, the struggle of getting native Korean and immigrant students to coexist wasn't something new for the school.