본고는 21세기의 새로운 타자, 이주노동자의 재현 양상을 고찰한 글이다. 〈코끼리〉에 나타난 이주자는 호적도 국적도 없이 태어난 다문화가정 2세이거나 불법체류로 불이익을 당하거나 고통 받는 모습으로 재현되며, 〈이무기 사냥꾼〉, 〈동거인〉에서는 ‘죽은 시늉’, ‘죽은 척’, ‘꼼짝 않기’와 같이 자유의 권리, 활동의 권리조차 제한된 노바디, 산주검, 비인간의 형상으로 그려진다. 이들은 공동체의 단결을 확인할 때마다 희생되는 희생양 메커니즘 혹은 배제 메커니즘의 대상이 되는 사회적 약자로서 이방인의 정체성을 갖고 숨죽인 채 살아간다. ≪나마스테≫의 카밀이나 〈물 한모금〉의 아밀처럼 유순하고 선한 표정을 지으며 자신들이 폭력성이 거세된, 위험하지 않은 인물이라는 메시지를 내국인에게 끊임없이 내보여야 한다. 이주노동자의 인권유린과 차별적 시선은 한국사회의 불관용과 배타적 민족의식의 결과로서 동화주의적인 우리 사회의 모순을 드러낸다. 다문화소설에 재현된 이주노동자는 신체폭행과 언어폭력, 감금, 협박, 임금체불, 열악한 노동과 주거환경 등으로 몸이 훼손되거나 여성이주노동자의 경우 성적으로 대상화되지만 혼종성과 다문화사회의 가능성이 제안되기도 한다. 이주노동자의 눈에 비친 한국인의 비인간적이고 반윤리적인 모습은 부끄러움과 자성의 계기가 되거나, 스스로를 성찰하게 함으로써 우리 사회의 틈새를 공략하고 균열시킨다. 〈동거인〉의 청년실업자인 ‘나’는 이주노동자를 고발함으로써 자괴감과 견딜 수 없는 수치심을 느낀다. 〈코끼리〉에서는 피부색으로 인한 이중적 잣대를, 〈이무기 사냥꾼〉에서는 조선족, 탈북 새터민 등 한민족 디아스포라를 향한 배제적 태도를, ≪나마스테≫에서는 식민주의적ㆍ인종주의적 태도가 드러난다. 이주노동자는 자국민과의 공존의 가능성을 보여주기도 하는데, 〈모두에게 복된 새해〉에서는 인도 출신 이주노동자와 한국인 아내와의 우정을 통해 부부 사이의 화합을 가져다주며, 〈갈색 눈물방울〉에서는 타자성을 공유한 한국여성과 이주여성과의 자매애적 유대감을 표출하며 우리 사회에 변화의 모색과 균열을 야기한다.
The new kind of others in the 21st century found in multicultural novels since the 2000s as the socially weak is migrant workers. In The Elephants, the migrant workers are depicted as the children born in multicultural families or illegal aliens, who are told that they were never born because of absence of their census registration and nationality and are subject to disadvantages and suffering. In The Hunters of Monster Serpents and Cohabitants, the migrant workers are described with such words as nobody, living dead, or nonhuman as their rights to freedom and activity are restricted, which is reflected in “imitation of dead,” “pretending to be dead,” and “staying still.” The migrant workers are the socially weak that become the object of the scapegoat mechanism or the alienation mechanism of xenophobia whenever the community needs to confirm its solidarity. They live by as if they were dead as stateless persons with an identity of diaspora aliens whose minimal human rights are not guaranteed. Thus they need to incessantly send out a message saying that they are far from harmful with their masculinity, aggression, and violence castrated while making a docile and nice expression on their faces just like Kamil from Namaste and Amil from A Gulp of Water. The human rights violations and discriminating conditions that migrant workers are subject to in Korean society are the products of its zero tolerance and exclusive national consciousness and reveal the contradictions of the society that is like in fairy tales even though it claims to stand for “multicultural society,” “multiculturalism,” and “multicultural consciousness.” In multicultural novels, migrant workers are injured due to physical and verbal violence, detention, threat, delayed payments of wages, and poor work and living environments. When they are female, they are sexually objectified, as well. However, they also suggest the possibility of hybrid features and multicultural society unlike early novels that presented the fellow countrymen as perpetrators and migrant workers as victims. The inhuman and unethical aspects of the Korean people in the eyes of migrant workers help Koreans feel shameful of their wrongdoing, reflect upon themselves, and examine themselves, thus targeting the gaps of Korean society and bringing about changes. In Cohabitants, “I,” who is a young man out of work, reports a migrant worker and is overwhelmed with a sense of self-hatred and shame. In The Elephants, the author criticizes a dualistic standard based on the skin colors against foreigners; in The Hunters of Monster Serpents, the author criticizes the exclusive attitudes toward the diaspora of Korean people against the ethnic Korean residents in China and North Korean defectors; and in Namaste, the author criticizes the colonial, racist attitude the follows the Orientalist of white people. At the same time, migrant workers show the possibility of coexistence with Koreans. In A Happy New Year for Everyone, an Indian migrant worker strikes harmony with his Korean wife through friendship; in Namaste, there is love between a Korean woman and a migrant worker; and in Brown Teardrops, the author describes a sense of solidarity based on sisterhood between a Korean woman and a female migrant worker who share otherness.