Last year the foreign population in Korea reached a milestone of one million in a country of about 48 million.
The number may be growing, but when it comes to policies for a multicultural society, experts say, there is room for improvement. They say it is high time to revamp laws governing the conditions of migrant workers who number more than 500-thousand. Deregulation of the foreign worker employment law is needed so that they are allowed to stay longer in Korea even if they are laid off and not forced to leave if they can't find a job within two months.
Also experts say Korea has to do more than just provide welfare benefits and should consider ways to fully integrate foreign-born residents and their children into society.
This effort is needed not only for just social harmony but also economic gains.
OECD member countries saw their foreign populations rise from an average of 9.3 percent in 19-95 to 12.7 percent in 2005. Statistics show that Korea pales in this scale as its foreign residents account for merely 2.2 percent. Those countries actively adopting immigration and openness policies posted a high economic growth rate while those that were less active recorded slow growth. A stumbling block to raising the level of foreign residency is the Multicultural Family Support Law.
A multicultural family is limited to families with a foreign national married to a Korean spouse and families whose members include a nationalized foreign-born resident. On the other hand, while revamping policies are needed to open the way to a bona fide multicultural society, some say this shouldn't be rushed as it could give rise to adverse side effects such as discrimination in the workplace and community.
Park Jonghong, Arirang News.
FEB 09, 2009
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Arirang Town
Wednesday, FEB 10, 2010, (KST) 
