Koreans more open to immigrants

The Korea Times

The Korea Times

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Koreans more open to immigrants

Posted : 2011-01-20 15:39

Updated : 2011-01-20 15:39

By Kim Tong-hyung

Koreans are increasingly concerned about the country’s aging workforce, with a growing number of people wanting the government to push for further schemes to attract immigrant workers, a recent survey suggests.

About 59 percent of the 2,000 adults polled around the nation supported a transition toward a more positive immigration policy to jolt the influx of skilled foreign workers and ``gyopo,’’ or naturalized Koreans with foreign citizenships.

Six out of 10 respondents believed that the country is ill-prepared for the falling rate of population growth and producing wealth to sustain the increasing retired population. About one third of them were willing to pay more taxes to support stronger government policies for encouraging child birth and improving childcare benefits for working parents.

The survey was conducted by Hankook Research for the Ministry of Strategy and Finance and the Ministry of Health and Welfare between October and November last year.

Over the past several years Korea has ranked among the nations with the lowest birth rates. The average number of children born to a mother is 1.64 among Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) member states, but Korea’s rate is only 1.15. The growth rate of the country’s population slowed from 2.5 percent between 2000 and 2005, from 3.4 percent for the preceding five years, according to government figures.

This has policymakers showing more urgency to encourage child birth and limit the fallout from the looming labor gap, but economists, such as LG Economic Research Institute (LGERI)’s Kang Joong-koo, believes that the related government efforts are woefully underfinanced.

According to Kang, OECD member states with above-average birth rates spent about 2.6 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on policies encouraging couples to have more children between 2005 and 2007. In comparison, OECD states with below-average birth rates had budgets equivalent to 1.3 percent of their GDP on such policies during the span.

Korea’s total spending on population growth polices accounted for just 0.4 percent of the country’s GDP during the same period. And despite all the speechifying about aiming family policies to increase birth rates, the projected government spending on these renewed policies will be equivalent to just 0.8 percent of the country’s GDP by 2015, Kang said.

``France’s spending on population growth policies were equivalent to 2.4 percent of its GDP in 1980, but reached 3 percent in 2007. The country’s birth rate dropped to 1.66 children per woman in 1994, but the rate moved backed up to 2 in 2008,’’ Kang said.

``Recovering a healthy birth rate is crucial for preventing a potential skid in economic growth and financially sustaining the growing retired population, and this will eventually reduce government budget deficits. Population growth policies need considerable time to take hold and requires both financial support and changes in social perception, but to avoid the path Japan went through after failing to implement effective policies, the government must commit to significantly increase its spending on birth rate related policies.’’

Though there is no simple way to ease the concerns related to the aging workforce, many analysts say that immigration will be crucial for solving Korea’s labor market and welfare state problems.

There is also an increasing demand for the government to provide stronger financial support for childcare and education and introduce more flexible working systems, such as more generous conditions for paid maternity and parental leave at companies, according to the government poll.

More than 80 percent of the respondents believed that the introduction of public rental housing would be an effective policy for supporting retired workers and low-income older Koreans, and the poll also found significant support for changes to the pension and healthcare systems.

More than 94 percent of the respondents said they consider having children as essential for their lives, while 60 percent of them confessed that they aren’t properly prepared for life after retirement.

thkim@koreatimes.co.kr