One foreign woman married to a Korean man will be hired by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family this week, making her the first female marriage immigrant to work for the central government, an official said Tuesday, amid the country's efforts to embrace the growing number of such citizens.
South Korea has seen a rapid increase in the number of marriage immigrants in recent years, with their total number exceeding 141,000 last year, according to Justice Ministry data. Of that number, females account for nearly 90 percent, or more than 123,000.
Many of these women, who usually come from Southeast Asian nations to marry South Korean men in rural areas, struggle to adjust here as they face cultural differences and difficulties in their marriages, often due to careless matchmaking by professional brokers. Their growing numbers have prompted the government to draw up various policies to protect and promote their well-being.
In line with that trend, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has decided to hire one marriage immigrant this week for a job that involves translating, gathering opinions from the foreign community, giving talks on multicultural society and counseling other marriage immigrants, the ministry official said.
"We decided to hire a marriage immigrant to motivate them toward work and independence, and to provide a practical support policy that reflects the position of multicultural families," the official said, adding that he hopes other government ministries will do the same.
"We asked some other ministries, and none of them appeared to have employed a female marriage immigrant so far," he said.
The ministry has so far picked five candidates from a pool of applicants that fulfilled certain requirements for education, Korean-language ability and duration of stay. The five women include one Chinese, one Vietnamese and one Filipino, the official said. (Yonhap)
