By Kang Hyun-kyung
Seoul Metropolitan Government (SMG) is launching an ambitious project to integrate immigrants into mainstream society.
The local authority picked Daelim 2-dong, western Seoul, for a pilot program that will encourage 7,700 ethnic Chinese and Chinese immigrants to mingle with Koreans at a community center, called “Sarangbang.”
The project will most likely start in June at the earliest, a city official said.
Sarangbang is the name given to guest rooms in old Korean houses, or “hanok.”
“In Daelim2-dong, the number of Chinese immigrants, including undocumented workers, accounts for nearly half of the population of the area,” Seo Young-kwan, a Seoul City official in charge of multiculturalism policies, told The Korea Times.
“We understand that there exist noticeable tensions between natives and immigrants. Some citizens said they feel unsafe because of foreigners,” Seo said.
SMG will help residents establish the community center where both Koreans and immigrants can meet to discuss ways to achieve common prosperity.
“We will provide them with a venue where they can get together with each other so they can narrow their cultural differences,” Seo said.
Foreign residents in Daelim-dong are mostly blue-collar workers employed in manufacturing jobs in the neighboring Guro or in the services sector.
The area saw a rapid growth of Chinese and ethnic Korean job seekers from the northeastern part of China in the past decade.
Seoul City picked the Chinese enclave as the venue for its pilot project because it has the highest foreign population in the capital.
As of 2012, approximately 400,000 foreigners resided in Seoul, accounting for nearly 4 percent of the city’s population.
SMG plans to select 12 additional areas in the near future.
City authorities said the foreign population has grown fast over the past three years and it is projected to reach as high as 10 percent of the total by 2030.
With the increase in expatriates, some areas have turned into ethnic enclaves. Itaewon is Seoul’s multicultural Mecca having several ethnic groups settled there.
Sangam-dong has emerged as a “little Japan” since a Japanese school was established there in 1972. Nearly 400 primary and secondary Japanese students attended the school as of 2011.