Park Jae-hyuk is a seasoned journalist who has provided comprehensive coverage of South Korea's corporate dynamics, economic policies, industry challenges and the global positioning of Korean companies. Based on the articles he has written since joining The Korea Times in 2016, his investigative approach has helped readers understand corporate governance, economic trends and business strategies shaping South Korea’s economy.
EXCLUSIVE State loan discriminates against multiracials
By Park Jae-hyuk
A 25-year-old woman from a multiracial family recently found out that she is ineligible for a government-backed loan for housing because of her dual citizenship.
Born to a Korean father and a foreign mother, she has lived here most of her life.
While preparing to sign a lease on a home near her workplace, she considered getting the loan meant for non-homeowners and low-income families.
The online handbook for the loan states multiracial family members can get a 0.2 percentage point preferential interest rate, so she called her bank to ask if she could borrow money at the rate, saying she has two citizenships.
A bank employee forwarded the woman’s question to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and then delivered the ministry’s answer, which disappointed her.
“As the ministry’s housing fund division noticed you are a dual national, you cannot apply for the loan,” the bank employee said, according to the woman. “If you hadn’t revealed your dual nationality, you could have received the loan, because the division had no way to discover your foreign citizenship.”
A ministry official also told The Korea Times, “Dual nationals have to give up their foreign citizenships, if they want to apply for the government-backed loan as the product is only for Korean nationals.”
However, some multiracial children regard giving up on one of their nationalities as abandoning one of their parents.
Since 2010, the country’s amended Nationality Law has therefore allowed “multinationals” by birth to maintain both citizenships, if they take an oath not to exercise their rights as foreign nationals while staying here, before they turn 22 years old.
Although the law also specifies multinationals are regarded as Koreans, thus they are subject to Korean law, they have yet to be guaranteed their rights as Koreans.
“The government-backed loan goes against multiculturalism,” the 25-year-old woman said. “Unless the system is changed, multicultural youth having multiple citizenships will face housing discrimination when they grow up.”
According to Rep. Keum Tae-sup of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, the number of Koreans who have a second citizenship was 85,965 as of last August, up from 15,235 in 2011.
Also, Statistics Korea data showed the number of students from multiracial families jumped to 99,000 in 2016 from 20,000 in 2008. They will seek housing within a few years, as the 25-year-old woman is doing now.
Another problem is that people with dual citizenship have no way of knowing whether they can receive the state-backed loan, before making inquiries about the matter to their banks or the land ministry.
“For now, it is impossible to check details about qualifications for applying for the loan online,” the ministry official said. “We will come up with measures for the public to check the details online as soon as possible.”