ed Rising foreign residents

The number of foreign residents in Korea more than tripled over the past nine years, due largely to a steady rise in migrant workers. The figure reached 1.74 million as of Jan. 1, accounting for 3.4 percent of total residents in Korea, according to the Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs.

This means that the number of foreigners living in Korea rose at an annual average of 14.4 percent during the period. This year’s figure is larger than that in North Chungcheong Province ― 1.58 million ― but smaller than the population in North Jeolla Province ― 1.87 million.

Foreign residents refer to people with foreign nationalities living here for more than 90 days, foreigners who obtained Korean nationality and their children.

Foreign residents in Ansan, a satellite city in Gyeonggi Province where clusters of factories are located, numbered about 84,000, which means that nearly one in 10 residents in Ansan is a foreigner. In Wonkogbon-dong in Ansan, in particular, foreigners made up 60 percent.

By nationality, Chinese topped the list of foreign residents, with 953,000 or 54 percent, followed by Vietnamese, Americans and Filipinos. More than 70 percent of the Chinese residents are ethnic Koreans from China.

Little wonder the influx of foreigners into Korea is continuing as a result of economic development and open-door policies. This is proof that Korea is in transition toward a more open, internationalized and multicultural society.

There is no need to look at the rising number of foreign residents negatively, given that migrant workers are one of the important axes that buttress our society by filling chronic manpower shortages, especially in difficult, dirty and dangerous jobs.

But it is questionable if Korean society has become open enough to embrace foreigners without prejudice. We need to ask ourselves if we might have been closed to migrant workers ― albeit vaguely. Also, now might be the time for soul-searching to confirm if Koreans have made distinctions between foreigners from Western industrialized countries and those from elsewhere.

Living together with foreign residents seems inevitable, but it will certainly entail problems. More than anything else, antagonistic feelings toward foreigners could flare up as they increasingly compete with locals for decent jobs.

As we have seen in Western countries, there is no denying the possibility that racial riots could erupt in Korea. That the Supreme Court upheld a lower court ruling to allow undocumented foreign workers to establish a trade union in late June is also a glaring example of foreigners’ rising clout in Korean society.

Being receptive to foreigners is one of our few realistic options to tide over the approaching age of low fertility and aging. The government needs to tailor all our systems and policies to that effect.