Bahk Eun-ji has been with The Korea Times since 2012, building a career across multiple desks. She began at the Business Desk, where she conducted in-depth interviews with key figures in Korea's corporate world. Later, she moved to the Politics & City Desk, focusing on education policy and social affairs. She later served as team leader of the digital content team, leading curation efforts on the newspaper’s homepage and reshaping print stories for social media audiences to enhance digital reach. Now back on the Politics Desk, she covers the National Assembly and the Ministry of National Defense, with a renewed focus on political developments.
Seoul City to set up foundation to integrate foreign residents' issues
Seoul City Hall and the city's logo / Korea times file
By Bahk Eun-ji
By Bahk Eun-ji
Seoul City plans to establish a foundation that will comprehensively deal with foreign residents' issues as part of its efforts to enhance the capital's global competitiveness, the city government said, Monday.
According to officials of the Seoul Metropolitan Government, the city is considering establishing the foundation, tentatively named the Seoul Global Foundation, to attract skilled foreign workers and support their settlement here.
“Korea is becoming a multicultural society as the number of residents of foreign nationality is increasing. We are considering establishing a foundation that can provide comprehensive support for them,” a city government official said.
As of 2019, the number of foreign residents in Seoul was 466,000, accounting for 4.8 percent of the capital's total population, and approaching the OECD definition of a multicultural and multi-racial society, in which the population of foreign residents surpasses 5 percent.
Currently, the city government operates 18 support facilities for residents of foreign nationality, including the Seoul Global Center, the Global Village Centers, centers for migrant workers, and counseling facilities for marriage migrants. But these centers are managed separately according to the purposes and goals of the facilities, and within the city's governmental bodies, several departments are separately in charge of them.
The city government expects the Seoul Global Foundation, if established, will be able to integrate these functions and comprehensively manage the facilities, as well as conduct studies on related policies concerning foreign nationals living here. Following the creation of the foundation, it also plans to set up at least one branch in each of the city's 25 districts.
“The central government is also saying that the nation needs to attract talented foreign workers to cope with Korea's aging society and decreasing population. Our plan is in line with these needs,” the official said.
“Through studies and support measures devised by the foundation, we hope to boost Seoul's global competitiveness so that skilled foreign workers will come to settle here.”
The official said the city will allocate a related budget next year in order to conduct a feasibility study for the creation of the foundation.
While stressing the capital's vision for the future, Mayor Oh Se-hoon said in his inauguration speech in April that Seoul's urban competitiveness announced by A.T. Kearney ranked 10th back in 2010, but currently has fallen severely to 42nd.
Pledging to come up with a vision, he established the Seoul 2030 Citizens' Committee, in which experts and civic group members discuss ways to enhance the city's global competitiveness, boost safety and realize balanced development. The committee recently suggested setting up the foundation.