By Yoon Ja-young
Staff reporter
South Korea should seek ways to encourage immigration by overhauling related laws in order to sustain the population amid falling birthrates, a renowned demographer said.
Philip Morgan, a sociology professor at Duke University and former President of Population Association of America, said that it would be difficult for Korea to maintain its current population without immigration at a seminar held in downtown Seoul, Thursday. He said appropriate immigration programs should be the key for the country's population policy.
The seminar organized by Statistics Korea comes as a part of government efforts to find solutions to deal with the low birthrate and aging of its society.
According to the OECD, the country's population is expected to fall by 0.02 percent in 2020, recording the first minus growth since the 1950s.
The country's birthrate, or the number of babies born per woman, stood at the globally lowest level of 1.15 last year. The figure isn't likely to bounce back either, according to Statistics Korea Commissioner Yi In-sill.
She said the country is facing the problem of a low birthrate as well as a fall in the number of women at the fertile ages between 15 and 49.
She pointed out that the birthrate of women who have spouses recorded 1.33. The problem is that the ratio of single people is growing significantly. Moreover, more females find marriage a less compelling option. "In 1998, 64.4 percent of females in their 20s said marriage is a must. In 2008, only 52.9 percent said so," she said. In the country where single moms face harsh social prejudice, it is difficult to expect that babies will be born from single women.
Yi also blamed economic burdens and the unstable job market as factors for the falling birthrate. People are delaying marriage due to employment uncertainties, and they hesitate to have more children due to the financial burden of child rearing and education.
Morgan advised that Korea should set its total fertility rate (TFR) target at around 1.8.
While immigration is essential for the country to maintain its population, the country's immigration has focused only on growth in numbers, as seen in the inflow of laborers or foreign spouses from China and Vietnam. Morgan said such immigration policies can't be sustained when considering the exclusiveness of Korean society or the social infrastructure. "One should seek ways to achieve qualitative growth in immigration," he said.
He also said that the country may solve both the problems of the low birth and aging of the society by encouraging intergenerational co-residence ― the parents can get support and care from their children and their children can get help from their parents in rearing their kids.