By Lee Hyo-sik
The number of foreigners residing in Gyeonggi Province has surpassed 380,000 for the first time this year as more people from China and Southeast Asian nations come here to find work. A rise in the number of migrant wives marrying Korean men has also boosted the province’s foreign population.
The Gyeonggi Provincial Government said Sunday that foreign nationals as well as those born overseas that have become naturalized Korean citizens totaled 380,606 as of January this year, up 12.7 percent from a year earlier. They account for 3.2 percent of the province’s total population of 11.79 million.
Migrant workers totaled 203,736, accounting for 53.5 percent of the non-Korean population, followed by migrant wives at 37,541 and children of multicultural families at 37,519.
In particular, the number of foreign women tying the knot with Korean men jumped 15.2 percent from a year ago, while children born between them jumped 25.5 percent over the one-year period.
By nationality, Chinese accounted for 57.9 percent of the province’s foreign population at 220,408, followed by Vietnamese at 9.3 percent, Filipinos at
5 percent and Americans at 4.3 percent.
Among municipalities, Ansan was found to house the largest foreign population of 50,864 as an industrial complex there employs a large number of migrant workers. Suwon came in second with 35,657, followed by Hwaseong with 30,340 and Seongnam with 24,988.
Meanwhile, foreign nationals residing in Seoul for longer than 90 days totaled 281,780 as of the end of June, accounting for 2.67 percent of Seoul’s population of 10.58 million. Korean-Chinese formed the largest foreign community in the nation’s capital at 186,631, accounting for 66 percent of the city’s non-native population.
``Seoul city has introduced a range of foreigner-friendly policies over the years to improve living conditions for non-Koreans as it seeks to become one of the world’s top five cosmopolitan metropolises. Among others, Korean Chinese who can speak the Korean language have come here en masse to earn higher incomes,’’ a city official said.
By nationality, 216,532 Chinese, including Korean-Chinese, were found to reside in Seoul, followed by Americans at 9,999, Taiwanese at 8,717 and Japanese at 7,770.