Naturalized voters ask candidates for special body

A group of foreign residents and the Migrant Voters Alliance officials discuss their demands to be conveyed to presidential candidates ahead of the election on Dec. 19, at Seoul YMCA, Thursday. / Korea Times photo by Jung Min-ho

By Jung Min-ho

Representatives of naturalized Korean voters resolved to make a collective demand Thursday for a special organization to deal with various immigration issues.

These will be conveyed to presidential candidates Park Geun-hye and Moon Jae-in before the election on Dec. 19.

“In a country where immigrants account for 3.5 percent of the total population, the need for an organization specialized in dealing with immigration matters is obvious and the request seems reasonable,” Asian Friends Chairman Kim Joon-sik said at the meeting in the Seoul YMCA. “Currently, the Ministry of Gender Equality, the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Labor handle the immigrants issues and predicaments separately depending on the nature of the problem. However, it makes both the service providers and receivers confused.”

At the Migrant Voters Alliance’s meeting, social activists and naturalized Korean women discussed the many challenges they are facing, exchanging thoughts with the officials and social activists on improving their living conditions. Ideas, including demands for language services at emergency rooms, fair treatment at work places and more effective use of budgets for multiracial families were suggested for the official petition. But details will be further discussed to finalize the petition which is expected to be sent to the two leading candidates sometime next week.

“The candidates’ pledges, which barely reflect immigrants’ interests, indicate that multiracial families have been ignored in the political arena. We thought this action would give more negotiation powers to the immigrants when the transition committee is formed,” Ju Gun-ihl, a director of the YMCA Department of Civil Society Movement, said. “With polling day only two weeks away, I doubt our demands will be included as their pledges, but we will continuously ask for improvements even after the election.”

When it comes to job opportunities, immigrants are in a highly disadvantageous position even for the jobs they can be favored in, Nguyen Ngoc Cam, a naturalized Korean social activist from Vietnam, said.

“For example, there are over 200 centers for migrants who came to Korea through marriage. But only 21 percent of them actually use the program and the budget is being squandered inefficiently,” Nguyen said. “With that said, the budget is actually not used for the initial purpose. Given a lot of migrant women are unemployed, it seems like a good idea to give them a job opportunity with the money.”

Categorizing the children of migrant women as “multicultural children” may segregate those who have no language problem unlike their mothers or fathers, from the Korean mainstream, causing a sense of separation from the rest of the people, Khishgee, president of the Korea Mongolian Women’s Association, said.

Among many issues brought up, employment and education concerns were highlighted the most. As soon as the written request is finalized, the organization will hold a press conference and campaign to raise public awareness.