Gyeonggi Province launches 1st survey of its 18,000 refugees

A drone view shows a tent camp where displaced Palestinians shelter, following a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip, Jan. 23, 2025. Reuters-Yonhap

Gyeonggi Province, the populous economic engine surrounding Seoul, has launched the first comprehensive provincial investigation into the living conditions of its refugee population.

The initiative marks a significant shift in how Korean local governments manage forced migration, moving beyond generalized immigrant support systems to address the distinct legal and socioeconomic vulnerabilities of displaced people.

At an inaugural briefing held Thursday at the Gyeonggi Migration and Integration Support Center in Uijeungbu, officials outlined an ambitious monitoring framework designed to map the structural gaps plaguing the state's refugee safety nets. The investigation comes on the heels of the province’s pioneering Ordinance on the Protection of Human Rights and Guarantee of Basic Living for Refugees, enacted last year.

As of late March, Gyeonggi Province was home to 18,169 refugees, representing roughly 2.5 percent of the region's long-term foreign residents. While Korea became the first East Asian country to pass a standalone refugee law in 2012, humanitarian groups have long criticized the central government for its notoriously low asylum recognition rates and a lack of integration infrastructure.

Gyeonggi provincial officials acknowledged that refugees, whose displacement is fundamentally involuntary, face steep barriers that conventional migrant integration policies fail to alleviate. The upcoming study will scrutinize crucial quality-of-life indicators, including housing stability, educational access, health care, employment conditions and institutional legal aid.

To build a granular data pool, investigators will conduct quantitative surveys with 130 individuals alongside in-depth, qualitative interviews with 38 participants. The dual approach aims to isolate policy deficiencies and tailor recommendations based on geographical location and specific visa types. Following survey design and enumerator training in July, field research will run through August and September, with a final report slated for October.

The data-gathering drive is part of a broader push by the province, which last month established the nation's first municipal refugee policy advisory committee.

"Ensuring that refugees do not fall into systemic poverty or social isolation is vital for community integration and conflict prevention," said Kim Sung-hwan, head of the province’s Alien Social Support Division. "This study will expose the vacuums in our current system, allowing us to build tailored mechanisms that respect the unique legal status of these residents."

This article was published with the assistance of generative AI and edited by The Korea Times.