Number of multicultural children triples in 5 years


The number of foreign residents of Korea broke the 1.4 million mark this year, rising to account for 2.8 percent of the population, data showed Thursday.

According to the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, the number of foreign residents came in just under 1.41 million on Jan. 1 this year. The figure is an increase of 11.4 percent from last year.

The Ministry of Public Administration data also showed that the number of underage children of foreign or foreign-Korean couples jumped by more than 17,000 from 2011 to come in at over 168,000. The figure is almost four times higher than the 44,300 recorded in 2007.

For policy purposes, the total includes foreign nationals who are staying in Korea for more than 90 days, naturalized Koreans, and children of such individuals including those with one Korean parent.

Of the total, foreign residents who maintain their original nationality came in at about 1.12 million or 79.3 percent, with the remaining 20.7 percent having obtained Korean citizenship.

Of those with foreign nationality, economic migrants accounted for the largest part with about 590,000 or 41.8 percent, having come to Korea to work.

Individuals who live in Korea due to marriage ties accounted for 10.2 percent, while students accounted for 6.2 percent.

There were 135,000 foreign nationals registered here on visas for ethnic Koreans, accounting for 9.6 percent of the non-Korean foreign residents.

By nationality, Chinese made up the largest proportion taking up 55.4 percent, followed by Vietnamese and Americans, who respectively made up 11.5 percent and 4.9 percent of the total at the beginning of the year.

By location of residence, Gyeonggi Province had the largest number of foreign residents with nearly 435,000, followed by Seoul with 406,000 and South Gyeongsang Province with 87,000.

Within Gyeonggi Province and Seoul, foreign residents were concentrated in industrial areas such as Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, and Seoul’s Yeongdeungpo-gu and Guro-gu.

“The number of foreign residents is increasing by more than 10 percent each year, led by industrial areas,” a Ministry of Public Administration official said.

“With areas with more than 10,000 foreign residents numbering 42, local governments have an important role. Departments for supporting foreign residents and for mid- to long-term plans for preventing the areas becoming slums will be drawn up.”

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)