Korea plans to creat new government agency for immigration policies (Good News)

Korea is considering creating a new government agency for immigration policies as an aging population forces the country to reconsider attitudes toward immigration.

The finance ministry has recently commissioned a study on the immigration ministries and departments in different countries and pot...ential policies to encourage the influx of skilled foreign workers, government sources said.

Germany’s Federal Office for Migration and Refugees, Britain’s Border and Immigration Agency, Canada’s Immigration and Refugee Board and Australia’s Department of Immigration and Citizenship are among the role models considered.

More elderly people, combined with a declining working age population, has resulted in murky projections for Korea’s long-term economic growth, which has the government thinking of loosening its restrictive immigration policy to defuse the demographic time bomb.

A dedicated body for immigration issues will be crucial for providing pace and purpose to policies on migrant workers and their families and better prepare the country for its “multicultural dawn,” officials said.

Government data show a growing number of immigrants and multicultural families opening the country to new faces and influences. The country’s foreign residents were measured at around 1.3 million at the end of January, accounting for about 2.5 percent of the entire population. The finance ministry forecasts the proportion will exceed 5 percent by 2020.

The number of children with at least one foreign parent reached over 151,000 as of January, nearly tripling over the past four years, according to statistics from the Ministry of Public Administration and Security.

``At this stage, we are not pursuing detailed plans to set up an independent department for immigration policies. However, there are arguments that we need one and we will be studying the experiences of other countries and consider what could be the right systems for us,’’ said a finance ministry official.

``We need to take a closer look at the effect of the declining working age population and the increasing influx of migrants; and how they affect the labor forces of different industries and influence our long-term growth. We need to make a transition to policies to increase the influx of skilled foreign workers.’’

Korea currently has one of the lowest birthrates among maturing economies, with the country’s 2010 figure standing at 1.22 births per woman, well below the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average of 1.71.

As with many other nations, Korea expects to see the retired proportion of its population to balloon in the coming years. This is feared to escalate pressure on the country’s fiscal position as pensioners collect their retirement and medical benefits to be paid by a shrinking core of taxpayers.

In recent years, government officials here have worked hard to introduce family-friendly policies, such as expanding tax benefits, providing longer maternity leave and establishing more daycare centers for children of working mothers. But the effects of such changes have been subdued, thanks in part to a large number of companies being reluctant to make significant changes to their working environment.

Though there is no simple way to ease concerns related to the aging workforce, many analysts say that immigration will be crucial in solving Korea’s labor market and welfare state problems.

Pakisama sa rules na may 1week vacation sa Pinas ang mga pinoy TNT sa Korea every year.