Immigrants rarely viewed as citizens by Koreans

First year international students attend orientation at Korea University [NEWS1]

Koreans are still reluctant to consider foreign immigrants as citizens of Korea, according to a Statistics Korea survey announced Tuesday.

In the survey, 8,000 Koreans aged 19 and above rated their acceptance of immigrants as Korean citizens. This produced an average score of 5.3 out of 10 where a rating of one indicates strong disagreement towards accepting immigrants and 10 represents strong agreement.

The figure fell 0.4 points compared to the previous year.

Different age groups had similar responses. Those aged between 19 and 29 gave it a 5.5 rating, and those aged between 50 and 59 gave it a 5.4 rating.

For 42.3 percent of respondents, they are willing to become acquainted with immigrants as coworkers, 29.8 percent consider them as close neighbors, and 16.6 percent view them as close friends.

Another 10 percent said they cannot accept immigrants as Korean citizens at all. The figure is down 2.9 percentage points compared to the previous year.

There were 1.3 million foreigners aged 15 and above in Korea as of last year. Of them, 28.8 percent were overseas Koreans with an F visa, 16.1 percent were living in Korea with an E-9 non-professional employment visa and 12.5 percent were students with a D-2 or D-4 visa.

There were 1.33 million foreigners in Korea as of 2020, down 2.25 percent compared to 2022 due to Covid-19. Statistics Korea expects the figure to keep rising, with 2.16 million foreigners living in Korea by 2040.

BY LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]