80% of expats are satisfied with life in Korea, survey shows

Visitors look around Changdeok Palace in Jongno District, central Seoul. [YONHAP]

Eight out of 10 foreigners in Korea said they were satisfied with their life in Korea, according to Statistics Korea on Wednesday.

Based on a survey of 25,000 foreigners in Korea, 40.8 percent said they were "very satisfied" with their life in Korea, and 39.6 percent said they were "somewhat satisfied."

Another 1.7 percent said they were "somewhat dissatisfied," and 0.2 percent said they were "very dissatisfied."

Despite high levels of satisfaction, they still said they experienced discrimination, with 19.7 percent of the respondents reporting they faced discrimination within the past year.

The respondents said they were discriminated against the most at workplaces, stores, restaurants and banks.

Of those who experienced discrimination, 37.6 percent said they experienced "some discrimination" at restaurants, stores and banks, and 5.4 percent said they experienced "severe discrimination" at those places.

A total of 34.1 percent said they experienced "some discrimination" at work, and 7.6 percent said they experienced "severe discrimination."

Language barriers and loneliness were the two biggest struggles foreigners face.

When asked what they struggle with the most, 43.4 percent said language is the biggest problem. Loneliness followed with 28.8 percent. Multiple answers were allowed.

Another 27.8 percent said they struggle with cultural differences, and 20 percent noted financial difficulties. Misconceptions toward foreigners accounted for 16.1 percent.

"We hope our analysis of foreigners' life in Korea can serve as materials to understand our changes in our population, such as the increase of foreigners and multicultural families, also helping with policies that aim to integrate foreigners into our society," Song Joon-hyuk, director of Statistics Korea's Statistics Research Institute, said.

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