Immigration policy needs a long-term approach
Published: 25 Feb. 2024, 20:06

Cho Yoon-je
The author is professor emeritus at Sogang University and a member of the Monetary Policy Boardof the Bank of Korea.
The history of human migration corresponds with the history of mankind. The movement and settlement of people in search of better livelihoods and conditions has fueled today’s prosperity. But immigration today has caused a myriad of problems.
Immigration has caused a major political and social headache for the European countries I have recently traveled to. Data collection may differ by country, but the surge of immigrants in western Europe since 2000 has caused their share to account for nearly 20 percent of the region’s population. Their number and share will be even bigger when counting illegal migrants in Western Europe. Immigrants take up a quarter of Germany’s population. The proportion in Sweden tops 20 percent. Half of the population in London define themselves as “white British” as a result of the government’s aggressive border-opening to commonwealth nations.
European countries have eagerly opened to foreign workers due to labor shortages from low births and an aging population. Pro-immigrant policy gained a political and social boost thanks to humanitarian causes and the benefit of cultural diversity on top of economic demand.
The perspective can be explained in the 2017 book “The Strange Death of Europe.” Its author, British journalist Douglas Murray, found rougher traffic and driving culture in Frankfurt after a surge in immigrants and migrants, while Sweden is grappling with drug and gang crimes in immigrant-dominated neighborhoods. European countries worry about a worsening income disparity from the loss of low-skilled jobs to migrants, a spike in home and rental prices due to housing shortages, and damages to their social welfare system.
But the governments have so far refrained from pinning the blame for their multiple problems on the surge in immigrants, which has led to election upsets reflecting public disgruntlement over immigration policy.
Muted complaints and anxieties about migrants were anchored in the British exit from the European Union and Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Far-right political parties and critics of immigration are on the rise across Europe. The Swedish government recently assigned its state think tank to research the socio-economic impact from mass immigration to the country. Quantifying the benefits to labor and growth rates has been used to back certain immigration policies, but identifying adverse effects on long-term growth from deepening in social conflict and social unrest is difficult, according to the researchers I met.
Foreign migrants have increased rapidly in Korea, too. Their share in the population quadrupled from 1.1 percent in 2006 to 4.4 percent in 2022. In its economic policy blueprint for this year, the Yoon Suk Yeol administration announced it would sharply raise the influx of foreign workers and double the foreign employment quota. The Justice Ministry is pushing for the establishment of an immigration agency to effectively handle the increase in immigrants.
Given its ultralow birthrate, Korea must be more open to foreign migrants for economic necessities. Construction sites and other low-skilled jobs are already being supplemented by foreign workers who could opt to settle down in the country.
The country’s ratio of high-school dropouts among them was sharply higher than the average in 2021, and the proportion of their college entries was just 40 percent. Korean society is traditionally closed towards outsiders. The resulting surge in social conflict and crimes could potentially be large.
Korea needs more foreign workers to complement its thinning workforce. But it must steer carefully so that the greater immigrant presence does not translate into conflict.
Authorities need to prepare responses to migrant-related problems. If these preparations are not fully ready, the government should discretely shift to aggressive immigration policy, even at immediate economic cost, to lessen potential costs in the future.
Translation by the Korea JoongAng Daily staff.
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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