Should Korea Accept More Immigrants?

The commissioner of Korea Immigration Services is saying that the country needs to accept more immigrants in a Korea Times interview:

 Without the inflow of foreign workers, Korea is already shrinking.

After deaths outnumbered births for the first time in November 2019, the gap has widened since. A chronically low birthrate, which hit an all-time low of 0.92 that year, suggests that the trend is only going to accelerate and that the country will face massive labor shortages in the decades to come if nothing changes.

Years of government efforts to reverse the trend have been futile, leaving the country with the difficult choice of enduring the shock of a rapid decrease in the population or turning to immigration.

Without immigration, the risk is that the population will continue to decrease and fail to provide enough taxpayers to fund social welfare and medical costs that will grow as the country ages.

Cha Gyu-geun, commissioner of the Korea Immigration Service (KIS), says the time has come to face that reality and the country, at the very least, should start discussing the issue openly before it is too late.

Korea Times

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