Korean immigration authorities struggle with understaffing as more migrants enter country

Korean government agencies in charge of immigration policies are understaffed while the number of foreigners residing in Korea is rising. According to the Ministry of Justice, there were 2.36 million foreigners living in Korea as of May. However ...

This picture shows the Jeju Immigration Office. [KOREA IMMIGRATION SERVICE]

Korean government agencies in charge of immigration policies are understaffed while the number of foreigners residing in Korea is rising.

According to the Ministry of Justice, there were 2.36 million foreigners living in Korea as of May. However, there were only 116 employees working at the Justice Ministry's Korea Immigration Service in the same month.

Despite the number of foreign residents rising by 136 percent compared to 1 million in 2007, the number of employees at the Korea Immigration Service only increased by 15 percent from 101.

The Korea Immigration Service oversees immigration processing, visa issuance, naturalization and keeping track of foreigner-related statistics. Dealing with policies regarding immigrants lacking legal status, refugees and multicultural families is also the agency's responsibility, in addition to other numerous tasks.

Although hosting more immigrants is one of the solutions to Korea's falling population, some say Korea needs more officials handling immigration affairs to prepare for sustainable immigration policies.

"Even if we include employees working at organizations affiliated with us, we only have 2,698," a Justice Ministry spokesperson said. "Taiwan has much fewer immigrants than Korea but has 2,405 employees [handling immigration affairs]."

According to Taiwan's National Immigration Agency, there were 812,603 foreigners living in Taiwan as of April.

Korea's neighboring countries have been recruiting more employees for their immigration agencies.

Japan's Immigration Bureau used to be an agency under its Ministry of Justice but was renamed to Immigration Services Agency in April 2019 to expand the country's immigration program. It had 4,885 employees in 2018 and 6,181 in 2022.

There are 2.75 million foreign residents in Japan as of 2022, according to the country's Statistics Bureau. Based on the statistics, there are 447 foreigners to one immigration officer in Japan.

In Korea, there are 871 foreigners to one official at the Korea Immigration Service.

The ratio in Taiwan is 333 foreigners to one official.

"Even if we establish a well-made immigration system, if there is no one to actually put them to practice, the system won't be sustainable," Cho Young-hee, a researcher at the Migration Research & Training Centre, said.

Creating a new agency that oversees all immigration tasks was also suggested.

"Immigration isn't about just bringing foreigners into Korea, but also about helping them successfully settle in Korea," Yoo Eui-jung, a National Assembly Research Service researcher, said. "We need to consider creating an overarching organization under the Justice Ministry that will encompass various ministries such as the Ministry of Interior and Safety and Ministry of Health and Welfare."

BY LEE TAE-YUN, LEE YOUNG-GEUN, LEE TAE-HEE [lee.taehee2@joongang.co.kr]