A street parade of foreign residents in South Korea during an international festival in Seoul’s Itaewon district on Oct. 13, 2018. (image: Yongsan District Office)
SEOUL, May 26 (Korea Bizwire) — The number of foreigners staying in South Korea has registered remarkable growth over the past 30 years.
According to a report released by Kang Dong-won, head of the state-run Migration Research and Training Center, the number of foreign residents in the country totaled about 2.5 million in 2019, about a 50-fold increase from roughly 50,000 in 1990.
Among them, the number of long-term stayers (foreigners who are registered or reported residence) and short-term stayers stood around 1.7 million and 800,000, respectively.
Compared to the year 2010, the number of long-term stayers rose by 72.7 percent, while that of short-term stayers jumped by 206.5 percent.
In the nation’s total population, native residents grabbed a share of 96.56 percent, while foreign residents took up a share of 3.44 percent.
Compared to a year ago, the number of native residents rose by 0.04 percent, while that of foreign residents grew by 7.71 percent.
The report said that South Korea represents an exemplary case given its shift from a migrant export country into a migrant import country.
During the period between 1960 and 1976, the number of Korean nurses who migrated to Germany stood at 10,225 per year, with the number of Korean miners who settled down in the country estimated at 6,546.
During the period from the mid-1970s to 1990s, a significant number of Korean construction workers got jobs in the Middle East. During this period, the number of Korean workers who migrated to the region amounted to more than 1.1 million.
J. S. Shin (js_shin@koreabizwire.com)
