SEOUL, Nov. 4 (Korea Bizwire) — Starting next year, the word ‘alien’ will no longer be used on ID cards for foreigners.
The Ministry of Justice announced that the revised enforcement decree of the Immigration Control Act will come into effect this Thursday to delete the term ‘alien’ from Alien Registration Cards.
The revision was made because the word ‘alien’ can also be defined as an ‘extra-terrestrial being,’ which could instill negative and discriminative impressions toward foreigners.
The ministry received various recommendations from experts to revise the current terminology used on ID cards for foreign residents, effectively adopting ‘Residence Card’, widely used in the European Union, Japan and China, as the new term to refer to the identification cards.
The government explained that the term ‘foreign’ is also being less used in the other countries since the word implies the idea of exclusion, bringing the ministry to use the word ‘residence’ instead.
Image Credit: Yonhap / Ministry of Justice / photonews@koreabizwire.com
