Newsnomics  AJAY ANGELINA reporter | Kim Ha Jun, Pakistani name Khalid Obed, from Pakistan, age 42 is the Chairman of 'Ansan Foreign residence Counsel’ since 2019, giving his services for the newly came foreigners to easily adjust in the South Korean culture by right guidance and communication facilities.

“I want mutual interaction between foreigners and Korean nationals, so the foreigners feel Korea like their own hometown and Korea will become the best land of multiculturalism around the world.” Kim told Newsnomics.

"Ansan is a place where Korean multicultural policies are created and matured," he added.

 

‘Ansan foreigners’ residence counsel’ is working actively for the development of foreigners living in Ansan by communication services, visiting, counseling, giving solutions of their problems and especially focusing on the education of children belongs to the multicultural families. The counsel presents the critical issues of foreign community in the monthly meetings with Ansan, city hall mayor after collecting the information and observing the situation.
 

 

In 2018, Ansan city through leading policies became the first to took measures of all childcare fees freely provided to the children of foreigners residing in South Korea, funded entirely by Ansan City, costing 4,300,000,000 KRW (approximately 3,332,400 euros) annually. 

Covid-19 was the hardest time not only for Korean nationals but for the foreigners too. Chairman Kim Ha Jun took the initiative for the demand of ‘Corona Life Support Fund’ to facilitate the foreigners in their hard time.

 

 

Yoon Hwa-seop, Ansan city hall Mayor accepted the offer on leading policies and ordered to issue the support of 70,000 w for each person. For more convenience the city produced applications written in 11 lang-uages, including Chinese, English, Russian, and Vietnamese, and is operating a call center with dedicated counselors who can speak four languages, including Chinese, Russian, and Vietnamese to alleviate the inconvenience of foreign residents during Covid-19. 

 

About 1,200 people applied for the service in one day. The city invested a total budget of 71.3 billion won, intcluding 6.1 billion won,to provide livelihood stabilization subsidies to foreign residents for the first time in the country.

 

 

Kim, chairman of the Foreign Residents Council, appreciated the government’s response and said, “I am grate-ful to Ansan City for providing livelihood stabilization subsidies to all foreign residents.”

 

"Ansan City and the Foreign Residents Council is a good example of working together" he said.

 

The next step in process is resolving the issue of sports for foreign residents, because the foreigners residing in Ansan have no place to took advantage of their favorite sports freely. 

 

Kim stressed, “We need a sports venue where foreigners can play and promote their country sports."

 

The foreigners residing not only in Ansan city but in all areas of South Korea are facing the discrimination that wounds the foreigner’s identity.

 

Chairman Kim said,"the sufferings foreigners experience include discrimination based on skin color, lack of jobs for foreign women, lack of language skill, and cultural differences especially between foreign daughters-in-law and Korean mother-in-law. I have conveyed my opinion to Ansan City to devise support measures to solve these problems." 

 

"I came to Korea from Pakistan in 2001, and I have lived a settled life in Korea, holding jobs in various fields such as manual labor in the construction industry, a salesperson at Garak Market, and a plastic molding factory that reminds me the difficulties of foreigners faced while living in South Korea."

 

“I always had a thought to give back as much as I received. My heart has always been Korean. Now on we

Go will continue to strive for communication and development between domestic and foreign residents of Ansan." Kim added

 

Ansan City, “a small global village” has the

greatest number of non-national residents of the 226 local governments in the Republic of Korea, with 87,696 people from 105 foreign

countries holds different nationality,

origin, language or religion/ belief. Citizens

with foreign nationality account for 11.9% of the total population. 

“Since 2008, the number of non-nationals increased by 270% in the decade includes China (65%) form the largest share due to historical and geographic proximity, followed by Uzbekistan (10%), Russia (7.8%), Kazakhstan (3%), Vietnam (2.7%), Indonesia (1.4%), and the Philippines (1.3%).5,756 children have foreign nationality and 10% of them are foreign-born,” as per ICC Index Analysis 2020.

“About, 1,511 refugees are residing in Ansan, accounting for 5.2% of the total number of refugees in the Republic of Korea. 92 are recognized refugees (6.1%), 35 have a residence permit on humanitarian grounds (2.3%), and 1,384 have applied for refugee status (91.6%). Unregistered residents of Ansan are estimated to be approximately 22% of all non-nationals, or 19,300 people,” mentioned by the ICC 2020.

Hopefully Ansan City will take more measures to systematically manage the provision of specialized services and runs dense residential areas especially for caring the respect of foreigners’ human rights, cultural diversity and differences through leading policies conductive to the harmonious coexistence between Koreans and newcomers.