S. Korea begins study on setup of 'immigration office'

SEOUL, July 10 (Yonhap) -- South Korea has started a study on the establishment of a government agency to take charge of policies regarding immigration and multicultural households, officials said Sunday.
The move comes amid a growing call for the government to set up an "immigration office" to deal with the growing number of foreign immigrants and multiracial families, whose policies are currently handled by several government ministries.
Finance ministry officials said that the ministry had recently invited a bid for conducting research on foreign trends and coming up with policy proposals to attract highly talented human resources from overseas.
According to the government, the portion of foreigners in South Korea to its population is expected to rise to more than 5 percent in 2020 from the current 2.5 percent.
"Considering the social cost of decreasing productive population and growing foreign immigrants, the government will seek to craft ways of attracting foreign skilled personnel," a ministry official said.
South Korea is struggling to cope with a fall in its productive population, which is feared to eat into the economy's growth potential.
The country is racing toward an aged society, where more than 14 percent of the population is 65 or older. The nation became an aging society in 2000, when the ratio exceeded 7 percent.
South Korea has also seen a surge in the number of foreigners, mostly women, who live in the country after marrying South Koreans.
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