Foreword (July, Health and Welfare Policy Forum)

Abstract

The focus of the July issue of Health and Welfare Forumis “Public Perceptions of Immigrants and Social Integration.” As of December 2024, immigrants accounted for more than 5 percent of the Korean population. Korea is well on its way to becoming what by OECD standards may qualify as a multicultural, multi-ethnic society. Against this backdrop, marked by various intersecting dynamics—including working-age population decline due to falling birthrates and increasing longevity, a growing shortage of military personnel, a shrinking school-age population, and severe local depopulation—that pose significant threats to the sustainability of Korean society, immigration and social integration are no longer optional concerns, but major national policy imperatives. Yet the country has yet to reach a consensus on how many immigrants Korea should admit and how best to coexist with them. Meanwhile, a sense of exclusive national identity, anchored in ethnonationalism, runs deep in Korea, engendering, to varying extents across different migrant categories, prejudice against immigrants, a sense of psychological distance from them, and, consequently, resistance to entitling them to welfare benefits. Although understanding public attitudes toward immigrants’ social rights and welfare entitlement is crucial for publicly acceptable immigration and welfare policies, empirical research into this topic remains limited. In response to this shortfall, KIHASA has conducted its 11th Social Cohesion Survey in 2024 with a total of 3,010 adults (ages 19 to 74) sampled from across the country, focusing on the theme of immigrants and social integration. Drawing on the findings from the survey, the articles contributed to this month’s issue of the Forumattempt to illuminate from various angles citizens’ attitudes toward immigrants as well as the public acceptance of immigration policies and social welfare policies concerning immigrants. More specifically, the three articles devoted to our topic at hand respectively address: anti-immigrant sentiment and its policy implications from a welfare-state perspective; intergenerational differences in acceptance of immigrants and in attitudes toward immigration policies; and public perceptions of immigrants’ social rights and welfare entitlements. We hope these analyses will help lead to a substantive understanding of public attitudes—particularly their underlying structure and the possibilities of constructive change—and to ongoing efforts to shape a Korean welfare state grounded in inclusiveness and coexistence.