Municipalities vie to become seat of new immigration agency

With immigration on the agenda of the new administration amid growing demographic pressures, governors and mayors across Korea are jockeying to host a newly proposed state agency tasked with managing immigration policy. The move comes as President Lee Jae Myung charts the country’s policy course for the next five years. While immigration was not a major focus during his campaign, lawmakers from the ruling liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) introduced a bill to establish an independent government department to comprehensively address immigration issues. Local officials in Ansan in Gyeonggi Province ― the country’s most ethnically diverse city ― have positioned their city as the most suitable candidate for the agency’s headquarters. Ansan boasts the highest proportion of foreign residents in the country, with more than 100,000 of its 672,000 residents, or about 14 percent, being foreign-born. Five years ago, Ansan became the first Korean city to be recognized on the Council of Europe’s Intercultural Cities list. “Most importantly, as one of the first cities in Korea to

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