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| Members of the second representative council of foreign residents in Seoul pose during their appointment ceremony at Seoul City Hall, Friday. / Courtesy of Seoul Metropolitan Government |
By Lee Suh-yoon
Seoul City launched its second representative council of foreign residents, Friday, who will act as an official channel between the local government and foreign residents here.
The new council is comprised of 45 members, including 12 from its predecessor who worked from 2016 to 2018. They will represent the 420,000 foreign residents in the capital for two years.
They are from 26 countries around the world, including Central Asia, South Asia, Europe and Oceania. The number of representatives chosen from each country or region corresponds roughly to each population's size in Seoul.
"Though one out of every 23 residents in Seoul is a foreigner, there was almost no way for foreign residents to participate directly in policy-making and implementation processes," said Moon Mi-ran, a senior city government official in charge of the project.
"Through the foreign residents council, the Seoul Metropolitan Government will continue to support their participation in the policy-making process and support them to lead comfortable lives as members of our society."
The council will collect the opinions of foreign residents through three sub-committees: Human rights and cultural diversity, living environment improvement, and capacity building.
Each committee will hold four meetings every year and pass on any policy recommendations directly to Mayor Park Won-soon at biannual townhall meetings.
Over the past three years, the foreign resident council made 80 policy recommendations regarding the unique problems foreign residents face in Korea, the city government said.
Some of them have been adopted by the city, such as providing mother tongue language classes for children of female marriage migrants and providing maps and signposts in more languages.
According to the city government, the council members are from different backgrounds, so they are expected to reflect various opinions.
"The new appointees hail from different professional backgrounds. Some are assistant professors or language instructors at Korean universities while others work as engineers or office workers at Korean firms. Two are currently working at Seoul Global Center," a city official said.
Members were chosen through an open application process.
Candidates must have resided in Korea for at least one year, including more than 90 days in Seoul, and be over 18. Applications also required at least 20 recommendations from other foreign residents or an official recommendation from a private or public foreign resident support center.
Nationality, visa type, Korean language skills and participation in local and foreign resident communities were the main factors taken into consideration by the evaluation committee.
