Vietnamese workers pick tangerines at a farm on Jeju Island, in this file photo from Nov. 1, 2023. This month alone, five legislative bills about foreign residents have been proposed, which suggests growing political interest in issues related to them. Newsis

With no right to participate in political activities or to vote in legislative elections, foreign residents of Korea have largely been overlooked by members of the National Assembly here.

But recently, lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties have been showing growing interest in them, proposing bills to lay out new policies or publicly calling for large-scale reforms to the nation's immigration system.

This month alone, five such bills have been proposed so far, according to the Assembly's bill database on Monday.

The latest bill, proposed last Thursday by 10 lawmakers of the ruling People Power Party (PPP), aims to create a consultative body to govern the seasonal labor scheme more effectively and safely. The program is run by local offices that help Korean employers, such as farmers and fishermen, recruit overseas workers for short but busy periods. The system has recently come under criticism over the lack of central oversight.

The same day, Rep. Park Hae-cheol and nine other lawmakers of the opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) proposed a bill calling for the introduction of a compulsory education program for all foreign workers who are at greater risk of rights violations than Koreans due to a lack of knowledge about the country's laws.

In another bill submitted to the system a day before, 13 PPP lawmakers said they would revise the visa system to attract more highly skilled workers from other countries, adding that the expansion of their contributions to Korea's economy could help it grow significantly.

On Nov. 19, another group of 10 DPK lawmakers proposed a bill to allocate more resources from the central government to enhance the working conditions for foreigners in rural areas.

It remains to be seen whether those bills will actually be approved at the Assembly. But the sheer number of lawmakers drafting legislative proposals about foreign residents living here suggests that political interest in them is increasing, according to Kim Joon-sik, honorary chairman of Asian Friends, a Seoul-based advocacy group for immigrants here.

"Politicians have little interest in issues that voters don't care about. So all this suggests that voters, particularly those living in rural regions, think that issues about foreign workers, for example, are becoming increasingly important to them, and political pressure is growing for lawmakers to address them," Kim told The Korea Times. "As the number of foreign residents is expected to continue increasing, political interest in such issues is only expected to rise."

The shortage of workers is one of the main reasons behind the political push. Rep. Park Jie-won of the DPK promoted earlier this month that he played a key role in adding an official who handles visa work in Mokpo, South Jeolla Province, for employers in his constituency nearby, saying that thanks to that effort, the wait time for visa approvals would be shortened.

Meanwhile, South Jeolla Province Governor Kim Young-rok has been asking the Assembly to give the provincial office the power to issue visas amid growing labor shortages.

But such an economy-centered approach to addressing the issues of foreign residents poses many risks, said the honorary chairman of Asian Friends.

"Human rights abuses and many other issues could arise as their number grows. That is why I think we need a new government body that can handle such issues more comprehensively with a long-term vision," he said.