Subscribe
E-Paper
 |
| Councilor Ai Suluu / Courtesy of Ai Suluu |
Originally from Kyrgyzstan, Ai was elected as a member of the Seoul Metropolitan Council on the proportional representative system in the June 1 local elections. She is the first foreign-born representative of the council.
The city government launched an initiative to provide pregnant women holding residence registration with a 700,000 won ($535) voucher for public transportation or fuel costs for personal vehicles last month.
An estimated 43,000 women are entitled to the transportation benefit. But the policy soon became a hot potato as many migrant women were excluded from the subsidy as they were not eligible because of the strict requirements.
Migrant women who do not hold Korean citizenship are not eligible for the subsidy program.
Notably, many foreign spouses, regardless of intention to acquire Korean citizenship, tend to have children before they would become eligible for naturalization. Of the 16,421 births to multicultural families in 2020, 67 percent were to a parent without Korean citizenship.
Foreign nationals who have a Korean spouse may acquire Korean nationality if they have lived here as a married person for more than two years, or if they have been married for more than three years and lived here for over a year.
In a recent interview with The Korea Times, Ai said she was determined to propose a revised bill after meeting with fellow immigrants and activists. Under the proposal, all pregnant women who have legally resided in the capital for more than six months will be able to apply for the subsidy.
"Pregnant women of foreign nationality, including immigrants, fulfill their financial obligations to pay residence and local taxes. However, they cannot currently benefit from the city's subsidy program because they were not naturalized Koreans as stated in the Resident Registration Act," she said.
The proposed bill will be presented and discussed in the upcoming assembly, of which the exact date is yet unknown, but it is expected to be by the end of this month.
Ai first visited Korea in 2003 as a traveler and settled down in the country after meeting her Korean husband during her trip. She received her doctoral degree in Russian literature at Hankook University of Foreign Studies and has led Aipery, a nonprofit organization that supports immigrants in the country and promotes cultural exchange between Korea and Central Asia from 2013 to June this year.
As an immigrant woman, the councilor said she has participated in several volunteer activities for foreign communities and developed her thoughts about the lives of multicultural families in Korea. She said she has been supporting the DPK in previous local and presidential elections and declared her bid to run for a seat in the city council via the proportional representation system on the ticket of the progressive party to represent her fellow foreign-born residents.
"Since becoming the proportional representative at the city council, I have been very busy, receiving a lot of legislation requests," she said. Many foreign residents have welcomed her for proposing the revised bill on the transport subsidy and sent messages to show their appreciation, specifically for her representation on the council.
Ai said she will work on abolishing administrative discrimination against multicultural families and improving the lives of all people in the city.
