People are worried that the number of foreign parents receiving child allowance has increased. What is the truth?

Over the past five years, the number of foreign parents receiving child allowance has increased. Accordingly, some Koreans mistakenly believe that foreigners are taking Korean taxes. Let’s take a look at what the problem is.

Foreign parents received child allowance?

  *What is child allowance? : Child allowance is a universal welfare system that provides 100,000 won per month to all children under the age of 8 to reduce the financial burden of raising children and promote child welfare.

  *How much did the foreign parents receive? : According to data submitted by Rep. Kim Sang-hoon, chairman of the National Assembly Planning and Finance Committee, from the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the number of foreign parents who received child allowance last year was 131,029, an increase of approximately 4.3 times compared to 2018 (3,799). The total child allowance paid also reached 13.77 billion won.

How did a foreigner receive child allowance?

  *Foreign parents and Korean children: If foreign parents are raising a Korean child, they can receive child allowance. Then, the priority is to find out how a foreigner came to raise a child of Korean nationality. There is no problem with a child of Korean nationality receiving child allowance.

  *Reasons for divorce of marriage immigrants: Foreign parents receive child allowance in many cases because the parents of Korean national children, such as marriage immigrants, divorced and gained custody. This speculation is supported by the fact that the majority of foreigners who received child support allowance were Vietnamese, at 25%.

Are you doing well raising your children of Korean nationality?

  *It is more difficult to raise children than Koreans: Marriage immigrants who raise children through divorce are bound to face various difficulties. In particular, if marriage immigrants are not familiar with the Korean language and are not fully adapted to life in Korea, raising children will be a huge challenge.

  *Marriage immigrants doing their best: Many marriage immigrants are making every effort to raise their children in Korea even after divorce. Family centers in each region are also doing their best to support them. The child allowance that Korean parents also receive is a great help to foreign parents.

Isn't this the reason why child allowances are being stopped for foreign parents?

  *Divorced multicultural familie‘s difficulties shoud not be added: The office of National Assembly member Kim Sang-hoon conveyed the reality of foreign parents receiving child allowances and said, “It is time to discuss the sustainability of the child allowance system.” It sounds like the nuance is that child allowances are being paid unreasonably and should be reduced. If child allowance payments are stopped because the parents are foreigners, raising children in divorced multicultural families will become even more difficult.

  *Think about the side effects of stopping child allowance payments! : If child allowance payments are stopped, various side effects will occur. One of them is that marriage immigrants send their children to live with their parents abroad due to economic difficulties. Then, there is a high possibility that these children will grow up in an unfamiliar country without even forgetting Korean. Therefore, providing child allowances to foreign parents raising Korean children should be expanded, not stopped.

Gyeonggi Multicultural News relayed these concerns to the office of National Assembly member Kim Sang-hoon and received a response saying, “We will look into it carefully.”

Mary Eve of Papaya Story