Gyeonggi-do to Provide Disaster Basic Income to 'Marriage Immigrants and Permanent Residents'

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province has decided to provide Gyeonggi Province-type disaster basic income to foreign residents, including marriage immigrants and permanent residents.

The payment targets are approximately 48,000 marriage immigrants and about 61,000 permanent residents in the province, totaling around 109,000 people.

The province considered that marriage immigrants have connections with natives, a high possibility of acquiring South Korean nationality and permanent residency, and that local governments have responsibilities to support multicultural families under the Multicultural Families Support Act.

Also, since permanent residents have rights as residents such as voting rights in local elections and resident referendums, it was judged appropriate to provide disaster basic income to them.

The province will provide 100,000 KRW per person via prepaid cards, the same as for natives. Applications and payments will be conducted at the administrative welfare centers of eup, myeon, and dong under the jurisdiction of the place of residence from mid-May.

Once the card is received, after an approval process within 3 to 5 days, it can be used as early as late May. However, since verification through the foreigner information system is required at the time of application, applications cannot be made at NongHyup branches.

To this end, the province plans to consult with the Ministry of Justice this week regarding the use of the foreigner information shared system and then gather opinions on the participation of cities and counties.

Gyeonggi Province Governor Lee Jae-myung explained on the 19th via social networking services (SNS), "From the beginning, there was some concern about this issue, but since the disaster basic income is an urgent matter requiring speed, we could not delay time with detailed reviews and controversies."

He added, "After preparing legal procedures such as ordinance amendments by Gyeonggi Province and each city and county, system maintenance, and confirming the recipients, we will provide combined payments simultaneously with the regions that decide on city and county disaster basic income after a certain point in time."

The Gyeonggi Provincial Council has initiated amendments to the 'Gyeonggi Province Disaster Basic Income Payment Ordinance' to allow foreigners in the province to receive Gyeonggi Province disaster basic income. The current ordinance limits the payment target to 'Gyeonggi residents,' so marriage immigrants and permanent residents need to be added.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.