Ministry of Gender Equality to Assign Dedicated Managers for Families with Migrant Backgrounds... Pilot Program Launches This Year

Customized Integrated Services for Families with Migrant Backgrounds
Pilot Program at Four Locations This Year
Expansion to 100 Centers by 2029

The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced on January 27 that it will provide customized integrated services for children and adolescents with migrant backgrounds.

Won Minkyoung, Minister of Gender Equality and Family

This service is a project that supports language education, basic academic learning and career planning, and connection to youth facilities for families with migrant backgrounds, such as foreign workers, international students, refugee families, and North Korean defectors (including children and adolescents), through collaboration with related organizations such as schools and education offices. Multicultural families as defined by the Multicultural Families Support Act are excluded from the target group.

This year, a national budget of 80 million won will be allocated to pilot the program at four family centers and multicultural family support centers in Geoje City, Dong-gu in Ulsan, Hongcheon County, and Cheonan City. Dedicated managers for families with migrant backgrounds will be assigned to provide comprehensive services linked with community resources.

Each center will gradually provide services tailored to the characteristics of the region and the policy needs of migrant background families, including counseling and interpretation/translation, psychological and emotional support and emergency crisis assistance, Korean language education, basic academic and career guidance, job training, and the operation of self-help groups.

In addition, through collaboration between family centers and Rainbow School operators, a local-level cooperative network will be established to support children and adolescents with migrant backgrounds. Based on the results of this pilot project, the number of participating organizations will be gradually expanded to 20 in 2025, 50 in 2028, and 100 in 2029.

As of 2024, the number of children and adolescents under the age of 24 with migrant backgrounds stands at 738,000, accounting for 7% of the total child and adolescent population.

Won Minkyoung, Minister of Gender Equality and Family, stated, "In a society facing population decline, the approximately 2.7 million migrants (families with migrant backgrounds) are important members of local communities and the economy, as well as key partners for future co-growth."

She added, "We will continue to make efforts to develop and provide effective policies that can offer attentive care and support from our society, so that these individuals can settle and grow successfully."

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