South Korea reviews support programs for multicultural families
The justice ministry has asked local governments to examine their programs, and Seoul has begun inspecting its 26 support schemes.
South Korea's government has begun reviewing support programs for multicultural families, legal sources said on Friday, South Korea's national news agency Yonhap reported.
The justice ministry asked local governments late last month to examine how their programs work, amid renewed debate over whether they give multicultural families preferential treatment at the expense of Korean families.
Based on those findings, the ministry is expected to check for possible discrimination, the sources said.
The move follows a social media post in which President Lee Jae Myung said last week that he would review whether preferential support for multicultural families was still needed.
Critics said the remarks could fuel division, but Lee has maintained his position, saying any preferential policy that leads to reverse discrimination cannot be justified.
The Seoul city government has begun inspecting the capital's 26 support programs for multicultural families, including priority daycare places for children from such families regardless of household income.
The city also runs postpartum care centers that give priority access to mothers from multicultural families and persons of national merit.
Before the president's comments, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon had reportedly instructed city officials to find ways to improve the programs.
At a press conference on Thursday, Oh said policy support for multicultural families needs consideration, but programs that many people demand should be designed more carefully.
Multicultural families make up a minority of South Korea's population of about 51 million people.
As of last year, some 1.25 million people lived in 451,492 multicultural households, the data ministry said.
