Immigration to South Korea Most immigrants are not eligible for citizenship or even permanent residency, unless they are married to a South Korean citizen or have invested more than $5 million USD in the local economy. An exception is made for those whose non-financial contribution to the nation has been specifically recognized by the Justice Minister, and for holders of a business visa who have invested more than US$500,000. Immigrants count for only around 1% of the population but are a growing force as international marriages increase due to lack of marriageable Korean women in the countryside.
Read more about Immigration To South Korea: Government Agencies, Migrant Laborers, International Marriage, Recent History, Issues With Current Immigrant Policies
Famous quotes containing the words immigration and/or south:
“I was interested to see how a pioneer lived on this side of the country. His life is in some respects more adventurous than that of his brother in the West; for he contends with winter as well as the wilderness, and there is a greater interval of time at least between him and the army which is to follow. Here immigration is a tide which may ebb when it has swept away the pines; there it is not a tide, but an inundation, and roads and other improvements come steadily rushing after.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Indeed, I believe that in the future, when we shall have seized again, as we will seize if we are true to ourselves, our own fair part of commerce upon the sea, and when we shall have again our appropriate share of South American trade, that these railroads from St. Louis, touching deep harbors on the gulf, and communicating there with lines of steamships, shall touch the ports of South America and bring their tribute to you.”
—Benjamin Harrison (1833–1901)