Staff Reporter
The government should ease restrictions on granting citizenship to foreign residents in Korea as well as Koreans living abroad to counter the low birthrate and an aging society, a professor said in a thesis published Thursday.
In the paper which will be cited in National Assembly hearings on the revision of the Korean Nationality Act scheduled for April 23, Lee Chul-woo, a professor of law at Yonsei University, said allowing foreigners permanent residency could help Korea use their talents as its assets.
"The Act is erroneously based on the idea that Koreans are a homogeneous people. It's about time to change this," Lee said.
There are some 1 million registered expatriates in Korea and 6.8 million Koreans living overseas.
"The scope of living goes beyond borders and restricting the chance of acquiring citizenship by foreigners in Korea might obstruct social integration," professor Lee said.
As an alternative, he suggested the idea of a "supplementary" territorial principle. "Since it is difficult to introduce the territorial principle fully, we can allow multicultural children with permanent residence status to acquire Korean citizenship first," he said. "This is advantageous for securing talent from overseas such as Chinese people in Korea who want dual citizenship."
The professor will present his paper next week in a session organized by Rep. Kim Sung-gon of the main opposition Democratic Party (DP).
Kim is in charge of policies regarding Koreans abroad. He has suggested creating seven more parliament seats for Korean nationals living abroad, giving them the right to represent themselves.
Cha Jong-whan, a former University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) professor, said the government should expand the boundary of Korean citizenship to attract overseas Koreans. He is one of the debaters taking part in the session.
"Worrying about side effects of permitting dual nationality might cause greater losses of human resources from Koreans abroad," Cho said. "Most Korean-Americans over 65-years-old welcome the revised nationality law, but some feel sorry about the precondition of a permanent return to Korea as they have children and business in the States."
The Ministry of Justice submitted a revised bill on the Nationality Act in November which is now pending in the National Assembly. The bill partially allows dual citizenship.
Those who have dual citizenship at birth can maintain both nationalities if they take an oath ― before they become 22-years-old ― not to exercise their foreign citizenship rights in Korea, while overseas Koreans over 65 can hold dual nationality if they permanently return to reside here.
‘국적 규정 완화 필요’
저 출산율과 고령 사회에 대비하기 위해 외국인과 해외 교포들에게 제한하고 있는 국적 부여를 완화해야 한다는 논문이 나왔다.
4월 23일 국적법 개정안에 과한 국회 청문회에 제출될 논문에서 이철우 연세대학교 법학교수는 외국인에게 영주권을 허용하면 인재들을 우리나라의 자산으로 활용할 수 있다고 밝혔다.
이 교수는 “이 법은 한국인은 단일민족이라는 잘못된 생각에 근거를 두고 있으며 이를 바꿀 때”라고 말했다.
약 1백만 명의 외국인이 국내에 살고 있으며 680만명의 교포가 해외에 거주하고 있다.
이교수는 “생활반경이 국경을 넘어선지 오래고 외국인이 국내에서 시민권을 취득하는 기회에 제약을 두는 것은 사회적 통합에 방해가 된다”고 밝혔다.
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