Gyeonggi Province has seen its foreign resident numbers surge over 14-fold since 2000, but a recent study indicated that a substantial portion of them are living in housing not meant for permanent residence.
Of the 680,000 non-citizen residents in Gyeonggi Province as of 2024, 13.3 percent were residing in greenhouses, shipping containers, and dormitories that are not legally defined as homes, according to the Gyeonggi Research Institute. The proportion of migrants living in non-permanent housing was far higher than the 2.2 percent recorded for Koreans that year.
In the city of Pocheon, in particular, 42.7 percent of foreign residents were living in non-homes.
Often referred to as part of the capital region alongside Incheon and Seoul, Gyeonggi Province is South Korea's most populous region, accounting for roughly a quarter of the entire population. The number of foreign residents in the province has increased exponentially since the 46,000 recorded in 2000.
But the researchers found that many are living in structures that are barely habitable. "In some cases, household appliances like the refrigerator and the washing machine were placed inside a greenhouse, where (the resident) was living for an extended period of time," the study noted.
Some of the greenhouse dwellings had panels installed to support the structure.
Korean law bans providing makeshift homes such as greenhouses and shipping containers as homes for migrant workers and mandates that their living quarters should be legitimate residential buildings. But the report found that 25.9 percent of businesses employing them had violated the regulations, spanning 15 cities and counties in the province.
"The residential environments of migrant workers are not just a matter of welfare, but are also related to the local economy. ... Providing stable housing will help workers settle (into society) and will help regional communities," the research said.
In addition to regular inspections of unlawful migrant worker housing, the researchers suggested expanding the operation of government-operated dormitories and allowing a wide range of migrant workers to live there. The authorities could use abandoned houses or remodel public facilities for the new dormitories, they said.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
