The Ministry of Gender Equality and Family Affairs is to recruit a female marriage immigrant in the first such move for a central government agency, officials said Tuesday.

The hiring is hoped to bring diversity to the ministry’s policies and eventually into other departments, which are also pushing multiculturalism.

The ministry made the announcement of a job opening for an assistant position for its multicultural family policies on March 14 and is now conducting background checks on five finalists. They all hold bachelor’s degrees at domestic or foreign universities, are level 4 or above for the Korean language ability test, have resided in Korea for more than two years and are naturalized to Korea.

The selected person will look over the translation and copy-reading of informative materials of multicultural policies, gather feedback on government policies, hold educational programs for newlywed foreigners and more. He or she will be working on a temporary contract by the end of the year. The ministry may consider renewing the terms and position based on the person’s performance.

“We expect the recruitment to motivate foreign spouses to work and stand on their own in Korea. It will also bring dynamism and diversity to our department and provide us with practical advice on the direction of policies,” ministry official Kim Jung-yeol said.

Currently, there are 32 foreign spouses working for local administrations, including the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Seventeen of them are from China, while others come from Japan and the Philippines. Most are temporary workers while seven work for the police.

By Bae Ji-sook (baejisook@heraldcorp.com)