Naturalization in Korea

While I don't plan to ever become a Korean citizen, I have been a worker and a student there, and will probably want to get marriage-based resident status someday, to make coming and going from there a bit easier. The point is: the issues that affect foreigners trying to immigrate to and live in Korea are of interest to me.

In any case, a former professor of mine at Yonsei, Lee Chulwoo, published a paper today that will be used in a national assembly hearing on the matter soon. According to Prof. Lee, "[R]estricting the chance of acquiring citizenship by foreigners in Korea might obstruct social integration." There's really no "might" about it; knowing that you couldn't get full citizenship (or would have a very hard time doing so) definitely darkens many foreigners' views of staying in Korea permanently. Of course, non-legal, societal factors would be enough to obstruct social integration in Korea, but even for those that learn the language and possibly start a family there, staying forever doesn't seem realistic.

Any moves toward naturalization reform would begin with foreign ethnic Koreans and the children of ethnic Koreans, making such reform irrelevant to a great deal of Western expats. At least in the short term.