South Korea Turns to Immigration, but More Foreign Workers Cannot Halt Population Decline

More workers are arriving as the population shrinks

South Korea's foreign resident population reached 2.58 million in 2024, about 5 percent of the total, yet an analysis by the National Assembly Budget Office says immigration cannot reverse the country's demographic decline. Foreign workers are helping farms, assembly lines and care facilities stay staffed. Their growing presence can slow population losses in many communities, but the number arriving and the conditions of their stay are not enough to rebuild the population.

Foreign residents accounted for 3.4 percent of the population in 2015. While that share has grown, the resident registration population, which excludes noncitizens, peaked at roughly 51.85 million in 2019 and then fell by about 630,000. The two trends are happening together: more people are moving to Korea from abroad while the population covered by citizen registration is shrinking.

The budget office's central finding concerns what happens after workers arrive. Foreign labor supports production and helps local services survive, but it is not generating enough new households, births or lasting consumer spending to change the national direction.

South Korea is already a super aged society, meaning more than 20 percent of its people are at least 65. Fertility, the average number of births per woman, is around 0.7 in recent estimates and near the bottom of global rankings. A larger flow of workers who stay temporarily or rotate home cannot offset those pressures.

Foreigners also remain a relatively small share of the population by international standards, and many visas provide limited routes to settlement. As of December 16, 2025, the central policy challenge is therefore broader than recruiting enough people for vacant jobs: it is creating conditions in which newcomers can build lasting lives.

Foreign residents are spreading beyond the capital region

Between 2019 and 2024, foreign resident numbers increased in 211 of South Korea's 229 municipalities. Their share living outside Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi rose from 40.6 percent to 43.3 percent, an increase of 2.7 percentage points. Immigration is becoming more important to places beyond the country's main metropolitan area.

Some of the strongest increases occurred in communities classified as facing extinction risk. Of 130 such regions, 35 recorded growth of more than 50 percent in their foreign resident populations since 2019. New arrivals help maintain the workforce and the customer base needed to keep shops, buses and clinics operating.

The extinction risk index compares the number of residents aged 65 or older with the number of women aged 20 to 39. A community reaches the severe risk threshold when its older population is at least twice as large as that group of women. The measure captures both advanced aging and a thinning base of potential mothers, pointing to birth shortfalls for years ahead.

Rural counties already face falling school enrollment and the departure of service providers as their working age populations shrink. Agricultural cooperatives need harvest workers, small factories need enough staff to avoid production stoppages, and local merchants need customers. Foreign residents help sustain a minimum level of activity.

Communities meeting the risk threshold can also struggle to keep schools open and specialist medical services nearby. The budget office recognizes the value of immigration in these places, while warning that lasting renewal depends on permanent households, secure jobs and economic activity that can endure.

Immigration policy is taking on a regional role

The Ministry of Justice launched the region specific F-2-R visa in 2022 to reflect local labor needs. The government's Master Plan for Immigration Policy also set economic and regional development goals linked to foreign arrivals. Immigration policy is increasingly being shaped around what municipalities need and which industries cannot recruit enough local workers.

Several dates show how population pressures and policy responses have developed:

• 2015: Foreign residents accounted for 3.4 percent of South Korea's population.
• 2019: The resident registration population peaked at roughly 51.85 million.
• 2022: The Ministry of Justice launched the region specific F-2-R visa.
• 2024: Foreign residents reached 2.58 million, and elder care jobs were opened to foreign graduates of Korean universities.
• 2026 to 2027: A pilot is scheduled to train foreign caregivers through designated universities.

These programs connect immigration with the survival of regional economies, alongside its established role in filling immediate vacancies. Local labor demand remains central, but the policy direction now includes where people live and how their presence can support communities.

An aging society needs more care workers

South Korea crossed the super aged threshold after its population aged 65 or older surpassed 10 million. That change increases the importance of finding enough people to provide care in hospitals, long term care centers and homes.

The government opened elder care jobs to foreign graduates of Korean universities in 2024. It also designated 24 universities to train foreign caregivers and scheduled a pilot for 2026 to 2027. The aim is to create a pipeline of trained aides who can support care services in every province.

Caregiving brings two demographic pressures together. More older residents need support, while a shrinking working age population makes staffing harder. Recruiting and training foreign graduates is one response, with universities serving as a link between education and employment.

Most employment visas still fill lower skill roles

About 547,000 people held employment visas in 2024. Roughly 15.6 percent were classified as skilled workers, while about 84.3 percent were in categories for lower skill work. The skilled share tends to be higher in large cities; outside metropolitan areas, employers rely more heavily on people doing entry level or manual jobs.

Those workers sustain current production, especially in agriculture and manufacturing. The budget office's concern is that this pattern contributes relatively little to increasing technological capacity or attracting new investment. Keeping an existing production line running and developing a new industry require different combinations of workers, skills and capital.

Many temporary workers come to earn money and send part of it home. They often limit their local spending and return when their contracts end. That pattern restricts the effect on retail sales, school enrollment, housing turnover and municipal tax revenue, even where farms and factories remain busy.

A worker who stays for a contract helps an employer meet today's production needs. A household that settles can contribute to local demand over a longer period. The budget office argues that temporary hiring alone does not produce enough new households or broaden the economic base sufficiently to renew shrinking communities.

Small businesses depend on foreign recruitment

Small and medium sized enterprises struggle to attract younger Koreans to demanding jobs with low wages. Many use the Employment Permit System to recruit from abroad, operating under tight rules on how workers can change jobs and how long they can stay.

A recent survey by a business group found that about 94 percent of SMEs with at least 50 employees already employed foreign workers. Most planned to maintain or increase those numbers. The finding points to persistent demand and shows how foreign recruitment has become a stabilizer for businesses that struggle to raise wages or productivity.

Academic research on Korea's labor market describes mixed effects. Foreign workers can replace Korean workers or put downward pressure on wages in some parts of the economy. Elsewhere, workers occupy different types of jobs, and businesses may invest more when labor becomes available, reducing those effects.

Researchers also argue that recruitment quotas should reflect longer term population and industry trends. As workers stay longer, the original principle of temporary migration is breaking down. Yet limited routes for skilled entrants and family settlement continue to narrow immigration's contribution to innovation, entrepreneurship and local spending.

Why graduates could make a larger economic contribution

A study by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry, conducted with a research team led by a Korea University economist, estimated that admitting one million additional foreign university graduates could raise gross domestic product by around 6 percent. GDP measures the value of goods and services produced in an economy.

The analysis used regional data from 2012 to 2023 and found a positive relationship between the share of foreign graduates in the labor force and output per person. Its economic reasoning is that skilled workers tend to earn more, spend more locally and help companies move into more valuable activities.

South Korea has relatively few highly skilled foreign workers for an economy of its size and income. Ministry figures show that about 68,600 people held professional work visas, including E1 professor and E7 specialty occupation visas, in 2023. Fewer than 55,000 foreign graduate students were enrolled in 2024, leaving a limited pipeline of people completing advanced study.

The chamber's proposals extend beyond recruitment. They include better schools and health services, predictable visa rules for families, and neighborhoods that help newcomers integrate quickly. The aim is to make settlement practical, so professionals can build careers and contribute soon after arriving.

Lee Jong myung, head of the chamber's industry innovation division, called for cities that could compete internationally for skilled residents:

It is time to build internationally competitive cities that help foreign professionals settle quickly and contribute to growth.

The chamber argues that places where professionals can settle comfortably would strengthen Korea's position in the international competition for talent. Retaining graduates and professionals would connect immigration more directly with career development, investment and lasting household spending.

Domestic workers are also being held back

The Korea Development Institute points to underused talent within South Korea as another part of the response. Older people, people with disabilities and many women face barriers that reduce their participation in work or push them toward part time and unstable jobs.

KDI recommends action in stages. In the near term, policy should focus on productivity gains and attracting selected talent from abroad. Over the medium term, reforms should ease rigid rules and practices affecting hiring and career progression. Longer term investment should concentrate on education, skills, gender inclusion and social integration.

Age discrimination adds to the pressure on labor supply. A recent human rights report argued that employment rules based on age, widespread mandatory retirement and reemployment practices push many Koreans in their sixties into poorly paid jobs. That weakens their earnings and spending power, as well as the tax base, just as the population is aging.

Bridget Sleap, the report's senior researcher on the rights of older people, described how those practices affect workers:

They deny older workers the opportunity to continue working in their main jobs, pay them less, and push them into lower paid, precarious work, all just because of their age.

Longer careers for older workers, reliable childcare for parents and retraining for people in the middle of their careers could strengthen the domestic workforce. Immigration would then complement a broader employment strategy, with more residents able to take part in growing industries.

Japan is moving from rotation toward retention

Japan and South Korea face similar aging pressures, cautious public attitudes toward immigration and complex visa systems developed over decades. Both expanded temporary work routes to staff factories and services while maintaining narrower routes for professionals and ethnic returnees.

The result is a migration system with several tiers: a person's rights and prospects for staying depend heavily on the visa they hold. Many migrants continue to face restrictions on permanent settlement.

Japan plans to replace its long criticized Technical Intern Training Program with an Employment for Skill Development program in 2027. The new route is intended to connect workers with the Specified Skilled Worker system, which provides more stable employment and a route toward a longer stay for people who pass language and skills tests.

The goal is a sustainable workforce in caregiving, construction, food services and manufacturing, with better protection and greater ability to move between jobs. Japan's approach increasingly links continued residence with developing and demonstrating skills.

Korea's Employment Permit System regularized recruitment for smaller firms but does not provide a clear settlement route. The comparison points to a possible policy direction: allowing capable workers to gain skills and progress toward a more stable immigration status over time.

Lasting settlement requires jobs, families and services

A durable response to demographic decline combines domestic reform with changes in the kinds of immigration South Korea encourages. Priorities include increasing the share of skilled entrants, helping international students move into jobs, making permanent residence more accessible to people contributing to the economy, and encouraging families to settle outside Seoul where employment exists.

Family settlement changes a community's needs and its economic activity. Children enroll in schools, households look for homes, and spending supports shops and services. Those activities can also increase local tax revenue.

Local integration services would need to match regional circumstances. Language classes connected to employment, recognition of qualifications earned abroad and support for newcomers starting small businesses are among the measures proposed. Their purpose is to help people use their skills and establish themselves where they live.

Immigration policy also needs to connect with industrial development. Regions seeking investment in advanced manufacturing, clean energy or biomedical clusters need technicians, engineers and managers with suitable expertise. Those industries require a different workforce mix from sectors relying mainly on manual labor.

Linking corporate investment approvals to concrete plans for recruiting and retaining specialized workers could help spread growth beyond the capital region. Partnerships between universities and employers could prepare international students for particular jobs and ease their move from study into employment.

Better data could guide recruitment and retention

More timely information about labor shortages would help officials adjust recruitment as industries and populations change. Stronger oversight of recruitment practices and periodic revisions to quotas could reduce bottlenecks.

Municipalities could also receive incentives to make settlement easier. Funding tied to results, such as retaining international graduates, raising wages and increasing the share of workers moving from temporary to more stable status, would direct attention toward what happens after arrival.

The budget office's warning is that headcount alone is insufficient. Foreign workers already help keep businesses and services operating, including in communities losing younger residents. Changing the national demographic direction requires more lasting households and a stronger economic base, alongside better use of the people already living in Korea.

The Bottom Line

• Foreign residents reached 2.58 million in 2024, about 5 percent of the population, while the citizen registration population fell by roughly 630,000 after its 2019 peak.
• Foreign resident numbers rose in 211 of 229 municipalities between 2019 and 2024. Thirty five of 130 regions facing extinction risk recorded increases exceeding 50 percent.
• The F-2-R visa began in 2022, and a foreign caregiver training pilot involving 24 designated universities is scheduled for 2026 to 2027.
• Of about 547,000 employment visa holders in 2024, roughly 15.6 percent were classified as skilled and about 84.3 percent were in lower skill categories.
• A chamber of commerce study estimated that one million additional foreign university graduates could lift GDP by around 6 percent.
• Japan plans a new employment and skills program in 2027, providing a comparison for Korea's choices about worker retention and settlement.
• Lasting progress depends on skilled recruitment, family settlement, stronger regional economies and fewer barriers facing older workers, women and people with disabilities.