Statistics on Foreigners in Korea

*This is actually a few year-old post from my personal blog migrated here for keepsake.

I ran across a Marmot's Hole entry that finally gave me the data I have been looking for. I have been super curious as to the actual teaching credentials held by in-service English teachers in Korea. The results weren't surprising, but I was hoping the for the best. Anyways, here's the situation:
20.5% are classified as certified teachers
37.4% hold TESOL certifications
5.4% hold both TESOL and teaching certifications
16.8% hold degrees related to English education
12.6% hold education degrees
48.0% hold a degree not related to teaching whatsoever
I understand that I am a minority in believing that teachers of any subject should be qualified; and by qualified I mean hold educational degrees. I also recognize that some teachers who hold education degrees shouldn't be teaching at all while others who hold a non-related degree are great in front of kids. However, I still stand by my opinion that children in any country deserve the best possible education.

-Thanks again to the Marmot's Hole, here are some numbers of current E-2 holders as of October, 2008:
15,238 Americans
10,111 Canadians
3,021 Britons
1,412 South Africans
1,162 New Zealanders
1,158 Australians
1,051 Chinese
978 Japanese
626 Irish
56 French

-per Galbijim

Only about half of native English speakers working at Seoul schools have renewed their contracts for 2009.

According to Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, Tuesday, 144 of 273 foreign English teachers who were eligible for a renewal of their contract have signed to stay on another year.

Last year, the city education office also saw about half of its foreign teachers renew their one-year contract, however, it had only 11 who had more than three years teaching experience.

-per Marmot's Hole

"There are an estimated 30,000 foreigners teaching English in Korea. Only 16,000 have E-2 visas, making most of the rest illegal. The problem is that authorities find it difficult to crack down on the illegal teachers, and rely primarily on tips."

-per Korea Herald

The city government information office (서울시 정보화기획단) announced on the 19th that the population of Seoul has increased for the last five years consecutively, reaching 10.45 million people at the end of last year. On December 31st, 2008, there were 10,456,034 citizens and holders of alien registration cards in the city, 34,252 more people than at the end of 2007. 76.3% of the new residents are foreigners, of whom 23,204, or 88.7%, are either Chinese or Chinese of Korean descent (조선족). With the global economy having fallen in the fourth quarter, the growth of the foreign population also paused, decreasing some 3,689 people.

There were 96,241 births in Seoul last year, 3,866 fewer than the 10,107 in 2007. The falling birth rate has thus reversed after increases in 2006 and 2007. 2006 saw a boom in marriages and births after being called auspicious by astrologers and 2007 was a golden pig year, but the effects of those years have disappeared and the birth rate is following suit, the report said.

-per Galbijim

The Ministry of Justice announced Sunday it will allow only nationals of countries including English as an official language that have signed an agreement with Korea to work as assistant English teachers from next year.

The Justice Ministry is currently working on the agreement with India and expects it to be signed next year. So far, only the nationals of seven countries whose mother tongue is English — Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States — have been eligible to work as native English teachers.

With the new measure, member countries will be expanded to include the likes of India, the Philippines and Singapore, where English is one of their many official languages. Currently, there are 4,332 native English assistant teachers in elementary, middle and high schools nationwide.

However, nationals of such countries will have to meet tougher qualification requirements than those from the countries where the mother tongue is English. The Ministry of Education, Science and Technology has decided to make both a teacher’s license and a bachelor’s degree in an English-related major as prerequisites. Nationals of the seven countries whose mother tongue is English have much more lenient requirement of having graduated from a two-year community college or having finished at least two years of a four-year university course.

A qualification to teach in private English institutes will continue to be limited to nationals of the seven countries.

-per Chosun Ilbo

As of April last year, 63,952 foreign students were studying at Korean universities -- more than five times the 12,314 registered in 2003.

Foreign students studying in Korea are overwhelmingly Asian, accounting for 92 percent of the total. Chinese students number 44,740 or 70 percent, Japanese 3,324 (5.2 percent), Mongolese 2,022 (3.2 percent), and Vietnamese 1,817 (2.8 percent). In contrast, American and Canadian students take up just 3.3 percent of the total and European students 2.4 percent.


-per Chosun Ilbo

Children from multicultural families are becoming a common sight in many Korean neighborhoods, with the Ministry of Public Administration and Security finding last May that there were 140,000 foreign spouses here, accounting for 16.2 percent of the total of about 640,000 foreign residents. Most, or 120,000, were women.
The number of children under 18 from such families was about 58,000, soaring from only 25,000 in 2006 and 44,000 in 2007.

Chinese Koreans accounted for the majority of foreign spouses, followed by Vietnamese, Japanese and Filipinos.

According to the National Statistical Office, foreign-born women accounted for 71.5 percent of spouses from overseas and men for 28.5 percent in multicultural marriages between 1997 and 2007. The majority of children or 57.1 percent were under six, and 32.2 percent were between six and 12, meaning children under 12 accounted for 89.3 percent.

Many of them find it difficult to fit in, often because they do not speak Korean well, are uncertain of their cultural identity and come from poor families. Most Korean men who marry Asian women are from rural areas, and the marriages often do not last.

-per Chosun Ilbo
The law requires those wishing to obtain the E-2 visa to submit a police certificate of their personal criminal history issued in the country of citizenship or residence and stamped by the Korean embassy. The new version also requires the applicants to hand in a health certificate to show the person has no infectious or sexually transmitted diseases, and a transcript from the last educational institution attended in a sealed envelope.

-per ROK Drop

The number of international marriages between South Korean citizens and foreign nationals increased from 12,188 in 1998 to 38,491 in 2007.

-per Korea Beat
...The number of foreigners registered in our country has quadrupled over the past eight years, and the number of intermarriages between Koreans and foreigners has increased 250% over the past six years...

-per Chosun Ilbo
...There are now more than 120,000 foreign wives who are married to Korean men and living in Korea. International marriages accounted for 11.1 percent of the country's total matrimony in 2007 -- one in nine couples being multicultural. Over 58,000 babies were born into multicultural families. Korea has briskly become multicultural...

-per the Marmot
"The number of foreigners based in Korea has exceeded one million for the first time, up 24 percent, or 215,543, from the previous year, a survey said Wednesday.
According to the one-month study conducted in May by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, there are currently 1,106,884 foreigners residing in the nation, accounting for 2.2 percent of the nation’s entire population of 49,593,665."

-per ROK Drop

The number of foreigners based in Korea has exceeded one million for the first time, up 24 percent, or 215,543, from the previous year, a survey said Wednesday.

According to the one-month study conducted in May by the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, there are currently 1,106,884 foreigners residing in the nation, accounting for 2.2 percent of the nation’s entire population of 49,593,665.

“The double-digit increase is attributable to the inclusion of overseas Koreans who have lived in Korea for an extended period of time,” a ministry official said. Previously, they were excluded from the survey.

More than 60 percent of the foreign population live in Seoul and its vicinity ? 30.3 percent reside in Seoul, 29.3 percent in Gyeonggi Province and 5.6 percent in Incheon