hankyoreh

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, countries around the world are announcing economic stimulus packages including basic disaster allowances to compensate for falling household income and to promote consumer spending. That kind of aid is being provided by the South Korean government, too. Providing disaster relief despite our limited fiscal resources is certainly a timely measure. But there are several disappointing aspects of the Korean approach that I’d like to address.

The first issue is that the disaster allowances aren’t available to Korean citizens overseas who aren’t contributing to Korea’s national health insurance scheme. While all citizens are eligible for national health insurance, it’s not a civic duty or a form of taxation. This rubric may offer administrative conveniences, but it leaves out overseas Koreans, a category that includes those who have gone abroad to study or research, been assigned to work there, or have settled down there while retaining their citizenship.

There’s a segment of the Korean populace, including some politicians and media outlets, that tend to look down on Koreans who go overseas. But the subjects of their scorn — escapist students and others who have “abandoned” their homeland — only represent a tiny minority of Koreans abroad. Most of my Korean friends overseas are working, studying, or researching in difficult circumstances. I regard them as people who have made, and will continue to make, substantial contributions to Korea’s development.

Furthermore, some of these individuals are carrying on their civic responsibilities in one form or another, such as paying taxes in Korea. For example, even though I’m currently a visiting scholar in Germany, I pay Korean property tax and income tax. But now even overseas taxpayers have been excluded from disaster relief. That violates the equal rights guaranteed in the constitution, betraying the state’s obligation to protect citizens abroad.

Facing criticism about unfair discrimination, the city of Seoul has made overseas Koreans eligible for disaster aid. While some object that other countries may benefit if disaster aid is given to overseas Koreans, that’s not an issue because the allowances can only be used in Korea. To the contrary, I think that providing this aid will help create a sense of pride and kinship among Koreans overseas.

The second issue is that foreigners in Korea are excluded from the payments. While some resident foreigners are on short stays, many pay taxes in the country and contribute to national health insurance. Blocking all of them from receiving disaster relief simply because they’re not Korean citizens represents unfair discrimination.

Foreigners may not be citizens here, but they deal with the same difficulties as other Koreans. Surely they could be provided some benefits based on their tax receipts. If the government failed to enact such a policy out of fear of the xenophobia that’s rife in some quarters of the country, then it bowed to populism.

The German government provides the same benefits to foreigners within its borders. A more important consideration for the German authorities is whether those foreigners are contributing to the country by paying taxes. Eligibility for the child subsidy also depends on whether the child’s guardian is able to engage in profitable activity in Germany — it doesn’t even matter if they’re actually doing so.

The final issue is the fact that the Korean government provided aid to the heads of households while using national health insurance contributions as a one-size-fits-all rubric. That has created various disputes that have been covered in the press. Rather than making payments to householders, reflecting a patriarchal attitude, the government should have made payments on an individual basis. Despite all the government’s talk about trying to improve the birth rate, families with a large number of children ultimately didn’t benefit proportionally.

COVID-19 is a global issue that causes pain to everyone regardless of where they happen to live. In such a situation, disaster aid can be very helpful. It’s just too bad that the Korean government is discriminating against Koreans overseas in a program that’s ostensibly available to “all citizens” and disregarding its duty to protect them. It’s also too bad that the government is discriminating against resident foreigners who are contributing to Korea. The government shouldn’t discriminate against overseas Koreans or resident foreigners because of its fear of politicians and parts of the populace with the wrong ideas about such people. I recognize that my criticism comes a little late, but I hope the issues I’ve brought up will be taken into account in decision making when similar situations occur down the road.

By Kim Seong-yeon, a visiting researcher for the Max Planck Society in Germany

Please direct comments or questions to [english@hani.co.kr]