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What the Gwangju-South Jeolla merger could mean for foreign residents

Published: 11 Mar. 2026, 07:00

LEE SOO-JUNG
[email protected]

Gwangju Mayor Kang Gi-jung, fifth from left, and South Jeolla Governor Kim Yeong-rok, fifth from right, pose for photographs during a public event to discuss the administrative merger of their localities at Korea Institute of Energy Technology in Naju, South Jeolla, on March 3. [NEWS1]

Gwangju and South Jeolla will merge into a single “special city” starting July 1, affecting not only 3.2 million Koreans in the region but also nearly 82,000 foreign residents.

On March 1, the National Assembly passed a bill to integrate the city of Gwangju and the province of South Jeolla, a move aimed at creating a hub city in the nation’s southern region. The bill was approved by the Cabinet on Thursday, meaning it has become legally binding, in line with President Lee Jae Myung’s initiative to encourage balanced regional growth and ultimately dismantle the Seoul-centered unipolar structure.

The so-called Gwangju-South Jeolla Integrated Special City will receive 20 trillion won ($13.6 billion) in financial support from the central government over four years, and will obtain administrative status equivalent to Seoul city.

In the upcoming June 3 local elections, voters in Gwangju and South Jeolla will elect their mayor for the integrated municipality. The newly elected mayor will represent approximately 82,000 foreign inhabitants in the region — about 57,000 from South Jeolla and 25,000 from Gwangju.

While the region’s foreign population is tallied at 2.5 percent, a relatively small portion, the merger scheme and supporting legal framework appear to have taken the foreign population into consideration.

However, a universal support scheme applicable to foreigners will be insufficient for a successful merger, sociologists point out. A tailored support scheme is necessary because each and every foreign resident has different social needs according to their occupations and living areas.

What it will change

Merger of Gwangju and South Jeolla [YUN YOUNG]

Starting July 1, the current separation of South Jeolla and Gwangju Metropolitan City will be abolished. Thereby, residents within the jurisdiction will have their addresses changed automatically at once. It means that the current provincial and municipal classification will no longer be effective.

Handling of administrative tasks will be managed by the integrated special city authority, including what used to be provincial- or city-level policy support for foreign residents.

Policies for foreign residents are expected to be streamlined because different policies among localities are likely to be adjusted equally within the integrated city. In addition, the single command center — the integrated city authority — will oversee the policies and their execution together.

The Gwangju Metropolitan City Government and the South Jeolla provincial government are currently reviewing each other’s policies and contemplating measures to narrow the gap between the two separate policy schemes.

However, rollbacks of benefits seem unlikely, according to a source from the immigration policy bureau of the South Jeolla provincial government.

“The current offerings, of course, will be maintained,” the source told the Korea JoongAng Daily.

“However, a road map on how to manage policies for foreign residents has not been formulated yet. Both sides will work on the details once the road map covering the budget and human resource appointments is finalized.”

People attend a public hearing session about the merger of South Jeolla and Gwangju metropolitan city at an auditorium in Gwangju on Jan. 23. [YONHAP]

An official from the Gwangju Metropolitan City Government told the paper that postmerger regional immigration and foreigner support policies will be aligned with the Ministry of Justice’s state immigration strategy, which will be effective through 2030.

“Regional immigration policy will follow instructions from the central government,” the official said. “Within such a structure, we will continue to communicate with South Jeolla on how to set directions, such as whether to divide accountability per district.”

Despite the merger, foreign resident support centers — Gwangju International Residents Center in Gwangju and Jeonnam Support Center for Migrant in South Jeolla’s Mokpo — are likely to remain separate, according to the source from the South Jeolla provincial government.

“It seems leaving those centers separate would be more beneficial to foreign residents, considering their accessibility,” the official said.

Such remarks appear to be conducive to foreign residents considering their demographic compositions, making more tailored support feasible for population groups.

Lee Yong-seung, a professor specializing in comparative politics at Daegu University, said the authority should consider "postmerger ramifications for specific population groups, especially between Gwangju and South Jeolla."

“While most foreign residents in Gwangju are international students or immigrants who came for their marriage, foreign laborers account for the majority in South Jeolla,” Prof. Lee said. “Local authorities must roll out support policies according to their characteristics and reflect their demographic differences in the merger scheme.”

Chung, head of a civic organization representing multicultural families in South Jeolla's Yeongam County, said leaving county-level spaces and channels is crucial to ensure that the voices of foreign populations are heard — despite the merger, which tends to centralize local administrative functions.

What the bill guarantees

Two separate bills to merge South Jeolla and Gwangju, right, and Daejeon and South Chungcheong are submitted to the National Assembly by the ruling Democratic Party on Jan. 30. [JOINT PRESS CORPS]

The bill — by text — guarantees several protections and benefits to foreign residents, ranging from education to their stay permits.

The mayor of the integrated city has authority to establish and operate nurseries and kindergartens that are reserved only for children of foreign nationalities. Such facilities run by private social welfare foundations can receive support from the mayor.

Nurseries are for infants to toddlers whose ages are between 0 and five, and kindergartens are where children aged three and older attend before entering elementary schools.

In addition, the mayor is required to establish and execute five-year policy plans for foreign populations, including residents and laborers in the region.

The bill to merge South Jeolla and Gwangju is passed at a plenary session at the National Assembly in western Seoul on March 1. [NEWS1]

The city should conduct due diligence into the labor and living conditions of foreign populations to protect their human rights. The mayor also has discretion to fund the entire construction of foreign laborer-only dormitories or accommodations in agricultural and fishing villages.

The mayor should outline a specific plan to help foreign populations learn Korean and adjust to Korean culture. Mayoral duties also include facilitating people-to-people exchanges between foreign residents and Korean residents to form a harmonious local community.

Upon the mayor's request and the subsequent approval of the justice minister, foreign laborers can enjoy extended stays and simplified reentry procedures. The mayor can also expand region- or industry-specific visa quotas to supply sufficient foreign manpower. However, the benefits are strictly limited to cases where the local authority acknowledges that foreign laborers are inevitably necessary due to manpower shortage.

Steps to ensure a smooth merger

Foreign laborers are seen at a shipbuilding site in Yeongam County in South Jeolla in an undated photo. [JOONGANG ILBO]

Some sociologists advise that foreign residents — as policy stakeholders — should be able to partake in policy design, warning that they should not be sidelined from receiving regional social benefits.

Hong Jun-hyun, a professor from the School of Public Service of Chung-Ang University, said local governance not only includes Koreans in the region but also extends to foreign residents who meet certain conditions, noting local authorities are obliged to comprehend their opinions.

“Localities — in this case, Gwangju and South Jeolla — should prepare a mutually agreed definition of foreign residents [eligible for local supports and benefits],” Prof. Hong said.

Lim Dong-jin, a public administration professor at Soonchunhyang University and chair of the Korean Association for Immigration Policy and Administration, said that local authorities should institutionalize a process for collecting the opinions of foreign residents before the merger. He noted a Canadian example as an exemplary reference, adding that Toronto’s Newcomer Leadership Table has helped immigrants directly reflect their voices in key local policies.

“Data-based approach and policy design can help analyze their patterns of participation in the labor market, education and social services,” Lim said, adding that the approach can gauge whether the immigrants successfully adjusted after the merger.

“Participation, local governance and economic and social integration should all come together," Lim added. "Foreign residents must be considered key contributors to local development and the community."

“Progressive and extensive immigration and settlement benefits can help the soon-to-be integrated city overcome population decline and retain growth potential,” Prof. Lee said. “The anticipated synergy of the merger can happen among foreign residents.”

BY LEE SOO-JUNG [[email protected]]