A new report has found the small but dense nation where international immigrants are flocking to extremely high demand.
The country, which has seen a nearly 4,000% increase in foreign residents over the past three decades, is not a usual European suspect like Spain or England.
It’s South Korea, where a population of 52 million welcomed nearly 2 million foreigners this year, the Express reported on data from insurance company William Russell.
The nation in the shadow of Kim Jong Un’s North Korean regime hosted the Pyeongchang Olympics in 2018 and is also known internationally for viral K-pop music like Psy’s “Gangnam Style” and TV shows like “Squid Game.”
South Korea is also prized for its exotic fries and the aforementioned Korean barbeque, cooking like ju-gojon — a byproduct of American soldiers’ influence in the country during the Korean War era some seven decades ago.
While the Asian Peninsula is experiencing an explosion of foreigners, domestically, birth rates have fallen to their lowest level since 1984.
The nation is experiencing what the Korean Times called a “population crisis” in a recent article on calls to create a ministry to manage immigration volumes. Nearby, almost 6,000 Russians sought asylum in South Korea in 2023, CNN reported.
A man from the United Kingdom who recently moved to Cheongju to learn English praised South Korea’s low living costs.
Emotionally, though, one Reddit user said that finding love under the 38th parallel has been the hardest part of their journey.
“I have been here for 8 years, I have no prior knowledge of Korean culture or the Korean language. Finding a job was good, finding a house was good, opening a bank was good, getting a phone was good, learning Korean was good, surviving in the countryside was perfectly fine,” they commented in one thread.
“Literally, the only constant problem I have is dating. In 8 years, I’ve been on 3 dates and all of them have left me haunted after the date.”
After South Korea, Colombia saw the largest percentage increase in the last 30 years from 104,277 to 1,905,393.
Chile followed with a change of 1,430.23%, followed by Bulgaria with 757.10%, and Spain in fifth place with 732.78%.
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