국내체류외국인의 참정권과 법적 보호

Korea enacted ‘Fundamental Act for Resident Foreigners’ Treatment’(2007), ‘Support Act for Multicultural Family’(2008) etc. to integrate resident foreigners into our society, and revised ‘Public Officials Election Act’(2005) to recognize local suffrage for their integration into local political community. In addition, ‘Local Government Act’ recognized the rights of residents such as the rights of referendum vote, public recall vote, popular initiative etc. to resident foreigners. This series of legal and institutional arrangements is considered rare in Asia. But now more than a decade has passed, and it appears that there are some problems to be improved, as follows. First, since the regulations of the related laws are usually declaratory and discretionary, it makes suspicious the national will or the effectiveness of law to integrate resident foreigners into our society. Second, because only those who are eligible for legal stay are eligible for the law, discrimination in the workplace or human rights of illegal immigrants is still at a blind spot in legal protection. Third, for local political participation of resident foreigners, they should be fulfilled the requirement of ‘acquisition of permanent residence status + 3 years,’ that is too stringent. As the result, only 2.69% of foreigners were allowed to participate in the actual elections of 2014. Therefore this requirement should be eased somewhat, for their participation in local politics to be more substantial.