[The Editors' Verdict] Attracting Immigrants Is Also a War

The US and Europe Open Doors in Times of Conflict
Establishing an Immigration Agency Is Already Overdue
Political Leaders Remain Complacent

Since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war last year, Cyprus has been emerging as a new IT hub in Europe. The reason for the sudden IT industry boom in this small island nation located in the eastern Mediterranean, where tourism is the main source of income, is that Russian IT professionals have immigrated to Cyprus to avoid conscription.

According to The Washington Post (WP), more than 50,000 high-level Russian IT professionals have flooded into Cyprus since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war. In some Russian IT companies, thousands of employees have immigrated together along with the company itself.

Not only due to the Russia-Ukraine war but also whenever conflicts arise worldwide, the United States and Western advanced countries have been opening their doors wider to attract immigrants. After the 2019 Hong Kong pro-democracy protests, the UK successfully attracted 100,000 high-level financial and IT professionals from Hong Kong. Canada declared it would accept more than 1.5 million new immigrants over three years following the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war and has succeeded in attracting nearly one million immigrants in the past two years.

In Europe, Germany, which belatedly lowered labor immigration barriers starting in 2005, now has over 10 million immigrants out of a total working-age population of 46 million. Refugees who fled from various parts of the Middle East after the 2011 "Arab Spring" have now become valuable labor forces. Middle Eastern refugees, who have an average total fertility rate of over 3.0, are significantly contributing not only to Germany but also to raising the birth rates across Europe.

Even Israel, which is engaged in conflict with the Palestinian armed group Hamas, is actively encouraging IT talents born in the Gaza Strip to immigrate to Israel. Amid the global trend of low birth rates and aging populations, all countries are competing to attract immigrants to secure high-level human resources, which have become more precious than rare earth elements.

Japan, which has been negative about immigration and emphasized ethnic purity as much as South Korea, established its first-ever immigration agency, the "Immigration Services Agency," in 2019 and significantly relaxed immigration regulations.

However, South Korea, which records one of the lowest birth rates in history at around 0.7, is only now beginning discussions on establishing an immigration agency. Although the number of foreign residents in Korea has exceeded 2.5 million, accounting for 5% of the population, the country has yet to set up a control tower to integrate immigration and immigration administration.

Even if South Korea establishes an immigration agency immediately and actively pursues immigrant attraction, it is uncertain how many immigrants it can attract amid competition with advanced countries, while the political sphere still shows complacency.

There is no guarantee that immigrants will flood in immediately just because previously closed immigration policies are suddenly opened. To attract them, it is necessary first to consider from the immigrants' perspective what policy advantages can be offered compared to other advanced countries or major Asian countries.

It must be recognized once again that human resources are not raw material commodities like rare earths or oil that can be bought immediately by paying a premium, and the issue of establishing an immigration agency should not be wasted as a subject of political strife. South Korea no longer has time to waste.