President Lee: “We will review whether there is a strong need to extend preferential treatment to multicultural families” - 경향신문

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President Lee under daily scrutiny for his words and writing President Lee Jae Myung attends the 2nd plenary meeting of the National Life and Safety Committee held at the Blue House on the 28th and reviews materials. Blue House photo press corps

President Lee Jae Myung on the 28th shared on X a post from the online community FM Korea suggesting there is a problem with a policy that gives preferential access for multicultural families to public postpartum care centers, stating, “We will carefully review whether there is a strong need to grant even preferential treatment to multicultural families.” This followed his remark at the Cabinet meeting the previous day that “foreign workers do not greatly help the national economy,” adding to perceptions that he is separating migrants from citizens.

That day on X, President Lee shared a post on FM Korea titled “Amid sour public sentiment right now: the ‘admission priority for multicultural mothers at postpartum care centers on par with persons of national merit and their bereaved families’,” saying, “Policies by local governments, including the Seoul Metropolitan Government, that favor multicultural families are becoming an issue.”

President Lee added, “We will conduct an in-depth review, including consultation with local governments and even possible revisions to enforcement decrees, on whether there is a strong need to go beyond preventing harm to multicultural families to granting them preferential treatment, and whether the preferential system should be abolished,” and wrote to the poster, “Thank you for the good point.”

The post Lee cited stated that, in the reservation priority list for the Seoul Safe Postpartum Care Centers, multicultural mothers are included in the second-priority tier. The author wrote, “I truly do not understand why a multicultural mother has the same priority as persons of national merit and multi-child families,” and asked, “Why is the priority higher than twins (third priority)?”

It is the first time since taking office that President Lee has quoted a post from FM Korea, a strongly conservative-leaning community.

In another post on X the same day, President Lee shared a user’s post to the effect of, “You say you take FM Korea comments as criticism, but are you going to fight with the supporters who have stood by you until now?”, and countered, “Whoever makes it, a good point is a good point; what needs fixing must be fixed, and mistakes must be corrected regardless of sides.”

Shin Kyung-Ah, a sociology professor at Hallym University, said in a phone call, “Because the president’s approval rating is low, he made a populist remark,” adding, “Stoking a sentiment that seeks to separate foreigners and Koreans is the core of far-right politics in the West.” Kwon Soo-Hyun, an assistant professor at Gyeongsang National University, said, “It sounds like pitting citizens against multicultural families and foreigners,” adding, “He shifted the blame for the shortage of public postpartum care centers onto a socially vulnerable group that is easy to criticize.”

At the Cabinet meeting the previous day, while addressing labor shortages in farming and fishing communities, President Lee said, “Even if you bring in foreign workers and have them (work), it does not greatly help the national economy.” He made the remark in the context of suggesting the government consider subsidizing labor costs for citizens working in rural areas to guarantee monthly income of about 5 million won.

As controversy grew, at 11:53 p.m. President Lee posted on X, “Considering contributions to solving employment issues, stimulating consumption, and boosting domestic demand, foreign workers who remit funds abroad do help the domestic economy, but not ‘greatly’ compared to domestic workers,” adding, “We need to devise ways to increase citizen employment through wage subsidies.”

President Lee particularly emphasized, “There is a ‘big’ difference between saying ‘it does not help’ and saying ‘it does not help greatly’,” and demanded a correction and apology from the Hankyoreh newspaper that reported on the remarks. The Hankyoreh revised its headline from “President Lee: Foreign workers do not help the national economy” to “do not help greatly.” Later that day on X, Lee posted again, saying, “If you changed the headline, should you not explain why you changed it, and if it was wrong enough to correct, should you not apologize?”

Experts pointed out that the notion that foreign workers remit all their earnings to their home countries is not accurate. According to the Ministry of Data and Statistics’ ‘2025 Survey on the Living Conditions and Employment of Immigrants’, remittances at home and abroad amounted to 25.5% of the total income of all foreigners. Analyses also indicate that foreign workers’ domestic consumption contributes to local economies. The Korea Immigration Policy Institute projected this year’s economic ripple effect of foreign workers at 162 trillion won.

Hong Sung-Soo, a professor at Sookmyung Women’s University, wrote on Facebook, “Even considering the broader context, this is a remark that cannot be justified at all.” He added, “Their labor, which fills jobs shunned by Koreans in rural areas and contributes to producing agricultural goods, already creates added value,” writing, “Even setting their consumption entirely aside, migrant workers in rural areas perform labor that is crucial to sustaining rural economies and supplying agricultural products to cities.”

Concerns were also raised that discriminatory perceptions toward migrant workers could be reinforced. Kim Na-Yul, spokesperson for the Justice Party, said in a commentary that day, “A single word from the president can serve as a pretext for someone’s discrimination and as a pretense to justify humiliation and unfair treatment in the workplace.”

Ryu Deok-Hyeon, Blue House assistant for fiscal planning, wrote on X that day, “It is inappropriate to cut off the context and escalate this into foreigner-hate controversy.”