As debate continues over unemployment benefits paid to foreign workers, 90% of Chinese nationals who received the benefits last year were long-term residents with established lives in South Korea. Contrary to claims that foreigners stay briefly, collect jobless benefits and leave the country, the data suggest that workers settled in Korea drew on the social safety net after losing jobs in sectors with unstable employment, such as construction and food service.
According to an analysis of foreign employment insurance data released by the Ministry of Employment and Labor on the 26th, 82.7%, or 612,000, of the 740,000 ethnic Koreans from China and Chinese nationals holding work-eligible visas last year had long-term residency status, including permanent residency (F-5), overseas Korean status (F-4) and marriage migration (F-6).
Among Chinese nationals who actually received unemployment benefits, 90.4% held settlement-type residency status. That means long-term residents with established lives in Korea, rather than short-term visitors who leave when their work visas expire, accounted for the bulk of recipients. Of all foreign recipients last year, 85.4% had been enrolled in employment insurance for a year or longer, and 45.4% had been enrolled for three years or more.
The relatively high share of Chinese nationals among recipients reflects the employment structure of the industries where they mainly work. An analysis of the workplaces they left showed construction accounted for 28.8% and lodging and food service for 19.8%, together making up 48.6% of the total. Compared with Korean recipients, the share in construction was twice as high and the share in lodging and food service three times as high. Because they are concentrated in industries vulnerable to a construction slump, weak conditions for small businesses and seasonal factors, they are relatively more exposed to the risk of job loss.
The scale of benefit claims by Chinese nationals was also small relative to the overall work-eligible population. Of the 740,000 Chinese workers with work-eligible visas last year, 13,000 actually received unemployment benefits, or 1.8% of the total.
Growth in the number of recipients was also modest compared with the increase in foreign enrollment in employment insurance. From 2021 to 2025, the number of foreign nationals enrolled in employment insurance rose 158.8%, from 177,000 to 459,000. Over the same period, the premiums they paid climbed 90.8%, from 92.9 billion won to 177.3 billion won.
By contrast, the number of foreign recipients of unemployment benefits rose just 8.9%, from 15,421 to 16,789. Payouts increased 13.4%, from 100 billion won to 113.4 billion won, far below the growth rates for enrollment and premiums.
The share of foreigners in total unemployment benefit spending has also stayed at around 1% for a fifth year. Of the 1.72 million people who received jobless benefits last year, about 1% were foreign nationals, and foreign payouts accounted for just 0.9% of the 12.4 trillion won total. The share of repeat recipients who claimed benefits three or more times was 1.9% among foreigners, one-third of the overall average of 6.6% including Korean nationals.
"As the inflow of foreign workers and the expansion of mandatory employment insurance enrollment have increased premium payments, total unemployment benefit payouts have also risen slightly, but the share of total recipients and spending has remained at around 1% for several years," a Labor Ministry official said. "While we are strictly blocking fraudulent claims and perfunctory job-search activity through measures such as linking immigration data systems, the rights of workers who paid their premiums properly and then lost their jobs involuntarily must be protected regardless of nationality."
