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The number of children whose fathers or mothers are foreigners in families of diverse ethnic origin has more than doubled over the past two years. The fathers or mothers of 18,769 school students nationwide were foreigners as of April 30, according to a recent survey by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology.
This figure is more than double the 7,998 such children in April 2006, and up more than 5,000 from 13,445 last year. Elementary schoolchildren thus take up the largest portion at 15,804 (84 percent), followed by middle school students (2,205) and high school students (760).
The largest portion come from Gyeonggi Province (20 percent), followed by Seoul (12 percent), South Jeolla Province (10 percent), South Gyeongsang Province (8 percent), and South Chungcheong Province (8 percent).
Most of the children, or more than 90 percent, have foreign mothers. The non-Korean parents come mostly from Japan (41 percent), China (22.3 percent), and the Philippines (14 percent).
An Education Ministry official said, "Most children whose fathers or mothers are Japanese are from families who are members of the Unification Churchˇ±, which deliberately arranges weddings of members of different nationalities. The rest of the children are from multi-cultural families in rural areas, where single men often seek brides from abroad.
Some 1,402 children were born to two foreign parents, both legal and illegal aliens, up 16 percent from 2007. Most (38 percent) of these children are from Seoul, followed by Gyeonggi Province (30 percent), North Jeolla Province (8 percent), and South Gyeongsang Province (7.7 percent).
The parents of most (26 percent) of these are Mongolian, followed by Japanese (22 percent) and Chinese (20 percent).
The Education Ministry said the actual number of school-age children must be much larger if those who are not admitted to schools due to their parents' illegal status are taken into account.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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