President Lee: “I will carefully review the need for preferential treatment for multicultural families and whether it should be abolished”

[Financial News] President Lee Jae Myung said on the 28th, regarding local governments’ preferential-treatment programs for multicultural families, that he would “carefully review the matter, including consultations with local governments as well as revisions to enforcement decrees.”
That day, President Lee shared a link to a post on the online community FM Korea on X (formerly Twitter), writing, “The system under which local governments, including the Seoul Metropolitan Government, give preferential treatment to multicultural families has become an issue.”
The post questioned the need to give mothers from multicultural families preferential treatment at postpartum care centers. It included information showing that these mothers are placed in the same reservation-priority category as national merit honorees and their bereaved family members, among others, at Seoul-type Safe Postpartum Care Centers, as well as notices about reduced fees at some public postpartum care centers.
The post argued that while educational support for children from multicultural families is justified on the grounds of helping them adapt to society, extending preferential treatment to the use of postpartum care centers should be examined from the standpoint of fairness.
President Lee added, “I will carefully review, in consultation with local governments and including revisions to enforcement decrees, whether there is a strong need to go beyond ensuring that multicultural families are not disadvantaged and give them preferential treatment, and whether the preferential-treatment system should be abolished.” He added, “Thank you for the good point.”
[email protected] Seong Seok-woo Reporter