Guided by its vision “A Global City and Leader in Korea,” the city of Ansan makes pioneering efforts to develop policies for non-nationals and make the city a place for the co-prosperity of nationals and non-nationals. Ansan City sees non-national policy as one of its key policy areas and has the nation’s only bureau-level organisation responsible for non-national policy with 33 staff members.

city offers one-stop administrative services ranging from administration to civil petition, immigration, labour, health, leisure, and finance and pursues a range of projects intended to improve the quality of their lives and social inclusion in the fields of education, culture, welfare, and human rights.

A municipal community service centre for non-nationals, the largest in South Korea, supports 15 languages (English, Chinese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Russian, Uzbek, Kazak, Kyrgyz, Pakistani, Thai, Philippine, Sri Lankan, Cambodian, Mongolian, and Nepalese), and hires native speakers of respective languages in proportion to the sizes of ethnic groups in Ansan. More languages will be supported as the city’s ethnic group composition changes. The centre also offers consultation services to help resolve disputes and arguments. It handles 33,000 cases annually, covering a range of topics from wages to retirement allowances, occupational accidents, healthcare, and legal assistance.

Besides, Ansan City hires non-nationals for the city’s public administration, for example in the fields of security in areas densely populated with non-nationals, welfare facilities for non-nationals, and educational facilities. In addition, a number of non-nationals are hired under the city’s own employment initiatives. The city police hired two women immigrants under a special appointment programme intended to promote mutual communication and ensures services are tailored to them.

As the largest enterprise city in the Republic of Korea, Ansan has is homeplace to many intercultural workers. For that reason, Ansan city offers human rights education to staff of companies hiring intercultural workers and provides interpretation services for them. There is also a counselling centre to help resolve challenges and issues surrounding labour, wages, and occupational accidents.

In the field of education, Ansan City offers free school meals to all students including those of foreign nationality. The city also offers support for funeral services for the death of non-nationals without local families or friends and provides emergency aid to non-nationals in urgent need of living costs, residential costs, or medical expenses.