"We're going to see the kids, so we're going to do the laundry and wash the dishes, and I want someone to do that."

<New Story> This is the answer of a working mother who was interviewed by a reporter. Many women struggle to balance work life and childcare after giving birth. Even if you are fortunate enough to receive help from those around you, you cannot always place the burden of parenting on the individual. Priority must be given to the establishment of a system that can fundamentally support it.

The "100 million won per month foreign domestic workers" law was proposed in this context, explains Assemblyman Cho Jong-hoon. Referring to the example of Singapore, which has been applying the foreign domestic worker system since the late 70s, the idea is to open the Korean domestic worker market to foreigners. It is argued that by eliminating the application of the minimum wage to foreign domestic workers, the financial burden of childcare and domestic work can be reduced, and a rebound in the birth rate can be expected.

However, the bill faced fierce criticism upon its introduction. The labor community criticizes the exclusion of the minimum wage for foreigners as racism based on an underestimation of domestic work. There are many other issues involved. Along with language and cultural differences, the problem of unlawful presence also raises. It is pointed out that unlike Singapore, which has strict immigration control due to the characteristics of the city-state, it is difficult to apply this system to Korea, where the number of illegal immigrants recorded 40,0 last year.

While expectations and criticism intersect, we cannot accept the bill unconditionally or point it out as anachronistic. This is because the root cause of the bill's introduction cannot be overlooked. With a total fertility rate of 78.10 last year, this is a serious problem of low births that is heading towards a steep population cliff. In the midst of the fact that 1,587 elementary schools with fewer than 100 new students nationwide and schools are closing in Seoul one after another, voices are growing that it is time to find a solution to a paradigm different from the direction discussed so far.

This week, SBS <New Story> weighs the effectiveness of the "100 million won per month foreign domestic workers" bill, which has been at the center of the topic, and explores alternatives to the problem of low births, which is the root cause of the bill's proposal.


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