Using nationality data from the Population Census, this study calculated a township-level “Population Diversity Index.” The migrant-background population is steadily rising and spreading beyond the industrial zones of the Seoul metropolitan area into rural communities, fishing villages, and tourist destinations. Among children aged 0-5 years old, the share of foreign-born youngsters is increasing rapidly, indicating more active family migration and settlement.
Access to childcare, however, varies greatly by location. Although declining birth rates have slightly eased overall supply pressures, many neighborhoods with large numbers of foreign or multicultural families still suffer from a clear “high-demand, low-supply” imbalance. Usage rates underline this gap: about 60% for Korean children versus roughly 40% for foreign-born children.
Factor analysis shows that additional childcare subsidies from local governments and nearby multicultural or family centers significantly boost enrolment among migrant-background preschoolers. Areas with higher proportions of marriage-migrant households also display higher uptake, underscoring the importance of local networks and information channels. Nevertheless, complicated procedures, Korean-only information, and shortages of interpreters or cultural mediators leave many families under-served.
Therefore, beyond expanding facilities and subsidies, integrated policies are needed to improve cultural accessibility and information reach: multilingual guidance with streamlined applications, on-site interpreters and cultural mediators, and culturally responsive teachers and learning materials.

In recent years, the labor market has undergone rapid diversification in employment, with various forms of labor increasingly transcending the boundaries of traditional employment relationships. Among these, so-called “One-person Non-wage Workers”― including the self-employed, platform workers, and freelancers ― are legally classified as the self-employed but often perform labor in a manner that closely resembles that of wage workers, exhibiting a high degree of dependency. Despite this, they are frequently excluded from the protections of labor and social security laws due to the absence of formal employment contracts, placing them in blind spots within social insurance systems such as the National Pension (NP)
This situation raises fundamental concerns about institutional coherence and equity between the labor market and public pension systems. In particular, the structure and administration of the NP have been criticized for their inability to adequately respond to the evolving nature of the labor market. Although the NP serves as the core institution in South Korea’s old-age income security system, it has struggled to provide sufficient coverage for vulnerable labor groups with unstable income patterns and ambiguous legal status, such as dependent contractors.
To ensure both the sustainability and inclusiveness of the NP, it is imperative to conduct a thorough investigation into the realities of these workers and to fundamentally reconsider the institutional design. This study seeks to analyze the labor conditions and pension status of one-person non-wage workers, identify barriers to their enrollment in the NP, and suggest policy directions for improving their coverage within the system.