Dealing with the growing influx of foreign professionals from Western nations, manual workers and mail-order slave wives purchased through 'introduction agencies' from Asia, the Government has recognized that Korea is slowly turning into a 'multicultural society', a fact compounded by low Korean birthrates and cross-breeding which are expected to start to lower the number of pure-blooded Koreans by 2015.
There had been an expectation within Government that non-Koreans would adopt a Korean way of life, but that this would still represent a multicultural society since they would never be treated like Koreans. However, as immigrants have settled into new lives, they have been slow to see the superior advantages of the Korean life, and there is even evidence that they have kept practicing strange foreign religions and other odd habits. In some cases, Korean women who married Western men who chose to stay in Korea, have even been known to question whether the Korean way of doing things is better than a foreign way.
Professor Kim, an expert on Demographics said that he expected the number of crimes committed in Korea to double by 2020. Reports of sexual assaults are also on the rise.
While largely underground, rumors persist that foreigners have formed private groups where they openly criticize Korean society without the threat of corporate lawsuits, visa cancellation and attacks from Korean netizens who are secretly tasked by the Government with maintaining social order. Politicians are worried that if such foreigners become more outspoken and are allowed to actively participate in Korean politics, rather than only being allowed to vote in limited circumstances but not campaign, foreign ideas may start to be aired on the democratic stage where one senior politician said "anything could happen." There is general agreement among politicians that if foreign ideas start to influence Korean politics, it would clearly be highly undemocratic.
The Statistics Office will continue monitoring the situation, but it's unclear what politicians can do if the figures keep rising. "We may just have to stop collecting the statistics", admitted one employee.
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