Lee vows to expand multicultural family support while reviewing blanket priority policies

President Lee Jae Myung has reiterated that the government will continue support for multicultural families while reviewing policies that grant them blanket priority access to public facilities against fairness standards. The intent, Lee said, is not to scale back support for multicultural families but to distinguish between measures that compensate for discrimination and separate preferential treatment, and to revise the system accordingly.

In a post on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday, Lee wrote that "listening to voices saying some multicultural family support policies contain problems that are hard to accept, and calling for corrections where problems exist, cannot be considered measures to exclude or discriminate against multicultural families." Lee argued that where a system contains unreasonable elements or blind spots, those should be corrected rather than shielded from scrutiny simply on grounds of identity.

Lee has consistently emphasized that the purpose of multicultural family support is to restore parity with non-multicultural households. Policies addressing difficulties specific to multicultural families — such as cultural adaptation, bilingual education and community participation — should continue to be expanded and strengthened, Lee said. At the same time, Lee indicated that policies granting multicultural families unconditional priority access to public daycare centers or postnatal care facilities could be examined for their necessity and fairness.

The controversy began when Lee, on Wednesday, cited a post from FM Korea, a conservative online community, about booking priority rules at Seoul-type safe postnatal care centers. Lee said the government would review whether to abolish the policy granting multicultural mothers priority access to public postnatal care centers, including through consultations with local governments and revisions to enforcement decrees. Criticism followed over the appropriateness of citing the post and the possibility of reducing support for multicultural families.

On Sunday, Lee said that "if partial unfairness in a specific area or administrative blind spots are left unaddressed under the pretext of protecting minorities, they can become fodder for far-right hate-mongering." Social trust that welfare programs operate according to common sense and principle, Lee explained, is what makes citizens' solidarity and willingness to share the fiscal burden possible.

No decision has been made to abolish or overhaul preferential policies for multicultural families. The government and local authorities are at the stage of examining the intent behind the policies, how they are actually administered, and whether they treat eligible groups equitably. Lee has said the government will correct flawed policies while continuing to strengthen support that addresses the vulnerabilities of multicultural families.