To boost birth rate, South Korea seeks to attract nannies from around the world

Beaucoup de Sud-Coréennes ne se projettent pas dans la parentalité, pour des raisons personnelles, politiques ou sociétales. W6/Getty Images

With less than one child per woman, South Korea has the lowest fertility rate in the world. If current trends continue, the Asian country risks seeing its population halved by the end of the century. Aware of this challenge, the South Korean government is multiplying initiatives to boost the birth rate. The latest one aims to facilitate childcare for young children.

South Korea has launched a program to facilitate the arrival of foreign nannies in the country. This initiative has notably allowed a hundred nannies from the Philippines to settle in the Land of the Morning Calm to work there, according to Bloomberg. The Yoon Suk-yeol government plans to bring 1,200 babysitters to South Korea by mid-2025.

The arrival of these nannies is supposed to make life easier for South Korean parents. Indeed, many complain about not being able to find childcare for their children. Due to a lack of space in childcare facilities or resources, some mothers decide to interrupt their careers to look after their children until they start school. A forced choice that weighs on their professional development in a country where people live to work, and which discourages women from motherhood.

A life without children

Indeed, many South Korean women do not see themselves as parents, for personal, political or societal reasons, and envisage a life without children. More than 60% of 25-45 year-olds say they do not want to have children, according to an Ipsos survey relayed by the Korea Economic Daily Global Edition. Their desire to not have children is disturbing in a society where the parental norm remains very strong, even if it is increasingly accepted by the younger generation.

South Korean authorities hope that the arrival of foreign nannies will provide some relief to the country's parents. But this initiative is greeted with skepticism among the local population, with many pointing out the prohibitive cost of hiring a babysitter from abroad. The Seoul Metropolitan Government estimates that families will spend 2.38 million won per month (about $1,800) to hire foreign nannies for eight hours a day, according to Bloomberg. That's half the average monthly income of South Korean households, according to the financial news agency, which is based on figures from Statistics Korea.

The foster program is one of several measures announced by the Yoon Suk-yeol government to try to boost the birth rate. Since 2006, the country has spent nearly 280 trillion won (200 billion euros) on public policies to try to halt population decline.