-Highest honor among 66 local governments, practical support program for community integration receives high praise-

Incheon Metropolitan City (Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok) announced that it won an Encouragement Award at the ‘2025 Local Government Foreign Resident Support Excellence Case Competition’ hosted by the Ministry of the Interior and Safety on December 1st for its ‘Foreign Worker Settlement GPS Governance, Policy & Safety!’ program.

This competition featured fierce competition, with only 8 cases advancing to the finals after expert pre-screening and public online voting (ON National Communication) from 66 local governments out of 226 nationwide that submitted foreign resident support cases. Incheon City won the Encouragement Award by presenting its innovative ‘Foreign Worker Settlement GPS’ model.

Notably, Incheon City has implemented systematic and practical initiatives including: ▲ opening a Foreign Worker Center for Root Industries, ▲ producing and distributing multilingual safety manuals, ▲ expanding Korean language education (with 2,613 participants), and ▲ supporting the transition to skilled worker visas (E-7-4). These efforts focused on integrating foreign workers not merely as workplace labor but as neighbors within the local community, earning high praise. Providing practical assistance for foreign workers to successfully settle into the community is analyzed as the key success factor.

Following last year's achievement, Incheon City has won the Minister of the Interior and Safety Award for the second consecutive year for its ‘AI-based Medical Support Service for Foreigners’. Notably, this year, alongside the Minister's Award, the city received 30 million won in special grants. This funding will serve as crucial seed money to further expand and enhance its foreign resident support policies.

Mayor Yoo Jeong-bok stated, “Our policy design, which aims to help foreign workers become neighbors in the community rather than just workplace labor, received high praise,” adding, “We will continue to strengthen tangible settlement support on the ground and do our utmost to make Incheon a city where foreigners want to live.”