Gyeonggi Migrant Portal Should Go Beyond AI Information to Connect Users With Counselors

Gyeonggi Province’s migrant portal should do more than answer questions with artificial intelligence. A forum in Suwon called for the service to connect users directly with professional counselors and local support agencies, particularly when cases become complex or urgent.

The portal began full operations on July 8 after a pilot phase. It provides information in 13 languages, including Korean, English, Chinese, Vietnamese and Uzbek, covering daily life, administration, employment, education, health care and welfare. It also offers a 24-hour chatbot, SOS counseling by staff, local communities, job and education information, administrative forms, and searches for nearby hospitals, support centers and immigration offices.

Kim Seok-ho, a sociology professor at Seoul National University, identified gaps between institutions, regions and policy updates as key challenges. Information is scattered across agencies, local governments have different support capacities, and changes in policy can reach practical guidance slowly.

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In private services, a plausible wrong answer is inconvenient, but in administration, a plausible wrong answer can make a person lose their residency status.

Kim Hwa-yeon of the Migration Policy Research Center proposed linking the full process, from information searches and document preparation to counseling, applications and referral to the responsible agency. Under that model, AI would handle basic guidance while counselors focused on residency concerns, labor-rights violations and family crises.

Won Jun-seok of Gyeonggi’s AI Convergence Industry Team said the chatbot and staff counseling should form one continuous user flow. “In private services, a plausible wrong answer is inconvenient, but in administration, a plausible wrong answer can make a person lose their residency status,” he said. Participants also reported awkward translations, identity-verification errors and access problems on some devices. A recent analysis of 106,618 counseling cases found that 78.4% to 80.1% involved issues the portal could potentially handle.

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The Gyeonggi Migrant Portal will continue working so that residents with migrant backgrounds, who have been marginalized in existing administrative systems, can participate freely and without discrimination.