| Title |
Roles of the Community Facilities for Foreigners as a Platform for Urban Globalization |
| Authors |
Choi, Sung-Jin ; Han, Sun-Sheng |
| DOI |
https://doi.org/10.5659/JAIK_PD.2019.35.6.81 |
| Keywords |
Seoul Global Center ; Community Facility ; Globalization ; Global City |
| Abstract |
Globalization has diversified ethnic composition thus increased the risk of conflicts and socio-political instability in global cities. However, still the status of community facility in a global city is unclear despite its critical role to build sustainable community in global era. In Seoul, as a reaction of globalization, 19 community facilities known as the ‘Seoul Global Center’ have been established since 2007 by Seoul Metropolitan Government. These facilities have started to provide basic foreigner services but been transformed to foreigner service hub with multiple functions in terms of a living, a business, a labour, etc. This study explores the role of the community facility for foreigners by using the Seoul Global Center as a case study, conducting a site observation, an interview(13 staff) and a questionnaire(148 visitors). The findings are the community facility functions as a ‘global platform’ in forms of a policy tool for implementing the urban globalization strategy, a mediator connecting foreign migrants with local communities, an applicant for successful settlement of foreign residents, an incubator that grows human and social capital, and a base for collecting and aggregating information on foreign migrants and forming new local identities. |