South Korea faced a major economic crisis and subsequent labor unrest in 1997. A general strike was called to oppose a proposed amendment to the labor law that, on the pretext of ensuring international competitiveness of the Korean economy, would result in massive layoffs. Due to the financial crisis, the year ended with the biggest-ever IMF bailout.
Before the economic crisis of 1997, South Korea's postwar economy had been the envy of most developing countries. By using the Japanese model of high savings, close cooperation between government and business, and export-oriented growth, the country quickly transformed itself from a poor war-torn nation into an industrial and technical powerhouse. GNP per capita in South Korea had risen from a mere US$200 in 1960 to more than US$11,500 by 1996.
But rapid growth hid a much darker side of development. Close cooperation between government and business also fostered a system of corruption and speculation. The Korean economic crisis escalated through a series of marked events in 1997: business bankruptcies and employment insecurity; a sharp rise in interest rates, dramatic fluctuations of the exchange rate, and a collapse in stock prices; exodus of foreign currency, a contraction of foreign bank loans and growing difficulty in foreign debt settlements. Each step in the escalation of the crisis brought the Korean economy closer to an overall meltdown. To stem the crisis, Korea began negotiating with the IMF for a huge bailout. In December 1997, Seoul agreed to a US$57 billion rescue package, but the IMF insisted the aid be equated with reforms in South Korea's financial system. The changes endorsed by the IMF are expected to cause mass unemployment. According to the National Statistical Office, the nation's jobless rate reached 3.1% last December, the highest figure in 54 months.
The government announced that the economic growth rate for 1998 is expected to be around 3% and unemployment at 3.9%. However, various other private economic research institutions have presented a much more pessimistic outlook. Daewoo Economic Research Institute forecasts 1998 economic growth rate of 2.2% and unemployment rate at 5.0%. From these figures, it is possible to estimate that unemployment will reach about 1.2 million people, a sharp increase from the current level of 470,000.
Migrant workers in Korea are categorized into three groups: documented migrants, trainees, undocumented migrants.
Documented migrant workers are the only legal foreign workers in Korea. They are mostly from the developed countries with particular skill or expertise. Professionals and entertainers enter Korea under this category.
Since the late 1980s, many undocumented migrants have been entering the Korean labor market. This led the government to introduce the Industrial Technical Training Program (ITTP) in 1991, which allows the entry of trainees from developing countries to learn industrial and technical skills.
In 1991 the government amended Article 12 of the Immigration Law to allow foreigners to become "Industrial Technical Trainees" for 6 months with the possibility of a six month visa extension. They are brought to Korea through branch offices of Korean big companies which have direct investment projects in the migrants' home countries. These trainees are paid the same salary as they are paid in their own countries. The number of such trainees is rapidly increasing due to lax recruiting regulations.
In 1993, the government allowed the importation of 20,000 additional trainees in response to pressure from small and medium sized companies. Control of this trainee program -- from recruitment and placement to management -- was granted to KFSB.
KFSB designed its own trainee recruitment system with an inter-ministry body composed of the Ministries of Justice, Labor, Trade and Industry and the Central Economic Planning Office to address the needs of Korea's small and medium enterprises in coping with an export economy. This system claims to provide: a) minimum trainee allowance (salary) of US$260 per month b) pre-departure training and arrival orientation c) establishment of on-site monitoring office d) private insurance coverage e) regular working hours (eight hours per day).
The majority of migrant workers in Korea are undocumented (136,089 or 58% out of 234,193 as of June 1997). Many come to Korea with tourist visas or with the purpose of visiting relatives in Korea. Others are Korean-Chinese and Chinese smuggled into Korea. (The total number of smuggled people is approximately between 20,000 - 30,000. Since 1994 2,270 foreigners have been caught trying to enter the country).
Other undocumented workers include former trainees who overstayed their visas and thus became "illegal" workers. Almost 35% of the trainees flee their designated working place due to unpaid allowances, maltreatment, beatings, and other human rights violations. According to a KFSB report, 81,111 trainees entered Korea under KFSB system from 1984 to July 1997. Among them 27,485 (34%) fled their working place.
Filipina dancers are reportedly used in dance bars near US military bases in Korea. Currently there are some 43,000 US soldiers deployed in 38 military camps in Korea. Dancers are paid around US$ 550 with US$ 300 for tips. They must pay back US$ 1,000 in commission within their first six months. Their working visa is only valid for six months.
Filipina dancers have been employed in Korea since August 1996. The Korean Special Tourism Association recruits them from the Philippines. Aside from these documented dancers, there are also many undocumented migrant women involved in prostitution. Many come to Korea on a 15-day tourist pass and simply overstay their visas. They typically work around the small factories before eventually working in the brothels near US military camps.
Under the current Korean law, employment of foreigners, except for professionals such as English instructors and professional entertainers, is strictly prohibited. Therefore, it is theoretically impossible for foreigners to get jobs as laborers in Korea. However, there are roughly 140,000 undocumented workers in Korea.
In fact the Korean government has given tacit consent to undocumented migrant workers to make up for the labor shortage, especially in the manufacturing sector. For example, the Korean government postponed the deportation of migrant workers four times in 1994 in order to maintain the supply of cheap labor.
Many migrant workers come to Korea as industrial trainees only to become undocumented after escaping from the factories. Legal trainees do not have the right to change their workplace regardless of the conditions, and undocumented workers usually receive much more in industrial accident compensation than industrial trainees. Moreover, industrial trainees must leave Korea after a maximum of only three years, unlike undocumented workers. The Korean government maintains a double standard by allowing trainees without admitting them as laborers, while giving tacit consent for undocumented workers to fill the labor shortage in 3D industries.
On September 9, 1997 the Korean government approved amendments to the Immigration Control Law granting foreign workers the right to organize, to bargain collectively and to strike, effective January 1, 1998. Under the amendment, foreign workers obtain union rights after they have completed a two-year probationary period as industrial trainees. They would also be covered by the Labor Standard Law, the Medical Insurance Law and the Industrial Accident Insurance Law, and be eligible for severance pay and vacation allowances. However, the government later announced that it would not import foreign industrial trainees in 1998 because of the economic crisis and the "social problems" caused by runaway trainees and undocumented foreign workers. The Justice Ministry is considering an amnesty plan under which the undocumented foreigners would report to the ministry, be repatriated, and imported again later. According to the ministry, this would permit the foreigners to be shifted from the service sector to manufacturing, where they are needed.
Many undocumented migrants are employed under dangerous working conditions in small factories with long working hours. But the most common problem among undocumented migrant workers is unpaid salary; and due to their illegal status they are unable to file complaints. Moreover, since the current labor law is not applicable to undocumented workers, employers do not have any legal responsibility to pay wages. Besides industrial accidents, various health problems - mainly due to unsanitary working and living environments - often result in deaths.
Since trainees are not regarded as laborers, they are severely underpaid; salaries are much lower than those of undocumented workers. With such low wages they are unable to pay back commission fees to the employment agency. This is a primary reason why many become illegal. To prevent trainees from escaping, many employers confiscate the trainees' passports. As trainees, they are restricted to manual labor in factories to fill the job vacancies which Koreans are unwilling to take.
There are reportedly 5,000 Korean women married to undocumented male migrants. However, their marriages are unregistered due to discriminatory marriage laws in Korea. When a Korean woman marries a foreign man, she must register her marriage in her husband's country. Thus, depending on the marriage laws of her husband's country, she may have to adopt the nationality of her husband. This means that she must then leave Korea to live in a foreign land -- as a "non-Korean." In contrast, when a Korean man marries a foreign woman, the foreign woman becomes eligible for Korean nationality immediately after registration of marriage. They can then stay in Korea. Under this current patriarchal marriage law, many South Korean women declare their children illegitimate, so that their children can get education, medical care and other benefits reserved for Korean citizens.
Chronology of major events spearheaded by NGOs in response to migrant issues:
Activity: Demonstration at Myongdong Catholic Cathedral.
Issue: To bring public attention on problems of migrant workers in Korea by demanding and exposing problems on:
a) industrial accident compensation;
b) low wages;
c) violence committed in working place e.g. beatings, abuse, maltreatment etc.
Results: Many undocumented workers (including the injured and unpaid) and migrant advocates participated; led government to expand the Industrial Technical Trainee System and to declare that migrant workers (except technical trainees) will be covered by industrial accident compensation.
Activity: Demonstration of Nepalese technical trainees and migrant advocates.
Demands:
a) improvement of working conditions;
b) salary raise;
c) availability of accident insurance for technical trainees;
d) abolition of forced overtime work.
Results:
a) increased efforts to improve the living condi- tion of workers;
b) salaries were increased slightly;
c) salaries were given directly to workers;
e) forced overtime work abolished in writing, but no means to monitor abuses;
f) technical trainees covered by industrial accident policy.
Event: 22 migrant support organizations established the Joint Committee for Migrant Workers in Korea (JCMK). The mission of JCMK includes: to change government policy on migrant workers, to educate the public on migrant workers' issues, to protect migrant workers' rights, solidarity among migrant support groups, and finally to empower migrant workers. JCMK subsequently spearheaded lobbying activities, campaigns, demonstrations, public hearings, etc.
Activity: 37-day demonstration with 50 participants, including migrant workers.
Demands:
a) legislation of Migrant Workers Protection Law;
b) abolition of trainee system;
c) general amnesty to undocumented migrant workers;
d) release of Rev. Kim Hae Sung and Ms Yang Hye Woo, both arrested for "interference of official duties" for preventing immigration officials from arresting an undocumented Nepalese couple.
Results: Government promised to introduce work permit system; situation of migrant workers
exposed to media and public.
Activity: About 50 migrant workers and advocates staged a sit-in demonstration, six people went on hunger strike and eight people shaved their heads (a strong symbolic gesture of protest in Korea).
Demands:
a) legislation of Migrant Workers Protection Law;
b) abolition of the Industrial Technical Trainee System and implementation of a "work permit" system that would guarantee basic labor rights and benefits to migrant workers;
c) amnesty to undocumented workers;
d) full compensation to victims of industrial accidents.
Results: After a reshuffle, the government announced the adoption of a new "Trainee-Employment System," effective from 1 January 1998. It includes:
1) expanding the recruitment of foreign workers through two other organizations (KFSB was previously the only authorized body to get trainees).
2) allowing trainees to apply as "workers," provided that: a) they are evaluated by employers as "good" workers; b) they obtain a recommendation from their employers; and c) they pass a Korean proficiency test as well as other skills tests.
Activity: Campaign for the reform of unequal Nationality Law
Result: Thanks to strong campaigning by women's organizations, the government announced plans in September to recognize female lineage. In effect, a child born to a Korean woman and a foreign man (especially migrant worker) would be recognized as a South Korean citizen.
Activities and services for migrant workers have grown rapidly mainly due to the strong commitment of migrant support groups. However, these support groups are facing serious financial difficulties and other problems. They try to overcome these difficulties by adjusting and changing strategies, grassroots organizing and education, supporting and energizing migrant support group workers, and strengthening international solidarity.
Despite the many difficulties, migrant support groups (especially JCMK) will pursue its mission of protecting migrant workers' human rights, fighting to abolish the Industrial Trainee System and to enact the Protection Law for Migrant Workers.
This report was compiled from the following sources:
Docoy, Eugene, "Migrant Workers in Korea," report submitted at the 1997 People's Summit on APEC, November 1997, Vancouver, Canada.
Joint Committee for Migrant Workers in Korea, South Korea Report, paper submitted at the Regional Lobbying and Documentation Training on Migrants' Human Rights, 16-22 February 1998, Hong Kong.
Kim, Hae Sung, Current Situation in Korea: Focusing on Korean - Chinese Workers in Korea, paper submitted at the Conference on Chinese Migrant Workers, January 1998, Macau.
Yukyung, Jung, "Migrant Workers' Situation in Korea: For a General Understanding," Hand in Hand, Vol. 1, Fall 1997 (published by Migrant Workers' House / Korean-Chinese House).