Monday, September 13, 2004
[IWS] KOREA: Migrant Workers' Labor Market in Korea [August 2004]
IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016 Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________
From the Korean Labor Institute (KLI)
e-Labor News
Issue Paper, No. 34
Migrant Workers' Labor Market in Korea
http://www.kli.re.kr/kli_eng/elabor/34/elabr_Frameset3.htm
or
http://www.kli.re.kr/kli_eng/elabor/34/papers/paper1.pdf
[full-text, 22 pages]
YOO Kil- Sang
Vice President, Korea Labor Institute
e-mail: <mailto:ksyu@kli.re.kr>
August 2004
[excerpt]
I. Introduction
Korea was one of the manpower-exporting nations in the 1960's and 1970's, but from the late 1980's the country turned into a labor force-importing nation that had to address the problem of domestic manpower shortages with imported migrant workers. This reversal in the flow of labor was caused by higher income, and elevated education level and lowered birth rate among Korean nationals. So far Korea has imported skilled foreign laborers in their capacity as "workers," but introduced low-skilled foreigners not as workers but as "trainees." Realizing, however, that there are a lot of problems in employing migrant workers under the cloak of trainees to tackle the chronic labor shortages, Korea plans to introduce the Guest Worker System in 2004 under which foreign workers may be imported as "workers."
As of the end of December 2003, there were 389,000 migrant workers residing in Korea, accounting for 2.7% of the total wageworkers or 1.8% of the nation's working population. Given the fact that the society is aging at the fastest speed in the world and that with their increased income and elevated education level, people are increasingly unwilling to take on low-skilled jobs, the shortages of low-skilled labor are expected to worsen in Korea in the future. In fact, migrant workers already occupy a significant portion of the Korean labor market, and their share is expected to grow further still.
Based on this premise, this study aims to analyze Korea's labor market for low-skilled migrant workers and identify its characteristics. To begin with, Section II describes the history of Korea's policy on low-skilled migrant workers to help the readers better understand the flow of the analysis, while Section III examines the trend in migrant workers in Korea. Section IV analyzes the characteristics of the migrant workers' labor market in Korea using the data collected through a survey. Finally, Section V summarizes this study and puts forward some policy recommendations.
AND MUCH MORE....
NOTE: This paper was presented at the 5th Asian Regional Congress of the International Industrial Relations Association(IIRA) held in Seoul on June 23-26, 2004, convened by the Korea Labor Institute(KLI) and the Korea Industrial Relations Association(KIRA).
_____________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky *
Director, IWS News Bureau *
Institute for Workplace Studies *
Cornell/ILR School *
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor *
New York, NY 10016 *
*
Telephone: (607) 255-2703 *
Fax: (607) 255-9641 *
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu *
****************************************
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies
School of Industrial & Labor Relations
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor
New York, NY 10016
________________________________________________________________________
From the Korean Labor Institute (KLI)
e-Labor News
Issue Paper, No. 34
Migrant Workers' Labor Market in Korea
http://www.kli.re.kr/kli_eng/elabor/34/elabr_Frameset3.htm
or
http://www.kli.re.kr/kli_eng/elabor/34/papers/paper1.pdf
[full-text, 22 pages]
YOO Kil- Sang
Vice President, Korea Labor Institute
e-mail: <mailto:ksyu@kli.re.kr>
August 2004
[excerpt]
I. Introduction
Korea was one of the manpower-exporting nations in the 1960's and 1970's, but from the late 1980's the country turned into a labor force-importing nation that had to address the problem of domestic manpower shortages with imported migrant workers. This reversal in the flow of labor was caused by higher income, and elevated education level and lowered birth rate among Korean nationals. So far Korea has imported skilled foreign laborers in their capacity as "workers," but introduced low-skilled foreigners not as workers but as "trainees." Realizing, however, that there are a lot of problems in employing migrant workers under the cloak of trainees to tackle the chronic labor shortages, Korea plans to introduce the Guest Worker System in 2004 under which foreign workers may be imported as "workers."
As of the end of December 2003, there were 389,000 migrant workers residing in Korea, accounting for 2.7% of the total wageworkers or 1.8% of the nation's working population. Given the fact that the society is aging at the fastest speed in the world and that with their increased income and elevated education level, people are increasingly unwilling to take on low-skilled jobs, the shortages of low-skilled labor are expected to worsen in Korea in the future. In fact, migrant workers already occupy a significant portion of the Korean labor market, and their share is expected to grow further still.
Based on this premise, this study aims to analyze Korea's labor market for low-skilled migrant workers and identify its characteristics. To begin with, Section II describes the history of Korea's policy on low-skilled migrant workers to help the readers better understand the flow of the analysis, while Section III examines the trend in migrant workers in Korea. Section IV analyzes the characteristics of the migrant workers' labor market in Korea using the data collected through a survey. Finally, Section V summarizes this study and puts forward some policy recommendations.
AND MUCH MORE....
NOTE: This paper was presented at the 5th Asian Regional Congress of the International Industrial Relations Association(IIRA) held in Seoul on June 23-26, 2004, convened by the Korea Labor Institute(KLI) and the Korea Industrial Relations Association(KIRA).
_____________________________
This information is provided to subscribers, friends, faculty, students and alumni of the School of Industrial & Labor Relations (ILR). It is a service of the Institute for Workplace Studies (IWS) in New York City. Stuart Basefsky is responsible for the selection of the contents which is intended to keep researchers, companies, workers, and governments aware of the latest information related to ILR disciplines as it becomes available for the purposes of research, understanding and debate. The content does not reflect the opinions or positions of Cornell University, the School of Industrial & Labor Relations, or that of Mr. Basefsky and should not be construed as such. The service is unique in that it provides the original source documentation, via links, behind the news and research of the day. Use of the information provided is unrestricted. However, it is requested that users acknowledge that the information was found via the IWS Documented News Service.
Stuart Basefsky
Director, IWS News Bureau
Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell/ILR School
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor
New York, NY 10016
Telephone: (607) 255-2703
Fax: (607) 255-9641
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu
****************************************
# posted by SBasefsky : 8:26 AM
