Monday, May 21, 2007
[IWS] KLI: KOREA--CHANGES IN POLICIES FOR MIGRANT WORKERS [10 May 2007]
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
________________________________________________________________________
Korea Labor Institute (KLI)
Working Paper
Changes in Policies for Migrant Workers in Korea and Policy Recommendations
Date : May 10, 2007
https://www.kli.re.kr/kli/html_eng/02_work/engworkingboard/view.asp?seq=273&ctop=1&csub=2
[Click next to the word Attach. : e_65.pdf to open the 18 page full-text document]
* This paper is an English translation of a paper originally released in Korean in the 27th issue of Monthly Labor Review published by the Korea Labor Institute in March 2007.
* Introduction
Korea does not have a long history of migrant labor, and policies for migrant workers are characteristically based on temporary migrant labor rather than the concept of immigration in the form of settlement or permanent residence. Policy goals in the initial stages were mainly aimed at providing foreign labor at low costs in response to industrial demands and labor shortages. However, numerous problems were exposed during the sociocultural learning process due to insufficient institutional mechanisms. Such problems can also be traced back to migrant workers being viewed simply as a source of labor and not as a movement of people. Although policies aimed at the efficient management of migrant workers, only the function of enhancing efficiency as a production element was emphasized without efforts to cut the social costs triggered by the inflow of migrant workers.
Naturally, efforts were made for institutional changes through much trial and error. The Employment Permit System went into effect on August 17, 2004, and the Industrial Trainee Program was abolished in January 2007, unifying the Low-Skilled Migrant Worker Program with the Employment Permit System. Furthermore, the Visitor Employment System was introduced for Korean ethnic foreigns in 2007 and is on the verge of full-fledged implementation. The enactment of the Employment Permit System is a minimal legal measure to normalize migrant worker policies, which had been operated abnormally, but the enactment itself does not automatically resolve all the issues which emerged whilst operating migrant workers policies thus far, leading to the need to continuously supplement the system.
Against such a backdrop, this paper plans to review the recent changes in low-skilled migrant worker policies as well as present some future policy tasks.
______________________________
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----------------- 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
________________________________________________________________________
Korea Labor Institute (KLI)
Working Paper
Changes in Policies for Migrant Workers in Korea and Policy Recommendations
Date : May 10, 2007
https://www.kli.re.kr/kli/html_eng/02_work/engworkingboard/view.asp?seq=273&ctop=1&csub=2
[Click next to the word Attach. : e_65.pdf to open the 18 page full-text document]
* This paper is an English translation of a paper originally released in Korean in the 27th issue of Monthly Labor Review published by the Korea Labor Institute in March 2007.
* Introduction
Korea does not have a long history of migrant labor, and policies for migrant workers are characteristically based on temporary migrant labor rather than the concept of immigration in the form of settlement or permanent residence. Policy goals in the initial stages were mainly aimed at providing foreign labor at low costs in response to industrial demands and labor shortages. However, numerous problems were exposed during the sociocultural learning process due to insufficient institutional mechanisms. Such problems can also be traced back to migrant workers being viewed simply as a source of labor and not as a movement of people. Although policies aimed at the efficient management of migrant workers, only the function of enhancing efficiency as a production element was emphasized without efforts to cut the social costs triggered by the inflow of migrant workers.
Naturally, efforts were made for institutional changes through much trial and error. The Employment Permit System went into effect on August 17, 2004, and the Industrial Trainee Program was abolished in January 2007, unifying the Low-Skilled Migrant Worker Program with the Employment Permit System. Furthermore, the Visitor Employment System was introduced for Korean ethnic foreigns in 2007 and is on the verge of full-fledged implementation. The enactment of the Employment Permit System is a minimal legal measure to normalize migrant worker policies, which had been operated abnormally, but the enactment itself does not automatically resolve all the issues which emerged whilst operating migrant workers policies thus far, leading to the need to continuously supplement the system.
Against such a backdrop, this paper plans to review the recent changes in low-skilled migrant worker policies as well as present some future policy tasks.
______________________________
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 : 8:48 AM
