Migrant policy needs to focus on recruitment and retention

Gov't urged to come up with more centralized approach to policy formulation

This is the first in a series of contributions from experts to highlight various issues President Yoon Suk-yeol and his administration should address during his presidency. ― ED.

By Steve Hamilton

The Republic of Korea will see an increased number of migrants in the years to come. This reality has already been unfolding regardless of who won the recent presidential election. Understanding and accepting both the need for migrants and the benefits of well-managed migration to Korea is key to successful migration policies.

The reality of the demographic challenges faced by previous and future administrations in Korea requires continued preparation for the inevitable dramatic reduction in the working age population. A continued commitment to managed migration will be a key element to help alleviate some problems associated with the decline of the population. Migrants bring with them not only the skills needed to sustain a robust Korean economy but also an entrepreneurial drive that helps sustain a growing economy ever reliant on new ideas and fresh perspectives.

Steve Hamilton/ Courtesy of International Organization for Migration Seoul Office

The latest available global estimates indicate that there were roughly 169 million migrant workers in 2019. This figure amounts to an essential workforce that Korea has successfully tapped into for decades. However, it is a competitive market to attract the best and the brightest. Korea needs to consider not only how to recruit, but also how to retain migrants once they come, as well as integrate them better in the long term, possibly permanently.

Attracting the best and brightest does not mean just enhancing programs to attract highly educated white collar workers. The "best" refers to who best fits the needs of the labor market or even society's needs as a whole, and the "brightest" should mean those who can help shine light on new growth in all areas. Both needs require diversity. Fortunately for Korea, global interest in all things Korean is at an all-time high. This global interest includes the interest in studying and working here. The global interest in Korea is an opportunity to welcome a young global population that would be eager to integrate into and contribute to Korean society.

Recruitment is well established in Korea via programs like the Employment Permit System (EPS) and the already accessible visas for skilled workers applying via companies in Korea. Going forward, the government should pursue a more robust EPS, where greater numbers of migrants are placed with employers in Korea but with greater flexibility to move on to other employers as desired, after a certain period. Employers should have to compete in terms of how well they treat their staff. Companies with better working conditions should be able to hire away migrants the same way they can hire away Koreans. Companies having to compete for the best employees of foreign nationality will make for a healthy working environment for the whole of the labor market. Fair treatment of workers needs to be for all ― both foreign national migrants and citizens.

Retention of already integrated migrants via permanent residency should be a priority. The labor market requires this workforce, yet regulations in place severely limit the options for permanent residency. These regulations result in far too many skilled migrants who have already integrated into the workforce and their communities being forced to leave because they have exhausted the allowed period of stay. They are then replaced by someone new who will take years to gain the same level of experience and cultural integration, and the cycle continues.

Additionally foreign national spouses should have significantly easier pathways to permanent residency that, at some point, are in no way linked to the continuation of their relationship to their Korean spouse. Programs supporting foreign national spouses' integration should be heavily slanted towards integration into the labor market, recognizing the growing necessity for dual income households, as well as the basic need for greater independence.

In 2019, before COVID-19, Korea had 160,000 students of foreign nationality registered in higher education institutions. Retention of foreign students graduating from Korean universities needs to be improved. The low retention rate of foreign national student graduates in the labor market is a missed opportunity to tap an educated entrepreneurial group that has already committed themselves to Korea but are somehow not connecting with employers.

To be fair, none of the above recommendations are easy and Korea is already focused on making some improvements along these lines. Current initiatives need to be supported and enhanced by the new administration. Governments need to rely on evidence-based policies that work in the best interest of the society. The voices of civil society must be considered, while at the same time, heavily weighing analysis by academia and think tanks, such as the Migration Research and Training Center in Seoul. Governments need to invest in research so they can make informed decisions that will sometimes go against popular opinion at the moment.

One clear way of pulling all of these efforts together and improving the overall implementation of migration policies would be to centralize this task under one agency. Currently, the formulation of migration policy is spread across 13 different ministries. This scattering naturally causes some overlap as well as creates gaps. Establishment of a body that is clearly responsible for all aspects of migration policy would help the new administration pull together some of the good initiatives already in place, while at the same time setting its own agenda for the future.

Steven Hamilton is the chief of mission for the Seoul office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM), and has been engaged in migration-related programs around the world for more than 25 years.

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