Runner-up Will Korea Keep on Roaring?

By Lisa Tullus

Yonsei University

Korea is a diverse country with a culture strongly influenced both by traditional, conservative Korean Confucianism and liberal, Western thoughts and ideas. From a foreigner's point these contradictory movements are very challenging to deal with.

Korean culture is lively, interesting and multifaceted and in many respects it makes the nation the wonderful country it is.

However, Korean culture also holds some difficulties and impediments for a co-operation with other people from other countries and cultures. Korea shares these problems with booming economies, such as Dubai and United Arab Emirates.

Economical growth generates from exogenous factors, such as increase in working population, technological process, investments and consumption. The OECD report International Migration Outlook 2007 underlines the growing importance of highly qualified workers, industrial workers and students.

Human capital is considered one of the major factors in explaining Korea's remarkable growth. As one of the fastest growing countries in the OECD, Korea needs to separate their traditional culture from the business culture and foster a foreign-friendly working environment in order to attract labor force to the country.

Foreign workers can be permitted to work in a country on a temporary basis. It has been, and still is, used widely in for example the European Union. The intention of borrowing labor force from other countries is to develop the domestic country's own economy and is not necessarily a permanent solution of general problems.

A mobile workforce can boost economies that are not keeping up with their neighbors' and can make companies more productive and innovative by bringing new perspectives, skills and fresh ideas. Therefore I claim that foreign worker's contribution to the country's development is essential for Korea's future as an Asian Tiger.

In order for Korea to continue its remarkable development and keep up the growth rate, I think that the country has to improve its integration with the world economy. At present the FDI (Foreign Direct Investment) and the proportion of foreign workers in the labor force is relatively low in Korea compared to other countries.

Korea needs industrial workers and construction workers as well as highly educated academics with specialist knowledge. In addition, increased business co-operation and FDI are necessary.

However, I think Korea has to make some changes in order to be able to remove some obstacles for gaining geographical labor mobility and increase business co-operation.

Some of the changes need to be done on a structural level where decisions such as laws, tax regulations and other market regulations made by the government have to be focused on this issue and some of the changes need to be done "on the floor", where the worker's actually faces the Korean labor market.

Even though Korea has made much improvement during the 1990's and 2000's the country still lack many basic market regulations regarding working conditions and labor rights, such as the right to join a trade union.

According to KOLIAF, Korean International Labor Foundation, in 2005 as many as 37 percent of the employees was ``non-regular.'' This group gets lower wages for equal work and suffers from greater employment insecurity and fewer social benefits. Also the migrant workers suffer from huge problems when entering the Korean labor market. According to Amnesty International this is where the country has greatest problems with human rights.

Foreign workers, especially within the industrial sector, sometimes are forced to live under poor conditions with lower wages than others in the same sector and without permission to change work place. Such things create a bad reputation internationally. This reputation needs to be improved!

Korea has to communicate a will to learn from others, a will to adjust and a will to co-operate. ``Unpredictable to do business with,'' ``Too much hassle before a deal is set'' and "Culture and language barriers that is hard to overcome" is some of the opinions stated in the question.

Foreign workers also testify about a culture where one has to adjust fully to the Korean customs in order to get a bond and to be able to do business. When cultural clashes become a too big obstacle to overcome Korea will loose the battle of the international workforce against other countries. Therefore, Korea has to recognize the problems, analyze the situations where these problems occur and make changes towards meeting the other parties' needs.

Less hierarchy and less bureaucracy is something that most of the foreign workers seek. Improved English language skills are necessary for further integration with the world economy and the international work force.

Furthermore it is crucial for Korea to be open to new ideas and to encourage them to be used within the companies and not to see them as a threat to Korean homogeneity. Other problems identified are difficulties in the transferability of occupational pensions, recognition of qualifications and barriers in the regulated professions.

It is a waste of human capital to let a foreign engineer work as a cleaner in the subway, which could be the case in some countries, such as Sweden. Korea, as well as other countries dealing with the same problem, needs to find a system to take care and use the human capital entering the country.

When a country like Korea uses foreign workers, I think of it as a win-win situation. Korea benefits from highly educated academics as well as skilled industrial workers and new ideas from other countries.

The foreign workers get, apart from being paid for the job, international experiences that are essential in the new globalized economy. Korea needs to take advantages of the massive ongoing globalization and use it as a positive and creative power to develop itself.

Also it needs to further open up to the rest of the world and to integrate and work more closely with the world economy by market regulations, improved English language skills and developed business market. Korea needs to foster a foreign worker-friendly environment and change the attitude towards other cultures. Only then the Korean tiger can keep on roaring.