[Foreign Delegates] Diversity Causes Korea to Face New Challenges

By Kang Hyun-kyung
Staff Reporter

Two out of 100 people living in Korea are foreign residents. According to the Ministry of Justice, the proportion of foreign nationals is projected to be as large as 5 percent of the total population by 2020.

The growing number raises a crucial question: Is this country well prepared to meet multiculturalism?

Dr. Song Tae-soo at the Korea Labor Education Institute (KLEI) in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province, told The Korea Times that when it comes to infrastructure for ethnic minority groups, the country still has a long way to go.

He said the role of government is crucial in building a solid infrastructure in favor of diversity.

``Social integration should be the primary policy goal the new government needs to pursue in the coming era,'' he said.

Song said that first of all, foreigners, particularly unskilled migrant workers, need to be better protected than now.

According to the ministry, the number of resident aliens marked over one million as of September 2007 ― the figure is 2.5 times higher than that of a decade ago.

Migrant unskilled workers take the lion's share, accounting for 56 percent of the foreign population.

The office for government policy coordination said last week that an additional 132,000 foreign workers are scheduled to come to Korea in 2008, 5,000 more than last year.

The office said the vast majority of the population will be employed in the manufacturing sector, while a handful of them will be hired by hotels.

Meanwhile, foreigners who came to Korea through interracial marriage account for 14 percent, with experts noting 1 in 10 newly married couples in rural areas were interracial.

Foreign students attending programs at local universities account for 7 percent, double from last year, at around 47,500.

The experts also said that an estimated 220,000 or more illegal immigrants are living in the country.

New Challenges

As the number of foreigners has sharply grown in the recent decade, the government faces new challenges in major policy areas.

Human rights and basic workers' rights have surfaced as one of major issues facing unskilled migrant workers.

As for interracial couples in rural areas, experts said that an education divide has become a potential policy problem as the vast majority of marriages take place in poor agriculture areas.

Experts said children from these families are likely to inherit their parents' economic status mainly because of poor education services and lack of supportive social programs.

Social integration of children from interracial marriages also creates another policy problem that needs to be addressed.

A Ministry of Health and Welfare survey in 2005 found that 17.6 percent of children from interracial marriages in rural areas have been bullied by their peers in schools.

The same survey said that 85 percent of children from these marriages attended primary schools as of 2005.

Lack of effective policy responses has caused problems for these victims.

So far, helpful hands have come from some compassionate civic group activists and local governments.

These entities have played a role in launching public awareness programs regarding human and workers' rights of foreign workers.

Dr. Song of KLEI made the point that the role of civic groups and local governments in helping improve human rights of migrant workers will reveal their limitations in the near future and the central government needs to take an interest in this matter.

``Lessons from advanced countries shows that the policy of setting a ceiling for the foreign population in a country at a certain level has limitation,'' he said.

Song said this is because these people are humans and some of them change their mind to settle in this country.

``Therefore, the phrase of `managing the foreign population,' which is often used by government officials, is not an accurate expression. Instead, government officials need to take an interest in social integration of the population,'' he said.

The labor expert said protecting human rights and basic workers' rights to the level that Koreans enjoy gives the government a dilemma as not all foreign nationals are legal.

It would be hard for the government to offer supportive policy services to illegal immigrants.

Dr. Song said the government should cover A to Z of the recruitment plan for the foreign workforce in its policy packages.

``Some unskilled migrant workers fall prey to the victim of illegal business practice before coming to Korea,'' he continued. ``They have to pay a lot of money to a broker or a middleman to make their work opportunity happen in Korea. The illegal practice presses these foreign workers to stay longer than their legal time period in this country, which is the source of illegal immigrants.''

Toward Win-Win

Experts said diversity in Korea offers opportunities to the country, as well as the home country of these workers.

Keheliya Rambukwella, the Sri Lankan minister of foreign employment promotion and welfare, told The Korea Times that Korea and Sri Lanka could gain from the migrant worker program.

Sri Lanka is one of major countries sending workers to Korea, along with Vietnam and Indonesia.

The Sri Lankan government created the foreign employment ministry last year to deal with migrant workers affairs and improve their working conditions in foreign countries.

Minister Rambukwella said remittance from these workers not only helps economic growth of Sri Lanka by increasing savings in the economy, but also helps improve bilateral relations between the two countries in the long run.

The minister said that remittance income accounts for approximately 18 percent of national wealth in Sri Lanka.

Rambukwella said that Korean firms in Sri Lanka and future Korean businesses seeking investment in his country would benefit from the returnees who are knowledgeable about Korean culture and command a high level of Korean language by hiring them for their local firms.

hkang@koreatimes.co.kr