1. intErnAtionAl MigrAtion FloWs in korEA
For Koreans, the 20th century definition of international migration meant Koreans emi-grating to other countries. Yet, recently, international migration for Koreans has also come to mean the reception of foreigners into their homeland. All throughout the 20th century, Korea has been a migrant sending nation. It was only after the 1980s that foreigners gradually began entering Korea.
Though 1987 marks the first year of the transition to democracy for South Korea, it is also the year that the course of direction for migration changed in Korean society. As Koreans began to taste the fruit of their nation’s economic growth, the number of Korean migrant workers leaving to find employment overseas rapidly decreased. With Korea’s economic boom in 1986 also came, for the first time, the avoidance of jobs referred to as difficult, dirty and dangerous. Headline articles in major newspapers in Korea reported survey results show-ing that Koreans, though usually known for their workaholic tendencies, preferred leisure to overwork (see Seol 1999). With this new phenomenon came a rise in Korean workers’
wages, and consequently, several openings in the Korean labour market. At the same time, garment, and footwear manufacturing, and other labour-intensive companies moved their factories to several Southeast Asian countries such as Indonesia, Philippines, and Thailand.
Since these were all low-wage industries there was hardly any opposition from Korean work-ers regarding this decision. During the 1986 Asian Games and the 1988 Olympic Games, the success of Korea’s economic development became widely known in countries in Asia as well as abroad. Moreover, with the collapse of the Cold War regime in the late 1980s, China and South Korea were able to resume both personal and economic exchanges. Joseonjok, the ethnic Koreans living in China, especially, began visiting Korea more frequently. During this period, migrant workers from China and Southeast Asian countries began to come to Korea.
While the Korean government had no program to import foreign labour, migrant workers
Migration and Integration
from underdeveloped countries in Asia came to Korea and began to fill vacancies in the la-bour market.
Since the early 1990s, foreigners began marrying Koreans for the purpose of immigrating into the country. Indeed, international marriages between Koreans and foreigners occurred prior to that time; however, it wasn’t until the 1990s that the government began to statisti-cally record and present data regarding the matter. Accordingly, since then, the dynamic of international marriages in Korea can be more keenly grasped. In 1995, the migration transi-tion with respect to internatransi-tional marriages took place. Prior to 1994, internatransi-tional marriages between men from developed countries and Korean women were normal; nevertheless, the number of couples that actually fit this composition was few. Since 1995, the number of mar-riages between women from underdeveloped countries and Korean men has overwhelmingly increased. Until 1994, international marriages usually involved Korean women leaving the country with only a small proportion deciding to reside in Korea after marriage. However, since 1995, the number of foreign women immigrating and settling down in Korea is gradu-ally increasing, along with the rapid increase in international marriages.
In 1999, the National Assembly enacted the Overseas Koreans Act, which gave overseas Koreans with foreign citizenship opportunities to visit their country of origin more freely.
In 2001, the government developed a comprehensive plan to attract foreign students, known as the Study Korea project. As a result, visa holders of overseas Koreans and foreign students increased. Further, with hopes of revitalizing the economy in the wake of the Asian financial crisis, regulations regarding marriage broker businesses were lifted, and marriage brokers be-gan practicing freely. As the year 2000 passed, numerous marriage brokers appeared and thus dawned the beginning of international matchmaking. With this, the number of international marriages in Korea significantly increased.
As a new influx of immigrant groups entered South Korea, the nature of its society be-gan to change from a homogenous society to a multiethnic one. Table 1 shows, by year, the number of immigrants who exceeded their 90-days period of stay from 2000-2011. The significant increase in immigrants in 2000 was a temporary phenomenon. In 1997, as a re-sult of the Asian financial crisis and severe economic recession experienced by South Korea, as well as several other Asian countries, Korean companies greatly reduced the number of their foreign employees. From 2001-2005, as the economy recovered, Koreans began heading overseas again, causing the rate of emigration to far exceed that of immigration. The number of foreigners immigrating to Korea increased. Following the year 2006, the number of immi-grants in Korea exceeded emiimmi-grants. Though Koreans continued to make their way abroad, the number of foreigners entering Korea became larger. Indeed, the year 2006 marks a turn-ing point for Korea—a nation formerly known as a predominately sendturn-ing nation became in a relatively short period of time, a primarily receiving one.
Immigration Policies in South Korea
table 1. trends in international migration in Korea, 2000-2011 (1,000 persons) Yeargross migrationNet migrationImmigrationEmigration TotalKoreansForeignersTotalKoreansForeignersTotalKoreansForeignersTotalKoreansForeigners 20007344732628-768437119817336327489 2001780507273-32-8755374210164406297109 2002790518272-16-6246387228159403290113 2003851528323-42-5715404236169447293154 2004894565329-49-7728423244179471321151 20051,155637518-95-84-11530277254625360265 20061,18070347748-81129614311303566392174 20071,18373145278-71148630330300553401152 20081,26275051255-3792659356302603393210 20091,1636974662021-1592359233571338233 20101,18269348982-1597632339293550354196 20111,22670152591190658351307568350218 sources: statistics Korea. 2012. International Migration Statistics 2011. Daejeon: statistics Korea. Korea Immigration service (KIs). 2001-2012. Korea Immigration Service Statistics. gwacheon: KIs.
Migration and Integration
According to Table 2, the number of immigrants who resided in Korea in 2009 was over 1.1 million. In 2012, the number of immigrants rose to 1,325,348. It is 2.6% of total population.
The share of immigrants in Korea is not much in comparison to Europe and other advanced countries; however, the rate of increase is very high. Such a sudden increase in an immigrant population is certainly worthy of attention.
In 2012, the number of minor children belonging to immigrants was 156,522. Out of this group, 146,072 of them were children of marriage immigrants. They have Korean citizenship by birth. The remaining 10,451 were children of foreign couples. The number of immigrant households was 256,891, 1.3% of the total household population.
Immigration Policies in South Korea
table 2. Immigrants and their children in Korea, 2006-2012¹ 2006200720082009201020112012 Immigrants (A) (=C+D)654,741782,882951,1511,102,2301,110,9611,113,8521,325,348 share of population1.3%1.6%1.9%2.2%2.2%2.2%2.6% Immigrants and their children (B) (=C+D+E)679,987827,1401,009,1581,194,9201,216,4631,249,7901,481,870 share of population1.4%1.7%2.0%2.4%2.4%2.5%2.9% Foreign residents (C)615,216728,831885,6401,028,5051,014,5001,002,7421,201,835 Foreign migrant workers with employment visas255,314259,805437,727575,657558,538552,946588,944 Foreign spouses of Korean citizens65,24387,964102,713125,673125,087141,654144,214 Foreign students20,68330,10156,27977,32280,64686,94787,221 overseas Koreans visa holders25,52529,57434,69543,70350,25183,825135,020 other registered foreigners144,616216,933136,409103,115106,365137,370162,082 Undocumented migrants with short-term visas103,835104,454117,817103,03593,61389,23884,354 Naturalized citizens (D)39,52554,05165,51173,72596,461111,110123,513 Persons naturalized through marriage30,22138,99141,67241,41756,58469,80476,473 Persons naturalized by other means9,30415,06023,83932,30839,87741,30647,040 Children of immigrants (E)²25,24644,25858,00792,690105,502135,938156,522 Foreigner parents---4,2056,9719,62110,451 Foreigner-Korean parents25,24644,25858,00788,48598,531126,317146,071 Households of immigrants³---186,566217,094221,872256,891 share of total households---1.0%1.1%1.1%1.3%
Notes: ¹ The reference period of the statistics of 2006-2009 is Ma
y 1, and that of 2010-2012 is January 1 of each year. ² Children is defined as a minor under the age of 18. The number of children of undocumented migrants with short-term visas is not included in
the statistics. ³ The number of households of undocumented migr
ants with short-term visas is not included in the statistics. sources: Ministry of Public Administration and security (MoPAs). 2006-2012. Survey of Foreign Residents in Korea. seoul: MoPAs. Korea Immigration service (KIs). 2006-2012. Korea Immigration Service Statistics. gwacheon: KIs. statistics Korea. 2012. KOSIS (Korea Statistical Information Service). Daejeon: statistics Korea.
Migration and Integration
To summarize, the predominant groups of immigrants currently living in Korea are migrant workers, marriage immigrants, overseas Koreans, and foreign students. This paper intends to enumerate the immigration control and social incorporation concerning the previously stated four predominant groups; discuss various phenomena regarding exchanges between immigrants and Koreans; and finally, explore the distinct characteristics of the immigration experience in Korea as well as possible implications for other countries.
2. iMMigrAtion rEQuirEMEnt And incorporAtion policiEs oF korEAn goVErnMEnt
The Korean government refers to immigration policy as “foreigner policy” or “multicultural policy.” In Korean, the word for both immigration and emigration is the same—yimin. As Korea was a primarily sending nation for about 100 years, Koreans only thought to use the term emigration when referring to yimin. However, since the situation has changed, rather than using the term yimin when referring to immigrants, Koreans use foreigners or multicul-tural citizens.