Working Conditions and Worker Rights in a Global Economy

This book by Professor Robert Flanagan is an interesting read to figure out how within the context of Globalization -  we are racing to the bottom.  Read and watch the short intro. here.

This book explains the effects of three key mechanisms of globalization international trade, international migration, and the activities of multinational companies on working conditions and labor rights around the world. Drawing on analyses of a database on international labor conditions assembled for this project and a growing research literature on globalization and labor conditions, the book reveals how conditions have changed during the late 20th century globalization, and presents and evaluates evidence on links between globalization mechanisms and labor conditions. The book presents and evaluates evidence on how economic growth, international trade, migration and multinational companies influence labor conditions. The analysis and evidence indicate that countries that are open to international trade have superior labor conditions. Moreover, foreign direct investment mainly flows to countries with superior labor conditions, and wages and working conditions in multinational companies are superior to employment conditions in host-country firms.

The book also reviews the historical effects of international migration on wages (and other working conditions) and discusses the role of modern barriers to international migration. The evidence indicates that each of the mechanisms of globalization is associated with the improvements in working conditions predicted by international trade theory and with improvements in labor rights. In contrast, the evidence does not support the view that increasing economic integration initiates an international race to the bottom that produces sweatshop labor conditions. The book also discusses alternative policies for improving world labor conditions further, including national and international labor standards regulation. The evidence indicates that in contrast with trade, migration, and international capital flows, labor standards regulation has had a negligible role in advancing labor conditions. As an alternative, several policies that create opportunities for targeted worker groups show promise for supplementing the positive effects of globalization on labor conditions.

Foreign Workers and their Impact ( Korea Conference)

A very important conference on International Migration held in 2007 in KOrea can been here at YOU TUBE here.

Participants include:

M. Abella

S. Martin

S. Castles

The biggest name in international labor migration.

From Human to Workers' Rights: The Emergence of a Migrant Workers' Union Movement in Korea

Read Here !

Recent Crackdown Reports in South Korea

Government Joint Crackdown Notice

** Obey law and order about foreign workers employment
** Hiring undocumented foreign workers will be fined maximum 20,000,000 won.
** Voluntarily leaving foreign workers will get the benefit of penalty exemption and deregulation of re-entry

Period: Sep 19, 2011 – Nov 30, 2011

Information Campaign: Sep 19 – Sep 30, 2011 (2 weeks)
Voluntary Exit Program: Oct 1 – Oct 31, 2011 (1 month)
Crackdown on undocumented: Nov 1 – Nov 30, 2011 (1 month)
Major target: Work place where hiring many EPS visa validity terminating workers
— Foreign workers concentrated area such as large scale industrial complex and
etc.
— Manpower Agency, Construction Field, Service Industry
— Adult Entertainment Bar, Massage Parlor and etc.

Documentary: May Day (2011) in Pakistan

This is the saddest post amongst all. It will highlight the life of Pakistani labors - many of whom are tied to bonded labor, unknowingly. The links below are a story a brick maker and how he spend his day? what his life is like? What the future holds for him? How much he earns? This is not just one man - but millions like him.

They start their day even earlier than a sunrise. Both husband and wife makes 900 bricks a day ( if they really work extremely hard). This get them 1(one dollar) USD. With 5 mouths to feed - the labor said: "future is dark, and this is how we will just die - this is our fate - others don;t even consider us as human beings!"

The name of the program is "A day with GEO TV" on GEO Network of Pakistan. Host's name is Sohail and the labor is Hanif.

Pakistan is a feudal country, people are either too rich or too poor, they are either too liberal or too radical. Since 9/11 - the whole world has changed but - for these people things have gone from bad to worst but for Pakistan, well, it is unrecognizable.

As for these people, they have no clue of anything in and around them, not even a next village a few kilometers away from their own...but overall, they are all categorized as terrorists or radicals of some sort - a danger to the world. ;-(



War on error and Pakistan's marriage of discord with the United States - was a rich mans' game...a common Pakistani does NOT even know that there is a a country called the United States or city called Islamabad (capital of Pakistan).

Video 1 (Part 1) can be seen here - don't forget to watch it - of course you won't understand the conversation but underneath I'll translate the conversation  between the interviewer and the labor.

Video 2 (part 2) here.

Translation:

Korean Universities Globalization

A very intersting article by Professor Chun-Tae-hyun of Hankuk University of Foreign Languages can be read on how Korean universities are globalizing with a focus a multi-lingual lectures availabilty, professor and student bosy is making vibes. Article acn be read here.

Suicide by Investors in Korea

Accroding to a report by Korea Times, due to the recent recession of economy - the investors have been taking their lives - a repeat of the financial crisis era - due to the heavy impact of US credit rating affiliation with Korean equity market. For details read here.

Seoul Global Center: Pros and Cons

This article was first publish at Yonhap and can be reacged here.

Ph.D. Holders Surpass 10,000 in Korea

The number of people who received Ph.D.s from local universities last year exceeded 10,000 for the first time, the Korean Educational Development Institute said Thursday.

Analysts here say that a growing number of highly educated individuals are vying for limited well-paying office jobs, adding the deepening "academic inflation" is further aggravating the already dire employment conditions among those in their late 20s and 30s.

The institute said the number of Koreans receiving Ph.D.s from domestic universities in 2009 totaled 10,322, up from 9,710 the previous year. In 1985, local universities only conferred 1,400 doctorate degrees. From 1985 through 2009, a total of 14,768 people received Ph.D.s.

The figure has continued to head upward over the past 24 years as more schools offer advanced graduate programs in various academic fields, with individuals pursuing higher scholastic goals. In 2009, Korean universities offered a combined 19,847 doctoral positions, up sharply from 13,052 in 2000.

The number of Ph.D. holders per every 10,000 Koreans rose to 2.1 last year, from 0.3 in 1985 and 1.5 in 2000, the institute said.

"An increasing number of people have entered graduate schools, with businesses seeking more highly-educated human resources specializing in engineering, medical and other academic fields. But at the same time, many have chosen to study further because they cannot find the job they are looking for amid the tight labor market, creating academic inflation," said Kim Sung-taek, director general at the Korea Labor Institute.

According to Statistics Korea, 81.9 percent of high school graduates entered universities in 2009, up from 33.2 percent in 1990.

Kim said the problem is that employers here don't need as many university graduates and Ph.D. holders as are currently produced. "The surging number of academic overachievers is a failure of the nation's education system and is worsening the labor market conditions, creating an employment mismatch."

He said these highly educated Koreans are only looking for "decent" jobs at large companies and public organizations, while shunning positions at small businesses, which offer lower wages and fewer benefits. Small enterprises suffer from a chronic worker shortage and have to employ staff from China and Southeast Asian nations.

"Many academic overachievers choose to remain unemployed rather than work for small firms, obstructing the efficient allocation of human resources in the Korean economy. This trend has made unemployment among young people worse than it should be," Kim stressed.

In February, the jobless rate for those aged between 15 and 29 reached 10 percent, up from 9.3 percent in January. It was the highest figure since it hit 10.1 percent in February 2000. This is more than twice the overall official unemployment rate of 4.9 percent.

Original Artical by KT here.

Racial Discrimination Complaints Rise Sharply

The number of petitions against racial and religious discrimination doubled last year from five years earlier.

The National Human Rights Commission said Tuesday that it received 64 complaints in 2010 regarding discrimination based on race, religion, nationality, ethnicity and skin color, doubling from the 32 cases filed in 2005.

The increasing reports of discrimination have drawn attention as more and more foreigners seek work in Korea. There are a total 1.26 million people with an international background in Korea, making up 2.9 percent of the population.

Other reports say that an inflow of migrant workers have resulted in the expat population boom. Many find work in low-paying blue collar positions or immigrate as brides.

The issue of multiculturalism has recently drawn attention as confessed Norwegian mass murderer Anders Breivik was an opponent of multiculturalism and cited Korea and Japan as model countries.

Meanwhile, the number of children with international background, who are six and younger, surged 46.1 percent this year from 64,040 in 2009 to 93,537 in January.

The number of total international minors who are 18 and younger also jumped by 43,465 during the same period from 107,689 to 151,154.

Children under age 6 with international backgrounds take up roughly 2.9 percent of the population of Korean children, according to a census on foreigners here by the Ministry of Public Administration and Safety on Tuesday.

As of January, 2011, there are 93,537 children from foreign or multicultural backgrounds living here. In that age group the proportion is four percentage points higher than the overall proportion of people with a foreign background in the Korean population.

The 1,265,006 total foreign residents include migrant workers and wives, students, naturalized citizens and children of international marriages.

There are 17,304 multicultural children who are 1-year-old, 15,584 children who are 3, and 7,995 who are 6-years-old.

Those with Vietnamese parents make up the greatest chunk at 29,997, with Chinese close behind at 20,418 and Filipinos at 8,466 people. Also included in the list are Japanese, Cambodian, Mongolian and Thai.

Original Report here.

New Citizens & Multiculturalism in South Korea

A very good article can be read here by ISIS .ORG

Foreign Brides in Korea

South Korea has been grappling with shifting demographics that have left many middle-aged men – particularly in the countryside – cut adrift amid a potential-wife deficit in a country that prizes the rosy picture of marriage.
As young – and now assertive – Korean women flock from their hometowns for careers in the big cities, the men left behind are increasingly looking overseas for brides. That has meant an influx from poorer Asian nations such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Cambodia, and Mongolia. Government figures show the number of Koreans marrying foreign spouses increased from 4,710 in 1990 to 33,300 in 2009. And numbers are expected to continue rising.
Read here

Korea to share development knowhow

South Korea rose from the ashes of the war to become one of the world’s economic powers. Noticeably, the once aid-recipient recently became an international provider of development assistance, as part of efforts to become a “Global Korea.”Korea would like to share its development model with other developing countries repoted the Korea Times.“Korea is the only country whose status has been upgraded to a major donor from an aid recipient,” even President Obama of the United States lauded South Korea’s education and employment systems.”
The nations are interested in Korea’s e-Government network, management of public servants and their evaluation system.

The e-Government of Korea is the most popular area, while underdeveloped nations are eager to learning about the “Saemaeul” or New Village Movement, a government-run rural development campaign dating back to the 1970s.

South Korea signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Vietnam and Belarus earlier this year on the E-Government program. “Korea’s e-government network system is referred to as one of the best in the world,” he said. “We can share our e-Government technology with developing nations in a customized manner.”

High Rate of Death and Accidents in South Korean Industries

Yonhap News Agency reported that South Korean workers are highly exposed to workplace accidents compared to those in other countries among the world's major economies, a government report said Monday.

   Last year, an average of six people died and 270 got injured at workplaces in South Korea on a daily basis, which topped the list among member countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), according to the report by the Ministry of Employment and Labor.

   During the reported year, the report also said, economic losses arising from industrial accidents reached 17.6 trillion won (US$16.2 billion), which is enough to employ an additional 880,000 workers with annual salaries of 20 million won.

   In addition, the loss of working days due to workplace accidents last year was more than 100 times the number of lost working days resulting from strikes and other reasons.

   In 2010, 98,645 workers suffered injuries at workplaces and about 2,200 of them died, the report said.

Compulsory insurance for foreign workers

All South Korean companies hiring foreign manual workers will be required from later this year to subscribe to the departure-expiration insurance to pay their retirement benefits, the labor ministry said today.
Owners of smaller firms hiring at least five foreigners with E-9 or H-2 visas are currently required to subscribe to the departure-expiration insurance to ensure that retirement benefits are paid before the departure of a worker.
Those visas are given to foreign manual workers hired under the country''s "employment permit system." The Cabinet approved a bill expanding the coverage of mandatory subscription to companies with four or less alien workers, the Ministry of Employment and Labor said.
The revised enforcement ordinance to the law on the employment of foreign workers is set to go into effect on August 1 as no parliamentary consent is necessary, it said.
South Korea hires some 40,000 foreign workers every year through the employment permit system to resolve chronic manpower shortage in the sectors of manufacturing, agriculture, livestock and fishing farms.
Detail reference is Here

Changing issues in Migration

A nice article on 'proper old skool'!

Blogsdotworldbankdotorg

Taiwan OFW blog

NHRCK Annual Report on Human Rights in Korea (2007)

Click the Title for Report!

Women Migrant Workers' Discrimination in Employment (South Korea Case)

This briefing looks primarily at the discrimination against women migrant workers in South
Korea. The South Korean National Assembly has, by enacting the Act Concerning the
Employment Permit for Migrant Workers (2003 EPS Act), begun a significant attempt to
protect the basic rights of migrant workers in South Korea. The Act prohibits discrimination
against foreign workers and is intended to give migrant workers legal status and to put an end
to human rights abuses against them2. However, short-comings in the implementation of the
Act reveal that migrant workers, especially women migrant workers, remain a vulnerable
community3. Details are found HERE.

Amnesty International Report on Korea (2009)

Amnesty International is submitting this briefing to the UN Committee on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights (the Committee) in view of its forthcoming examination of third periodic
report by the Republic of Korea (South Korea) on the implementation of the International
Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (the Covenant) during its 43 session
between 2-20 November 2009. The briefing is not an exhaustive review of the government’s
implementation of the Covenant, but highlights specific concerns about the rights of migrant
workers.
In particular, this briefing looks at the failure of South Korea to respect and protect the rights
of migrant workers under Articles 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10 and 12 of the Covenant. The briefing
summarises Amnesty International’s concerns around the treatment of migrant workers,
including their vulnerability to human rights and labour rights abuses because of the
restrictions on labour mobility; failure of the government to enforce and monitor health and
safety at workplaces, discriminatory treatment experienced by migrant workers; sexual
harassment and violence against female migrant workers ; failure to guarantee the right of
migrant workers to form trade unions, trafficking of female migrant workers for sexual
exploitation; and detention of migrant workers.
Detailed Report is available Here.

Korea's New Revolutionaries

Solidarity - US in an article asserts that the rising militant working-class movement, revolutionary socialists in South Korea are undergoing a process of regroupment. An important force in this development are comrades of the Power of the Working Class (PWC) organization, formed in August of last year.
At a conference of various Asian Pacific Marxist groups from differing backgrounds held in Sydney, Australia called Marxism 2000, I was able to speak with Won Young-su, the International Coordinator of the PWC. The Marxism 2000 conference was initiated by the Australian Democratic Socialist Party.
For further details read Here

Arbitrary arrest and subsequent deportation of three trade union leaders (ROK)

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), requests urgent intervention (Dec 2007) in the following situation in South Korea.

Brief description of the situation:

The Observatory has been informed by reliable sources about the arbitrary arrest and subsequent deportation to their countries of origin of Messrs. Kajiman Khapung, Raju Kumar Gurung and Abul Basher M. Moniruzzaman (Masum), three leaders of the Migrant Workers’ Trade Union (MTU), an affiliate of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU). For details read HERE and another request by Amnesty Intl HERE.

More on crackdowns against migrantworkers can be read at jinbo.net.

Multicultural Policy on Education in Korea

One of the latest, and most contentious, policy developments has been the move to establish the country’s first public high school exclusively for multi-ethnic children, due to open in Seoul in 2012 reported Korea Herlad in an article.

According to the Division of Education and Welfare Policy of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, the school, pending public and parliamentary hearings, will primarily cater for older children born outside of the country who have been brought to Korea with limited knowledge of the language and culture.

The school was agreed upon in conjunction with The Presidential Commission on Social Cohesion. According to the ministry, it will help children of multicultural families adapt to Korean society and further their future job prospects.
Read the article in full HERE.

Types of Korean Visas

Types of Korean Visa , their names in English and Korean can be found here on wiki.

Saskia Sassen

Online book " Losing control: Sovereignty in an Age of Globalization"  by Saskia Sassen can be read  here.

Piotr Plewa

A very intersting paper by Piotr Plewa on the rise and fall of temporary foreign workers policy is briefly outlined here and here.

Controlling Labor

Martin Ruh's Interview can be watched HERE

Wcms 111462 Pdf

Wcms 111462 Pdf

Manolo Abella: Migrant Workers (20040

Proceedings of a conference held in Geneva
Details HERE:

Diversity Complexity Of Asian Migration World Mig Rep Doc

Diversity Complexity Of Asian Migration World Mig Rep Doc

Migrants Human Rights Bibliography Doc

Migrants Human Rights Bibliography Doc

WHO IS A KOREAN?

Who is a Korean.........by Timothy Lee.

ON...FBPI....

"I addressed these issues in the years 2006 and 2008.  In June 2009, the Korean Immigration Service released a report entitled, The First Basic Plan for Immigration Policy, 2008-2012. This 120-page report, in some respects, is a blueprint for a transition to a multicultural society in South Korea, along the lines I have suggested here. It is a very general blueprint, to be sure, but it acknowledges the inexorability of global immigration to South Korea (for non-skilled workers, high skilled workers, foreign spouses, the Korean “Diaspora,” and others), and addresses key issues: social integration, citizenship and naturalization laws/procedures, civic education on multiculturalism, educational policies (K-12), etc. Of course, broadly written policy documents or white papers, may ultimately have little concrete impact. If nothing else, though, the Plan signifies a dramatic, even fundamental, shift in South Korea’s official perspective on immigration: multiculturalism, inclusivity, and integration are key themes running throughout the document.

Read HERE

APMRN Report

US- Mexico Immigration Policy

Korean Citizens' Reponse to the Inflow of Foreign Worker (Seol, Dong Hoon)

In this paper, I discuss Korean society’s response to foreign migrant workers. The employers, workers, trade unions, civil organizations and individual citizens have met and known them as employees, fellow workers, and neighbors since 1987. The Employment Permit Program for foreigners, the government’s new foreign labor policy since 2004 is understood as a product achieved by a decade of interaction between Korean citizens and foreign migrant workers. This paper examines the Korean citizen’s responses’ impacts on the government’s foreign labor policy from 1987 to 2005.The whole article can be found HERE.

Some Excerpts:

The government designated the period of June 10ㅡJuly 31, 1992 as “voluntary

self-report period for illegal overstayers” and accepted applications to find out the

situation of undocumented migrant workers in Korea. The number of undocumented

migrant workers self-reported during this period was 61,126 and the employers were

10,796. The government extended the permitted overstay period till the end of that year;

in addition in September 1992, the government imported trainees and placed them for

companies also with no foreign investment records.(Seol 2005:2)

Before the launch of the Employment Permit Program (EPP) for foreigners in

August 17, 2004, ITTP was known as the key foreign labor policy of Korea. “Trainees”

under the ITTP are not in most cases being trained for anything and are only filling menial

jobs that Koreans refuse to take. Since they are not classified as workers, they are denied

the rights of regular workers in Korea, including unionizing, collective bargaining and

collective action. Therefore, they are regarded as “disguised workers” (Seol 2000).

ITTP is stigmatized as the program to institutionalize and legalize the “coyote” (Seol 2003:3)

Although the formal foreign labor policy of Korea was ITTP, actually speaking,

the Korean employers utilized undocumented workers much more than trainees (Seol

2000; Seol and Skrentny 2004a). Before the regularization of undocumented workers in

September 2003, only 16 percent of foreign workers residing in Korea were industrial

technical trainees and post-training workers,1 while 78 percent were undocumented

migrant workers (Seol and Han 2004: 45).2 Undocumented migrant workers, although

resolved Korea’s labor shortage and contributed to its economic development, suffered

from unpaid or delayed wages, industrial accidents, occupational illnesses, and

unreasonable lay-off/dismissal because of their illegal status (JCMK 2000, 2001;

HRSWM 2002).(ibid)

The government’s such foreign labor policy resulted in uncontrolled illegal

overstays of migrant workers, human rights abuses, and corruptions in recruiting trainees

(Seol, Choi and Han 2002).

Nevertheless, there also were individuals who took care of the migrant workers

when they became victims of such human rights violations. These people organized

social groups to assist migrant workers in need. Thanks to these organizations and

individuals, Korea with its foreign labor policy often seen as “contemporary forms of

slavery” (JCMK 2000, 2001; HRSWM 2002), at least had a hope to be saved.

It is generally understood in the public that discrimination against foreign

migrant workers is worst of all kinds of discrimination that exist in today’s Korean

society. According to a public poll of Jeonbuk Province residents (Seol, Kim and Chung

2004: 40), the percentages of people answered each category as discrimination is “very

serious” is in following order: foreign migrant workers (37%), education level (31%),

handicaps (29%), name of higher education institution one graduated from (28%,)

irregular workers (23%), hometown (16%), outward appearance (15%), gender (11%),  group.

Migrant workers’ pitiful image in Korean citizens’ mind is raised by mass

media (see Han 2003, 2004). The print media give the plight of foreign workers frontpage

treatment, and television coverage frequently includes disturbing videos on

because its exploits foreign workers, allowsㅡif not encouragesㅡtheir abuse, and leads

to massive numbers of undocumented workers. The public is not friendly to rounding up

and deporting “pitiful” undocumented workers.

In reality in Korea, discrimination against migrant workers still prevails. The

major cause is in its policy (Seol 2004b). The main reason causing human rights

problem is pointed out as uncontrolled number of illegal migrant workers, whose

number maximum 78% of the total migrant worker population in 2003. EPP started in

2004, however, as far as ITTP remains in parallel, improvement of foreign labor policy

still remain as matters unresolved. ( ibid:13).

Nationalizing the Global:The Public Discourse on Migrant Workers in South Korea

By: Byoung-ha Lee

It was in 1987 that foreign workers came into Korean society for the first time as domestic helpers in the wealthiest area of Seoul. After that, the numbers of migrant workers have sharply increased.

Though the number decreased due to the Asian Financial Crisis, the flow of migrant workers increased again since the fall of 1999. According to a 2002 report published by the Office of the Prime Minister, there were

an estimated 337,000 foreign workers in South Korea. These workers fill up the empty holes of so-called 3 D jobs (difficult, dangerous or dirty jobs) such as small factories, construction sites, heat-treat, fishery, dyeing, restaurants, farms and so on. Thus, they are essential parts of the Korean economy, especially, unskilled production, at which native Koreans no longer want to work.

Read the whole article HERE.

Multi-cited Ethnography

The whole article can be found  here

Open Research Online

A lot of reading material and research papers can be found on HERE.

Hope this helps!

Prof. Devesh Kapur

Prof. Devesh Kapur [CHE 83] publishes book on "DIASPORA, DEVELOPMENT, AND DEMOCRACY: The Domestic Impact of International Migration from India"

Prof. Devesh Kapur, Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of India, University of Pennsylvania, USA [ITBHU Chemical Engineering, 1983 B.Tech batch] has published a book titled "DIASPORA, DEVELOPMENT, AND DEMOCRACY: The Domestic Impact of International Migration from India". Summary from the official book site:

What happens to a country when its skilled workers emigrate? The first book to examine the complex economic, social, and political effects of emigration on India, Diaspora, Development, and Democracy provides a conceptual framework for understanding the repercussions of international migration on migrants' home countries.
Devesh Kapur finds that migration has influenced India far beyond a simplistic "brain drain"--migration's impact greatly depends on who leaves and why. The book offers new methods and empirical evidence for measuring these traits and shows how data about these characteristics link to specific outcomes. For instance, the positive selection of Indian migrants through education has strengthened India's democracy by creating a political space for previously excluded social groups. Because older Indian elites have an exit option, they are less likely to resist the loss of political power at home. Education and training abroad has played an important role in facilitating the flow of expertise to India, integrating the country into the world economy, positively shaping how India is perceived, and changing traditional conceptions of citizenship. The book highlights a paradox--while international migration is a cause and consequence of globalization, its effects on countries of origin depend largely on factors internal to those countries.
A rich portrait of the Indian migrant community, Diaspora, Development, and Democracy explores the complex political and economic consequences of migration for the countries migrants leave behind.

Prof. Kapur's bio can be accessed here.
The book's review also appeared in the Indian Express here.

Frédéric Docquier's Home page..

Some of Docquier's Articles include:

1.Brain drain and economic growth: theory and evidence (510 citations), co-authored with Michel Beine and Hillel Rapoport.

2. International migration by education attainment - Versions 1.0 and 1.1 (499 citations, 370+129), co-authored with Abdeslam Marfouk.

3. Brain drain and LDCs' growth: winners and losers (321 citations, 170+151), co-authored with Michel Beine and Hillel Rapoport

4. The economics of migrants' remittances (314 citations), co-authored with Hillel Rapoport
5. Skilled migration: the perspective of developing countries (144 citations), co-authored with Hillel Rapoport

More information can be foun don his homepage here.

Steven Castles: Diaspora Effect in International Migration

This paper reviews the existing literature on the impact of migrants
networks on the patterns of international migration. It covers the theo-
retical channels at stake in the global effect of the networks. It identifies
the key issues, namely the impact on size, selection and concentration of
the migration flows. The paper also reviews the empirical hurdles that
the researchers face in assessing the importance of networks. The key
issues concern the choice of micro vs a macro approach, the definition of
a network, the access to suitable data and the adoption of econometric
methods accounting for the main features of those data. Finally, the pa-
per reports a set of estimation outcomes reflecting the main findings of
the macro approach.

Narrative Analysis

Researching 'Race' and Ethnicity: Methods, Knowledge and Power.

Gunaratnam, Y. (2003) Researching 'Race' and Ethnicity: Methods, Knowledge and Power.

Text submitted by Laura Cockburn. More on the book here.

Part 1

I wasn’t sure what to expect from this book as it sounded as if it might be a difficult read from the subject matter.

In the introduction, the author begins by positioning her self in the subject as having a Sri Lankan, Indonesian, Scottish, Tamil mixed ethnicity, with an interest in the relationship between social and individual history. She describes her relationship with race, culture and ethnicity and her early experience with the concept of racism. This felt reassuring as the author’s personality was very much evident in her writing, and was not lost in theory.

The introduction sets the structure of the book clearly: methodology, production of knowledge, politics of doing research on race and ethnicity, interrelations with social differences eg gender, class, disability and dilemmas.

The author’s style of writing makes this book accessible and a very valuable read. The combination of her interest and enthusiasm for the subject and her logical style of presentation means that the ideas are easily understood and leads the reader to progress in their thinking about race and ethnicity in research.

Some of the central themes addressed are: looking at how we produce knowledge about difference; how what we know is caught up with histories and relations of power; and how to develop a critical theoretically informed approach to qualitative research methods.

Research on race and ethnicity is contextualised, putting it into historical context. Race is defined as a biological difference, and ethnicity as cultural difference and kinship.

I found the Post colonial context and how this defines the meaning of “p.c.” very interesting as the idea of contextualising my ideas of race and ethnicity is not something I had considered before reading this book.

The complexities of the treacherous bind -working with and against racial categories is another aspect which stimulated further thoughts. How to challenge the existing categories of race and ethnicity and yet these categories are needed to provide the structure/information for research. In my limited experience of research, doubled research- the idea of questioning and reviewing the very structure within which the research ideas may be created sounds extremely challenging and yet necessary.

In addition to this, the author also looks at how to work with inadequate race and ethnicity categories whilst not getting stuck in reinforcing and reproducing racial thinking. She challenges researchers to look at the relationship between the theoretical recognition of race and ethnicity as social categories and the lived experience.

It does mean there is a great responsibility for new researchers to challenge established patterns whilst also trying to carry out research within the traditional structures. If this is carried out for coursework as part of training or within an organisation, it will pose another level of complexity and challenge for the researcher.

Overall the first part of the book sets the scene by setting the context of challenging all current ideas about race and ethnicity in research, and recognising that it a difficult role to take on but necessary if research is to reflect the political and social changes in ideas, definitions and categorisation of race and ethnicity.

In part 2 Gunaratnum presents many thought provoking ideas around the theme of epistemological, ethical and methodological issues in research into race and culture or ‘interracial’ research as she phrases this. Her insistence that race and ethnicity are a significant part of all research, and not just the specialist concerns of those whose work is focused upon race provokes some rethinking of current methodological debates. How can we work ethically across difference and how does identity affect both the researcher and research participants and research?

Gunaratnum highlights the point that institutionally there are an increasing number of academics coming from ethnic minority groups but that the numbers are still relatively small. This group of academics undoubtedly are often employed in working on research linked to research and culture which in turn impacts research, careers and opportunities. I valued one of her conclusions which was that seeking to recognise how ‘race’ ethnicity and social differences are produced and have effects in qualitative interviews is undoubtedly difficult and ‘messy’ work but that this needs to be acknowledged alongside valuing the complexity and richness that comes with the mess.

In part 3 of this book Gunaratnam talks about the researching the ‘lived experience’ of ‘race’.   She describes her research in which she has interviewed minoritized hospice users, and her struggle to analyse interviews in which participants have not referenced their race and ethnicity, which has left her feeling distanced.  I loved her use of Althuser’s notion of ‘calling’ through non-neutral questions her interviewees to particular racialised identifications, for example through talking of their experiences of racism.  I found helpful too the use of Knowles’ idea of ‘disassembling’ ‘race’ into the smaller concepts that give it meaning, and Higginbotham’s idea of theorising race as a  mythical, overdetermining ‘metalanguage’, that can function to obscure the meanings of other social differences.  She describes how these concepts have been helpful to her in analysing her interviews with Patricia, a Caribbean nurse who has had her larynx removed and who talks about race only as linked to her positive approaches to life, linked to her family background and Christian beliefs. She points out how in such descriptions race was being referred to but only indirectly, and that this Patricia's particular way of talking about her identity.

In another chapter she writes about ‘insecurities of meaning’ – moments when the meaning of particular words, phrases or gestures are particularly unclear and wide open to different interpretations.  She argues against the idea that anthropology should be about establishing a shared meaning in that this will lead to the obscuring of difference, and that it will lead to the researcher ‘speaking as’ rather than ‘speaking with’ the research participant.  Paying careful attention to and interpreting such ‘juddering’ moments can be a rich source of understanding about difference.  This reminded me very much of my experience of working with interpreters and the usefulness of pausing when a particular word or concept is difficult to translate, bringing forth rich and interesting information about underlying differences of viewpoints, but it is also true of interactions in therapy without the medium of an interpreter: there are juddering moments in therapy when somehow we are using the same word as our clients but with very different meanings.       

In her final chapter she argues for a ‘multisided’ research, which is reflexively aware of how the research relationship is situated within a broader social context, using the notion of ‘complicity’ to refer to how she sees both researcher and research participant being ‘curious and anxious’ about how their local narratives might be related to ‘great and little events happening elsewhere’.  Her exemplar of such practice is a study by Lather and Smithies of the experience of 25 women living with AIDS, where pages are split in half with the womens’ accounts of their lives at the top and the researchers’ narratives (in which they connect with these accounts) at the bottom. This seems to me a model also for a postmodern therapeutic relationship, and for the kind of accounts of such practice that we should be writing. Indeed throughout the book I found myself translating Gunaratnam’s arguments into the world of therapy across difference and felt that they provided some extremely rich potential avenues of exploration and development for us in our field.      

Posted on 01/21/2008 at 01:00 PM | Permalink

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Professor Shekhar Mukherji

Migration studies expert.
More on him here.

Overseas Migration and its Impact on Families Left Behing in...

Thesis submitted by Izhar Ahmad Khan Azhar for the fulfilment of PhD requirement at the Univesity of Kassel, Germany

Read here.

New Visa Rules for Korea

The Justice Ministry will ease visa regulations for South Asian visitors, who have become a major group for the Korean tourist industry, according to officials Tuesday.

Under regulations to come into effect next week, nationals from 11 major South Asian countries will be issued a double-entry visa, which allows them to freely revisit Korea within six months, in between or after transits to other countries.

This measure came in response to the growing reputation of Incheon International Airport as a flight transit spot, according to the ministry.

Tourists will also be required to submit fewer documents to prove their financial credit and employment status, officials said.

Also, a multiple-entry visa, which enables the holder to freely reenter the country for three consecutive years, will be issued to those who have a Korean university graduate degree and families of immigrants married to a Korean spouse.

The beneficiary states include India, Bangladesh, Philippines, Vietnam, Pakistan, Nepal, Laos, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Cambodia and Myanmar, according to the ministry.

Marriage Migrants in Korea to et Jobs..

One foreign woman married to a Korean man will be hired by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family this week, making her the first female marriage immigrant to work for the central government, an official said Tuesday, amid the country's efforts to embrace the growing number of such citizens.

South Korea has seen a rapid increase in the number of marriage immigrants in recent years, with their total number exceeding 141,000 last year, according to Justice Ministry data. Of that number, females account for nearly 90 percent, or more than 123,000.

Many of these women, who usually come from Southeast Asian nations to marry South Korean men in rural areas, struggle to adjust here as they face cultural differences and difficulties in their marriages, often due to careless matchmaking by professional brokers. Their growing numbers have prompted the government to draw up various policies to protect and promote their well-being.

In line with that trend, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has decided to hire one marriage immigrant this week for a job that involves translating, gathering opinions from the foreign community, giving talks on multicultural society and counseling other marriage immigrants, the ministry official said.

"We decided to hire a marriage immigrant to motivate them toward work and independence, and to provide a practical support policy that reflects the position of multicultural families," the official said, adding that he hopes other government ministries will do the same.

"We asked some other ministries, and none of them appeared to have employed a female marriage immigrant so far," he said.

The ministry has so far picked five candidates from a pool of applicants that fulfilled certain requirements for education, Korean-language ability and duration of stay. The five women include one Chinese, one Vietnamese and one Filipino, the official said. (Yonhap)
Korea Times (29-3-2011)

SOUTH KOREA: What can be done when National Institution itself tries to subordinate to administration? — Asian Human Rights Commission

SOUTH KOREA: What can be done when National Institution itself tries to subordinate to administration? — Asian Human Rights Commission

Korea and Global Migration Conference - 2004

Pastor Jones Galang: SEGYEHWA (“Globalization”) and ...

....SEGYEHWA (“Globalization”) and Korea: Worsening Crisis in Society, Worsening Conditions for Migrant Workers

“We realized that the common problems confronting the migrant workers are: exploitative

economic system operating in the sending and receiving countries, contract violation, harassment

and discrimination. Our response, thus far, is the on-going pastoral care for migrants affirmed by

the Generalate mandate. Both of these have challenged and emboldened us to continue committing

ourselves to work hand in hand with migrant workers for the realization of their struggle and

that of their home countries for food and freedom, jobs and justice, land and liberation.”

From the Unity Statement of the SVD-Justice & Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) conference on

migrant workers, September 15 - 19 2000, Hong Kong, SAR
Article here!

Timothy C. Lim: Rallying for migrant workers

Korea Herald: Feb. 2006

For more than a decade, foreign workers in South Korea have been struggling

to carve out a decent life. It has been a long struggle, but not a completely

empty one. Indeed, since the early 1990s - when "unskilled" foreign workers

first started to come to Korea in large numbers - some meaningful change has

occurred. Legally, at least, foreign workers in Korea have achieved several

important rights, including, with some exceptions, the same basic labor rights

as native Korean workers. This applies equally to "illegal" and legal workers.

One of the most recent changes occurred in August 2004 with the

implementation of a "guest worker" program known as the Employment

Permit System.

On the surface, the EPS was supposed to rectify the most egregious abuses of

foreign workers; indeed, the EPS, for the first time, provided the framework

for "unskilled" foreign workers to become legal workers in Korea, with all the

rights and "privileges" that it implies. Prior to the establishment of the EPS,

unskilled foreign workers could only legally enter Korea as "trainees." The

industrial trainee system, however, was a convenient, but obvious lie: it was

not designed to provide training, but was, instead, meant to institutionalize and

legitimize the systematic exploitation of foreign labor in the small- and

medium-sized business sector. This is one reason the trainee system failed to

achieve its goal. The majority of foreign workers simply left their "trainee"

positions after arriving in Korea, preferring to work "illegally" primarily

because it allowed them to receive much higher wages. To the government,

however, the illegal status of foreign workers (who at one point constituted

upwards of 80 percent of all foreign labor in Korea) did not necessarily

represent an urgent problem. After all, without legal status, these workers, too,

could be more easily exploited and abused.
Article in full here!

Political Economy of International Labor Migration

Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination was celebrated earlier this month. Migrant workers and people from different walks of life talked about their experience in Korea and demanded the government and the Korean people change policies and perceptions discriminative against foreigners. ..for deatials read here.

John Duncan

John Duncan, director of the UCLA Center for Korean Studies, doubts he would have become a scholar at all if it hadn’t been for his experiences along the Korean demilitarized zone in the late sixties. Stationed there as a 19-year-old American G.I., he remained after his military discharge and was admitted to Korea University in Seoul as the school’s first and — at that time — only U.S. student. He completed a degree in history at a historic time for South Korea: the height of student mobilization against military rule.

Duncan will be honored at the Korean Foundation Award ceremony for painstaking historical scholarship and for a range of activities he refers to as "field-building." He helped to found and he currently chairs the Worldwide Consortium of Korean Studies Centers, a key vehicle for global expansion of the field. In addition, the UCLA Center for Korean Studies is leading an effort to strengthen Korean studies in Latin America. And viewing Korea's past as part of East Asia’s, Duncan collaborates with historians of China, Japan and Vietnam on topics such as regional intellectuals' responses to Confucianism.

 

Read more at UCLA Today.

 

Book: Migrant Workers in Pacific Asia (Debrah A. Yaw)

This book a marvelous read on the situation of migant workers in the region.
It can be found on Google books with restricted copyright view.
A great read and read here : Migrant Workers in Pacific Asia (Debrah A. Yaw, 2002).

Labor Market Reforms in Korea: Policy Option for the Future

The report can be read in details here.

Research Paper by the Korea Labor Institute can be found here at website.

Athukorala, Prem-chandra (East Asia)

Paper and publication by Professor Athukorala are here and here.

Dr. Shahid Yusuf: Developmental Economics

Shahid Yusuf, Economic Adviser, Development Economics Research Group, The World Bank, holds a Ph.D. in Economics from Harvard University, and a BA in Economics from Cambridge University. Dr. Yusuf is the team leader for the World Bank-Japan project on East Asia’s Future Economy. He was the Director of the World Development Report 1999/2000, Entering the 21st Century. Prior to that, he was Economic Adviser to the Senior Vice President and Chief Economist (1997-98), Lead Economist for the East Africa Department (1995-97) and Lead Economist for the China and Mongolia Department (1989-1993). Dr. Yusuf has also served the World Bank in several other capacities since he first joined the Young Professionals Program in 1974.

Dr. Yusuf has written extensively on development issues, with a special focus on East Asia. His publications include:

1. China's Rural Development, co-authored with Dwight H. Perkins (John Hopkins Press);
2. The Dynamics of Urban Growth in Three Chinese Cities, with Weiping Wu (Oxford University Press 1997); Rethinking the East Asian Miracle, with co-editor Joseph Stiglitz (Oxford University Press 2001);
3. Facets of Globalization: International and Local Dimensions of Development; and
4. Localization in an Era of Globalization, both co-edited with Weiping Wu and Simon Evenett (Oxford University Press 2000);
5. Can East Asia Compete? Innovation for Global Markets with Simon Evenett (Oxford University Press 2002);
6. Shahid Yusuf et al., Innovative East Asia: The Future of Growth (Oxford University Press 2003);
7. Global Production Networking and Technological Change in East Asia and Global Change and East Asian Policy Initiatives, both co-edited with M. Anjum Altaf and Kaoru Nabeshima (Oxford University Press 2004);
8. Under New Ownership, co-authored with Kaoru Nabeshima and Dwight H. Perkins (Stanford University Press 2005); and
9. China’s Development Challenges, co-authored with Kaoru Nabeshima (World Bank forthcoming 2006).

He has also published widely in various academic journals.

 

 

Korea: More Illegal than Legal Workers (2003)

On this page there a some very intersting comments including that of Professor Timothy C. Lim, during his research at Korea University.

Illegal Workers

'Illegal Worker's Life'
Read the article at Hankyureh!

Balancing the Benefits and Costs of Skilled Migration in the Asia-Pacific Region (Original)

LabourStart

Recent News on Labour Related issues @ Labourstart

Immigration Quarterly Magazine

E Magazine in English/ Korean can be read here.

Constitution of the Republic of Korea

PREAMBLE

CHAPTER Ⅰ General Provisions

CHAPTER Ⅱ Rights and Duties of the Citizens

CHAPTER Ⅲ The National Assembly

CHAPTER Ⅳ The Executive

CHAPTER Ⅴ The Courts

CHAPTER Ⅵ The Constitutional Court

CHAPTER Ⅶ Election Management

CHAPTER Ⅷ Local Autonomy

CHAPTER Ⅸ The Economy

CHAPTER Ⅹ Amendments to the Constitution

ADDENDA

Source: http://eng.scourt.go.kr/eng/main/Main.work

Korean Law Sources

 

• Constitutional Court of Korea
• DAPA Guidelines
• Ministry of Government Legislation
• National Assembly of Korea
• Supreme Court of Korea
• Supreme Prosecutors' Office of Korea
• The Judicial Research and Training Institute
• Supreme Court Library
• Patent Court of Korea

Some other websites:

• http://www.law.go.kr/main.html
• http://www.klri.re.kr/

Government Sites

• • The National Assembly
  • Cheong Wa Dae
  • The Ministry of Justice
  • The Supreme Public Prosecutors' Office
  • Ministry of Government Legislation
  • Ministry of Strategy and Finance
  • Ministry of Education, Science and Technology
  • Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
  • The Ministry of Unification
  • Ministry of National Defense
  • Ministry of Public Administration and Security
  • Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
  • Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
  • Ministry of Knowledge Economy
  • Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs
  • Ministry of Environment
  • Ministry of Labor
  • Ministry of Gender Equality
  • Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs
  • Korea National Statistical Office
  • Korean National Police Agency
  • National Intelligence Servicee
  • The Board of Audit and Inspection
  • Korea Legislation Research Institute

“Silence on the Streets Does Not Mean Peace” Amnesty International on ROK

On May 27th, Amnesty International (AI) released their annual 2010 report revealing situations of human rights abuses in 159 countries, including serious problems of human rights violations prevalent in South Korea throughout 2009.
Amnesty International in South Korea (AI Korea) held a conference at the Korea Press Center in Seoul to discuss the 2010 International Report and the organization’s official stance on several controversial events in Korea today.
In specific, the South Korean government was criticized for violating freedom of expression in an attempt to control the media and use fear in politics with regards to the deadly sinking of Cheonan, a South Korean naval ship believed to be an act of a North Korean torpedo.
Regarding the teachers of Korean Teachers and Education Workers’ Union facing mass dismissal for joining the Democratic Labor Party (DLP), an opposing political party, AI said that the government is excessively violating the freedom of political participation, assembly, and expression.  The ministry has decided to dismiss a total of 134 public school teachers for having paid membership fees to DLP.  With the G-20 Summit scheduled to be held in Seoul this coming November, the government seems to be restricting rights and freedoms even more by passing the G-20 martial law.
Nam Young-jin, the chairman of AI Korea, wrote in the chair’s report, “Some words that were often used back in the 1980s such as ‘freedom of the press,’ ‘freedom of expression,’ ‘dictatorship and democracy,’ and ‘national security and military on alert at the border’ are being used again in South Korea today.”  Nam clearly pointed out that South Korea’s human rights situation has gone backwards.
The report is in accord with the criticisms made by Frank La Rue, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression who visited South Korea on May 14 to investigate human rights conditions.  AI Korea warns the government, stating that “silence on the streets does not mean peace.”  ■

Specific problems in South Korea mentioned in the Report

Foreign migrant workers who are vulnerable to unfair treatment, discrimination, sexual harassment, and abuse as a result of the current Employment Permit System (EPS) Blogger Park Dae-sung or “Minerva” arrested and accused of spreading malicious rumors to destabilize the economy Four producers and a writer at Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) accused of distorting facts regarding the dangers of US beef in the television program PD Notebook and thus stimulating the candlelight protests against US beef imports Arbitrary arrests and detentions under the National Security Law (NSL) The death penalty The downsized National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) Low recognition of state recognition of refugees and asylum-seekers

Credits @ Ji-Su Park (HRM- Korea)

Human Rights Monitor-Korea (HRM-Korea)

Korea’s High Rejection Rate to Refugee Status brings Legal Fights
In March of 2010, the first naturalized South Korean citizenship was granted to a 38-year-old Ethiopian man who fled Ethiopia in 2001. However, this milestone event granting citizenship seems to not be an extension to other refugees seeking asylum status in South Korea. As such, these desperate people have filed law suits against the Ministry of Justice in Korea.
Since 1992, when South Korea adopted the 1951 Refugee Convention, the Korea government has received asylum status claims beginning in 1994 and the first refugee entered South Korea in 2001. Overall, between 1994 and 2009, the South Korean government received total 2,492 applications, mostly from North Korea.
However, the Korea Justice Department has rejected 994 refugees in 2009 which has been deemed sudden and unusual. A number of refugees who seek legal resolutions are dramatically increasing; 121 cases have been filed to the Seoul Administrative Court from January to May of 2010 compared to 15 cases in 2008.
These decisions were made to maintain strong national security, particularly due to North Korean defectors being revealed as espionage agents. Of the recent defectors turned spy, Kim, a 36 year-old female North Korean defector, is under custody. According to Yonhap News, she reportedly passed herself off as a refugee from the closed communist state, then began a relationship with a former subway employee, who handed her classified information including emergency contacts for Seoul’s subway system. South Korean authorities fear the information could be used by the north for terrorist attacks.
As a result of the policies, the South Korean Justice Department has rejected hundreds of asylum status applications from refugees. Desperate people have come to the Seoul Administrative Court, but because of time and money constraints it “has a limit to solve the entire problem,” said one court official close to the matter.
Since most refugees do not receive legal status in Korea, they cannot be employed and earn money. As such, receiving aids from non-profit organizations is the only way for most to survive in Korea. A high NGO official stated that “refugee applicants hope for increased services” to protect more refugees in Korea help restart their lives.

This story is from the Human Rights Monitor-Korea (HRM-Korea) is an online information portal managed by Korea Human Rights Foundation.They have a very informative blog here: http://khrfseoul.wordpress.com/2011/01/

They can be reached at this Office Address:
4F Seomoon Bldg, 368-22, Seogyo-dong, Mapo-gu,
Seoul, Korea (121-838)
Tel: 82-2-363-0002    Fax: 82-2-363-0209
 www. Humanrights.or.kr

Migrant workers struggle for overdue wages..

A tranquil afternoon at an industrial district in Anyang, a satellite city on the outskirts of Seoul, was shattered last Monday by a group of protesters demanding the payment of overdue wages for a Bangladeshi worker.

"Pay outstanding wages," the protesters yelled in front of a paper-coating factory where the Bangladeshi, surnamed Hussein, worked until recently. Hussein has overstayed his visa so he could be deported if caught by immigration officials.

Despite the risk, the 32-year-old held the rally to receive 4.5 million won ($3,650) in overdue wages, his pay for August to December 2008.

"The employer transferred ownership of the company to his son-in-law and claimed he had no money to pay the unpaid salary," said Chung Yong-sup, a protester and spokesman for the Migrants' Trade Union.

In April last year, the employer promised to pay the wages by September as ordered by the Ministry of Labor but it was an empty promise, Chung said.

Pressured by the rally and mounting criticism in the neighborhood, the new owner, the son-in-law, promised to settle the problem by November. "We will keep watching how the owner deals with this issue," the activist said.

It was the second rally of this kind by the union this month alone - the first rally held last Saturday in Paju, a city near North Korea where scores of small and mid-sized factories are located.

As the number of migrant laborers has rapidly increased in recent years, so has the number of those struggling with unpaid wages.

There are approximately 500,000 migrant workers here who mostly work in the manufacturing, construction and agriculture industries. Nearly 10 percent of them overstay their visa, thus their presence here is illegal.

Foreign envoys and the international community have urged the Korean government to take tougher action against employers "maliciously" delaying salary payments.

Vulnerable to exploitation

Yet, no significant improvement has been made. In 2008 alone, 6,849 migrant workers filed complaints with the labor ministry over delayed wage payments for unclear reasons, up from 2,249 cases in 2007, statistics show.

By June last year, 4,659 complaints of this kind had been lodged ― from the latest data available ― indicating a worsening situation.

The amount of unpaid salaries has soared - 4.4 billion won in 2006, 17.3 billion in 2008 and 12.1 billion won for the first six months of last year. The vast majority of affected workers are Chinese, followed by Vietnamese and Filipinos, statistics show.

"Migrant workers overstaying visa are particularly vulnerable to this issue because of their illegal status here," said Rep. Park Dae-hae of the ruling Grand National Party, who made public the statistics. "It's urgent to establish an independent body to deal with the issue regardless of the residential status of the affected workers."

With regard to the growing problem, human rights watchdog Amnesty International issued a report last October elaborating working conditions facing migrant workers here, and called on the Seoul government to protect and promote the rights of migrant workers through rigorous labor inspections. In February, envoys from major manpower exporting states to South Korea called for tougher state action for the advancement of the human rights of their citizens here.

Labor officials say they make their utmost efforts to contain the problem, but admitted putting all problematic firms on its watch-list is all but impossible.

"Those delaying wage payments in order to avoid it in the end will face criminal punishment," said Shin Dong-jin, a labor ministry official covering migrant worker-related issues.

The government runs two insurance policies - one by the state and the other by a private insurance firm, Seoul Guarantee Insurance Company - to help migrant workers get full payment before they leave the country. But critics say the compensation guaranteed by the policies is "too small to cover unpaid salary" on average.

The state insurance covers up to 7 million won, while the private one guarantees only 2 million won. In most cases, critics claim, the amount of unpaid salary for each worker is over 10 million won on average

For more on the story by Park Si-soo (Staff reporter) follow this link below: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2010/06/113_67620.html