Immigration policy of South Korea

[1] Korea was a sending country which sent farmers, miners, nurses and laborers to the United States, Germany and the Middle East.

[2] After the 1988 Seoul Olympics, Korea opened its border to the general public, which resulted in increased exchanges with foreign countries.

The primary sending countries were mostly Asian, such as China, Vietnam, Mongolia, the Philippines, and Bangladesh; however, some immigrants come from Nigeria, Ghana, Russia and the U.S.[3] The main reason new policies were implemented was the low birth rate in Korea and decrease in population.

However, during the 1990s the low birth rate and growing payroll costs caused a labor shortage (especially in the voluntary sector).

International marriage began in rural areas, and most international-marriage cases are handled by dating service companies with commission.

Most immigrants are not eligible for citizenship or even permanent residency unless they are married to a South Korean citizen or have invested more than US$500,000 in the local economy.

An exception is made for those whose non-financial contribution to the nation has been specifically recognized by the Minister of Justice and for holders of a business visa who have invested more than US$500,000.

Most of all, what South Korea needs is workers who are willing to work in so-called 3-D (difficult, dangerous, and demanding) jobs, which many Koreans are unwilling to do.

Due to its falling unemployment rate, South Korea by the early 1990s realized it needed temporary labor to fill unskilled jobs that natives were becoming less and less willing to do.

In fact, without foreign labor, coming chiefly from China and Southeast Asian countries, it would have been nearly impossible to keep the economy growing.

[10] There are many reports from legal and illegal immigrants which have jailed in many prisons in South Korea because of small problems or misunderstanding their visas for long time.

The social dimension of nationhood is shown by public-opinion polls of Korean citizens' attitudes towards foreign workers, which demonstrate discrimination.

Data show that the demand for foreign spouses is particularly strong among rural never-married and urban divorced Korean men.

Southeast Asian women tend to marry rural never-married men, and they are the most adaptive to the host society in the way they show among the highest rates of Korean citizenship and employment.

Children with multicultural backgrounds face discrimination at school, reflecting the prejudices against biracial people in the wider Korean society.

"Children from multicultural backgrounds are treated as second-class citizens by their peers," Kim told The Korea Times on Tuesday.

Park Sung-choon, an ethics education professor at Seoul National University, said he made similar observations while interviewing multicultural children.

successive Korean governments, developing policies within a social investment framework, have actively sought female marriage migrants to perform those roles and have supported them to do so, however from a feminist viewpoint solely confining a woman to her reproductive status is very problematic.

In addition, abuse can stem from the husband feeling superiority and control over a woman who is simply there to bear children rather than for a true partnership.