Migration
Executive summary
This study, which is part of IOM Seoul’s continuing effort to bring together and publicize accurate information on trafficking in the Republic of Korea (hereafter, South Korea), collects and presents data that were locally gathered by South Korean organizations. However, in preparing this study it became immediately evident that there is not a clear or consistent definition of trafficking in South Korea. This, in turn, deprived researchers of a lucid delineation on what to measure in order to estimate the scale of trafficking in South Korea. In addition, even though there is trafficking of both local and foreign women from South Korea into other countries, this is not always regarded as trafficking, so there afe few resources available which are useful to study trafficking out of South Korea.
Responses of the government of South Korea and of South Korean NGOs
The release of the US State Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report in July 2001 resulted in a subsequent response/rebuttal prepared by the Government of the Republic of Korea (GOK)to its Tier 3 ranking in this report. The timing of this report was quite fortunate for this particular IOM Seoul review of South Korean trafficking data, as it produced a timely official GOK response to almost all of the issues addressed in this document. Furthermore, following the issuance of the GOK rebuttal to the US State Department’s report, a previously scheduled South Korean NGO symposium was held that, in effect, generated what could be looked upon as a rebuttal to the GOK’s response. It is rare that circumstances provide an opportunity to compare contemporary evaluations of an issue by government officials and informed outside observers.
Migration in Korea
As can be gathered from the preceding introduction, the trafficking problem in South Korea has peculiarities that require a brief explanation. This section attempts to discuss migration and the sex industry in their Korean contexts in order to demonstrate how circumstances in Korea render trafficking (i.e., the trade of minors and women into South Korea) an issue more closely associated with the sex industry than with other migration issues.
Working conditions - the South Korean entertainment industry
The working conditions of trafficked women in South Korea’s entertainment dustry are not good.
Introduction
Since 1999, the Seoul Office of the International Organization for Migration (IOM Seoul) has been involved with a local network of women’s organizations and researchers working on issues related to trafficking into the Republic of Korea. IOM Seoul has also assisted the local media in the production of a news magazine programme on the topic of Filipina entertainers (i.e., sex workers/trafficking victims), and has actively participated in a series of meetings in which a network of women’s organizations was established for the purpose of exchanging information on this problem and exploring programmatic possibilities.
Summary and recommendations
This study is part of IOM Seoul’s continuing effort to collect and publicize accurate information on trafficking of human beings in South Korea. This collection and presentation of locally gathered data should greatly encourage those South Korean organizations that confront issues related to trafficking to continue their efforts to study and report on these problems.
Impact of remittances on recipient households
This final section discuses the impact of remittance flows on households in the surveyed areas. Findings address impacts on four development priority areas defined by the United Nations Millennium Goals – poverty (and financial assets), housing, health and education.
Background and context
The Serbian diaspora, which today is one of the largest foreign populations in Switzerland, has its roots in Switzerland’s labour migration policies of the 1970s, 80s and 90s, and in the economic and political situation of the former Yugoslavia during this same period. After the end of World War II, when the demand for industrial production to rebuild Europe was high, Switzerland was confronted with a workforce shortage. To meet this demand, the Swiss government signed short-term labour migration accords with Spain and Italy. Over time, many of these seasonal “guest workers” qualified for annual and permanent residency, prompting a significant rise in the percentage of foreigners in the Swiss population. In 1970, Switzerland adopted a new “stabilization” immigration policy which aimed to strike a balance between the perceived threat of the growing foreign population and the continued need for immigrant labour to fuel the Swiss economy. A limited number of temporary permits were made available to workers from several neighbouring countries, including the former Yugoslavia. It was under this migration scheme that large numbers of Serbian migrants came to Switzerland to work over the following two decades.
Executive summary
The Serbian diaspora in Switzerland is one of the largest foreign populations in the country. The migration of Serbian nationals to Switzerland is rooted, in large part, in Swiss labour migration policies of the 1960s, 70s and 80s when short-term “guest worker” permits were offered to thousands of migrant men and women, among them, a large number of Serbian nationals. Over the years, increasing economic hardship was the key factor motivating Serbian men and women to migrate to Switzerland, and ultimately, to remain there permanently. Consequently, by the time the Swiss government phased out the seasonal guest-worker programme in the 1990s, a large Serbian population had established permanent residency in Switzerland, a status which allowed them to facilitate a smaller but constant flow of new immigrants for the purpose of family reunification, resulting in a present-day Serbian diaspora of approximately 200,000 people.
Acknowledgements
We begin by thanking the Swiss Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) for supporting this project with the necessary resources and for entrusting the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to this important task.
Profile of migrant-sending households and their relatives living in switzerland
In order to elaborate on the context within which remittances from Switzerland are received and future investments and programmes to enhance their impact might rest, we present here a brief profile of migrant-sending households in the surveyed municipalities of Petrovac na Mlavi and Cuprija, and some socio-demographic details about their relatives in Switzerland.