Towards a formulation of the Republic of Korea’s foreign worker policy: Lessons from Japan and Germany

On 15 June 2003, some 700 migrant workers in the Republic of Korea gathered in front of the National Assembly building, calling for a complete overhaul of the Foreigner Industrial Training and Employment programme (oekukin sanup yonsu chwiup jedo) and demanding an employ permit system (goyonghogaje) to replace it (Chosun Ilbo, 2003). After the Republic of Korea experienced a tremendous labour shortage in the late-1980s, the Government implemented the industrial trainee system in 1991. Lacking the experience in managing the flow of foreign workers, the Republic of Korea established the Japanese version of the immigrant labour scheme, providing ostensibly transferable skills to foreigners. That programme, however, produced inordinate number of undocumented workers and created unacceptable conditions for foreign workers in the country. Those trainees were cheap labourers in disguise. In response, the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the country advocated persistently for a major reform of the system, focusing on the deleterious effects of the trainee system and considering various guestworker models from countries in Europe. This article examines international contract labour programmes from Japan and Germany in order to provide a desirable framework for the foreign worker policy of the Republic of Korea.