Field work report: foreign workers in Ansan, South Korea （安山調査

Field work report: foreign workers in Ansan, South Korea
（安山調査報告：不法就労外国人労働者について）
牛
革平（NIU Geping）
概要：
去年 12 月 15、16 日の調査で、韓国安山市の外国人労働者の主な仕事場としての半月工
業団地と集団居住地としての元谷洞を訪れ、元谷洞において外国人労働者支援機構の AIC
と AFC を訪問し、最後に皆さんと漢陽大学の学者たちと議論する場を得た。私がもっと
も関心をもったのは外国人不法就労者の問題だ。
1960 年代から 80 年代にかけての韓国は、軍事政権主導の下で高度な経済成長を達成し
た。国家主導の産業化とともに、産業や人口もソウルや釜山などの大都市に過度に集中し
た。この不均衡な経済発展を解決するため、一連の「国土総合開発事業計画」を発表し、
ダム、高速道路、工業団地などを建設した。半月工団は 1970 年代中盤以後、ソウルに散
在していた中小規模の組み立て企業および公害誘発企業の移転の目的で建設された。
そして、国家主導の特徴は、労働と資本を集約的に動員することであった。抑圧的な労
働調節のメカニズムの下で、労働組合の活動はきわめて統制された。低賃金、長期間労働
は韓国の経済成長の一つの条件であった。
1980 年代後半の全般的民主化で、労働運動の成長と経済グローバル化の中に産業構造の
再編によって、特に低賃金、労働条件劣悪な中小企業の労働力不足の問題は深刻になった。
安山は 1990 年代前半、急激な人口減少を経験した。それは半月工団に大打撃を与えた。
労働力不足の問題を解決するため、韓国政府は産業界の要請に従って、1990 年代半ばに、
「産業研修生制度」を導入し、外国人労働者の大量輸入を始めた。「産業研修生制度」で、
外国人労働者は、実際に労働行為をしているにもかかわらず、
「研修生」として、国内労働
者よりはるかに低い賃金しかもらえず、労働法の十分な保護も受けられない。そして、導
入される外国人労働者の数は必要とする数に及ばないため、多くの企業はより高い賃金で
不法就労者を雇用していた。「産業研修生制度」においては、「韓国中小企業組合中央会」
が外国人労働者の受け入れの管理権を持っていた。韓国に来るため、ブローカーに払った
手数料（2，3 年の給料に相当する）の借金を返すため、多くの外国人労働者は、指定され
た仕事場を逃げて、不法就労者になった。
現在、韓国では、外国人労働者のおよそ半分以上は不法就労者である。安山で不法就労
者の割合は最も高いといわれた。外国人不法就労者は法の保護から疎外されているから、
搾取、虐待、労働災害、長期間労働、賃金未払いなどいろいろな問題に直面している。彼
らにとって、最も怖いのは、政府の暴力的な不法滞留の取り締まり行動である。
外国人労働者を期間限定の低賃金単純労働力として活用するのは、グローバル化時代の
韓国政府と産業界の主旨であり、厳しい外国人労働法と入管法はこの目的を実現するため
の必要な条件である。これは外国人不法就労者問題の根源だと思う。そして、外国人労働
者に対する搾取と人権侵害は、民主化以前の国内労働者に対する統制の変わった形での継
続だと思う。
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1. The situation of foreign workers in Ansan, South Korea
After several decades of rapid economic growth, South Korea has successfully
transformed itself from an underdeveloped agricultural country into a modern industrialized
economy. From the 1990s, South Korea has been actively involved in the globalization
process, and continues to be one of the fastest growing economies in the world. South Korea is
well known for its highly skilled and motivated workforce and its large conglomerates.
However, there is another side of the economy which is largely ignored: foreign workers in
South Korea. There are about 1 million resident foreigners in South Korea now, and the
number is still increasing. Among those 1 million foreigners, around 400,000 are migrant
workers, most of which come from Asian developing countries, such as China, Mongolia,
Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Myanmar, etc.
The majority of them are doing low-skilled workers in small and medium-sized manufacturing
firms as well as construction and service industries.
Ansan, a city in Gyeonggi province, is situated on the western coast of the country, 100
km south of Seoul, and is part of the Seoul National Capital Area. There are now in Ansan
around 35,000 registered foreigners from 58 different countries, and the number reaches about
70,000 if undocumented migrants are included.
Most of the migrant workers work as unskilled laborers in the small and medium sized
firms of the Panwol industrial complex. The Panwol industrial complex was built by the
government in late 1970s. Most of the land was originally a tidal flat, but then a dam was built
to prevent the sea tide from flooding the area. In the complex, all buildings are factories no
residential houses are allowed to be built there.
Most migrant workers in Ansan have settled in a part of town that is located close to
Ansan station called Wongok-dong. On the main street of Wongok-dong, you can see many
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restaurants, shops, internet cafés, karaoke shops, international telephone call kiosks, and
employment agencies. The targeted customers of these shops are mainly the foreign workers.
There are also several organizations supporting foreign workers in Wongok-dong, like the
Ansan Migrant Center, Ansan Foreign Workers Center, and other NGOs. These organizations
provide various kinds of services to foreign workers, among others, sport and festival events,
medical support, language training, etc. The so called ‘Borderless Village’ is a project
advocated by Ansan Foreign Workers Center to promote harmonious coexistence of foreigner
and local communities in Wongok-dong.
2. Historical background
2.1 History of Panwol industrial complex and Wongok-dong
General Park Chung Hee who came to power through a military coup in 1961 was
President of South Korea until 1979. His military government sought to establish its
legitimacy through economic development. An export-oriented strategy was adopted. The
central government played a crucial role in the first decades of South Korea’s dramatic
economic growth.
One problem with South Korea’s rapid economic growth was the disparity of
development between regions. Population and industries were heavily concentrated in the
major metropolitan areas. By the end of 1970s, the Capital region (Seoul and Gyeonggi
province) accounted for almost half of the nation’s manufacturing employment. Increasing
income disparity between industrial sectors and agricultural sectors became a serious problem
by 1970s.
To mitigate the concentration of population and industries in major metropolitan areas,
the government launched a series of National Land Development Plans, under which dams,
expressways, industrial complexes, and new towns were built in provincial areas to
decentralize the economy.
The Panwol industrial complex is one of the industrial complexes built in the
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southwestern peripheral region of Seoul. The aim was to move out from Seoul small and
medium-sized manufacturing and polluting factories. Construction of the Panwol industrial
complex started in the late 1970s and production began there from early 1980s.
As a result of the planned construction by the central government, Ansan went through a
rapid industrialization process in the 1980s; people gathered to work and make a living in
Ansan from all over the country. Its population increased dramatically, from around 31,000 in
1980 to over 252,000 in 1990. Wongok-dong, a district beside Ansan station, came to be a
favored residential area of native migrant workers due to its closeness to the industrial
complex and its comparatively low rent cost. To serve these native migrant workers, various
businesses also began to proliferate in Wongok-dong.
2.2 In-flow of foreign workers to Ansan
South Korea’s rapid economic growth from the 1960s to the mid 1980s was to a large
extent based on an intensive labor and capital mobilization system. Under the repressive labor
regulations, labor union movements were severely suppressed by the dictatorial political
regime. However, after the 1987 democratization these repressive labor regulations were
dismantled. In late 1980s, labor movements were unprecedentedly powerful, leading to strong
demands for better wages and working conditions.
As a result of the labor movement, wages in South Korea greatly increased. With the
continuing expansion of the economy, from the 1990’s on labor shortages loomed large. In
reaction to this situation, large modern companies, which are the leading force of the economy,
invested in modern technologies and automation systems, reducing the demand for unskilled
workers while increasing the demand for professional and technical manpower, leading to
changes in the industrial and employment systems. Given that the wages of workers in large
companies increased much more than those of manual laborers in small firms, those small
manufacturing firms, which mainly depended on the existence of a low-paid unskilled
workforce, suffered an even more severe labor shortage.
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Since Ansan was a city where small and medium-sized firms were predominant, a large
number of workers left Ansan, seeking better-paid jobs elsewhere. The rapid population
outflow led to a depression of the industry there. The population in Wongok-dong shrank from
over 34,000 at the end of 1980s to less than 20,000 in 1995. This was a big blow not only to
local industry but to the local businesses as well.
To relieve this severe labor shortage, businesses successfully lobbied for legislation
allowing local firms to import foreign laborers. Thus from mid-1990s on, there has been an
increasing influx of foreign labors, most of whom come from low-income Asian developing
countries. The majority of them have been employed by small manufacturing factories to do
the unskilled or 3-D (dangerous, dirty, and difficult) jobs which native laborers have become
less and less willing to do.
In Ansan, foreign laborers began to arrive in large numbers from 1994. They largely
filled up the workplaces and residential area left by native workers. Wongok-dong has now
become the main residential district of foreign workers. Local businesses in Wongok-dong
have also adapted to serve these new customers. Foreign migrant workers have greatly
contributed to the revival of Ansan economy.
3. One problem: undocumented migrant workers
Among foreign workers in South Korea, however, at least half are ‘illegal’. The existence of
large number of undocumented migrant workers in South Korea is closely related to
much-flawed foreign labor laws, mainly the Industrial Trainee System and the Employ Permit
System.
To deal with the severe labor shortage, Korean government introduced the Overseas
Industrial Trainee System in 1991, allowing companies with overseas investments to import
workers from their overseas holdings to work in Korea. However, this system left native small
businesses no access to this new, low-cost workforce. To counter this situation, the Korean
Federation of Small Businesses (KFSB) successfully pushed forward the introduction of the
Industrial Trainee System (ITS) in 1994, a modified scheme to ease labor shortage for small
firms, particularly in the manufacturing sector. The government delegated to KFSB
responsibility for managing the system.
Under the ITS, foreign workers work as ‘student trainees’, rather than full laborers. This
exempts them from the protection of many national labor regulations. The student trainees’
wages are extremely low, only about 30% of those of Korean workers doing the same work.
They often work in excess of 12 hours daily. Moreover, they suffer from high accidents rates,
and often face wage-delays as well as verbal and physical abuses. Most of them are housed in
dormitories and not allowed to go out freely. Often, the employer holds their passports to
prevent them from running away from the factory.
In this situation, increasing number of migrant workers fled their designated workplace
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and became undocumented. Another reason of their running away was that illegal employment
offered relatively better payment. This is because under the Industrial Trainee System, the
number of foreign worker allowed in by the government was much less than what was needed.
Besides, most foreign workers had to pay off a huge amount as a brokerage fee necessary to
first come to South Korea. Its cost was sometimes equivalent to 2 or 3 years wages.
Being illegal, undocumented migrant workers forfeited whatever little legal rights they
were entitled to as a worker. In the process, they became even more vulnerable to
unscrupulous employers, and suffered from frequent workplace abuse, unfair firing, high
accident rate, or pay-delays. Moreover, their daily life was fraught with stress, as they faced
constant danger of violent crackdowns, detention, huge fines, and deportation. The migrant
workers were frequently injured and even killed in surprise immigration raids. Once caught,
they faced brutal conditions and human rights abuses in ‘protection’ centers. For example, a
tragic fire swept the locked cells of a migrant detention center in Yeosu in 2006, killing 10
detainees and wounding more, due to the guards refusing to unlock the doors; some of the
injured detainees were handcuffed to the hospital bed while receiving treatment.
From the mid 1990s, trade unions and civil rights organizations began to pay attention to
the problem of foreign workers and became actively involved in growing movements for
migrant workers’ rights. The Industrial Trainee System became the target of their strong
criticism. In reaction to the criticism of civil society groups, and in order to solve the problem
of illegal immigration, the government in 2003 introduced the Employment Permit System
(EPS). Under EPS, migrant workers are given one year contracts, which can be renewed
annually for a maximum of three years. After three years, they are required to leave the
country for at least one year before they are allowed to return.
The Korean Federation of Small Businesses (KFSB) made enormous profits in
monopolizing the business of transporting foreign laborers to Korea, and Korean firms greatly
benefited from exploiting an illegal, undemanding and docile, migrant workforce. Thus the
KFSB vehemently opposed the new system, and with its economic and political influence,
successfully thwarted its application for years. (The Industrial Trainee System was applied
together with EPS until 2007.)
However, as human rights groups have pointed out, the new system still favors employers
more than employees. Under EPS, migrant workers have no rights to change workplace or to
bring their families to Korea. They are tied to a single workplace and can not freely seek
employment elsewhere. Given the fact that migrant workers who lose their job effectively lose
their legal status, they are still largely hindered in organizing labor union or in lodging
complaints about abuses in the workplace. Moreover, due to high brokerage fees and the
complicated procedures necessary to return legally, most migrant workers decide to stay after
their permits and visas have expired.
Thus the new system has not solved the problem of illegal migrations. The number of
undocumented migrant workers has been increasing continually over the years. This illegal
migrant population includes those who have fled from their assigned workplaces, overstayed
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their legal working periods, overstayed their tourist visas, or entered by various illegal
channels. They are generally discriminated against in society, and their human rights are
constantly violated.
On the other hand, because migrant workers are indispensible to the economy, some
employers have begun to support the Employment Permit System and have provided
protection during illegal migration crackdowns. Moreover, some labor and civil rights
organization are consistently criticizing existing foreign labor policies, calling for the
legalization of migrant workers and granting them full labor rights. Further, more and more
local governments, driven by economic reality, and as a response to civil movements, have
launched plans to become more foreigner friendly, and have begun to advocate some fuzzy
vision of multiculturalism. The large number of migrant workers supporting institutions in
Ansan and the ‘Borderless Village’ movement are examples of this trend.
4. Conclusion
From mid 1990s, a large number of foreign workers came to South Korea, most of them
doing low-skilled jobs which native workers were unwilling to do, in small and medium-sized
firms. Since then special residential districts of foreign workers also came into being. Actually,
the import of foreign labors was planned and carried out by the government and industries
from the early 1990s, aiming to relieve the severe problem of labor shortages, which was
caused, to some extent, by the strong labor movements of the late 1980s.
Under the Industrial Trainee System, foreign workers were regarded as ‘student trainees’
rather than full laborers, which exempted them from the protection of many labor regulations.
Foreign workers under this system suffered from low-wages, long working hours, high
accident rate, and frequent workplace abuses. Moreover, the number of laborers allowed in by
the government was much less than what was needed, which led to illegal employment which
offered undocumented foreign workers comparatively better wages. As a result, many foreign
workers fled their assigned workplace and became undocumented. The number of
undocumented foreign workers increased dramatically over the years. Having completely
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forfeited the protection of laws, the life of illegal migrant workers is full of insecurity and
stress. They suffer frequent mistreatment by employers, but also constantly face violent illegal
migration crackdown, detention, and deportation. To deal with the problem, the government
introduced the Employment Permit System in 2003. However, it seems that this new system
has proved unable to solve the problem of illegal migration.
The underlying principle of South Korea’s foreign labor laws is to exploit foreign
workers as cheap and temporary laborers. These workers’ thinking, feelings, and their
fundamental rights as human beings are largely ignored. It seems that this system is kind of
continuation of the repressive labor regulations which were applied to native labors before
democratization in 1987. Thus, to some extent, the rigid immigration restrictions constitute
some requisite conditions of native firms’ exploitation of foreign labors, legally or illegally.
On the other hand, some civil society movements and groups greatly contributed to the
betterment of the situation of foreign workers. However, the efficiency of these movements
may be largely restricted given that foreign workers themselves cannot actively take part in
the fighting for their own rights.
However, this is not a problem limited to South Korea. In a globalized world where
borders have begun to melt, capital moves out to foreign countries looking for better profits,
and labor for better wages. However, there is a huge gap between the power of capital and that
of labor. Foreign investments are welcomed almost everywhere, while the migration of
laborers is strictly regulated and a large portion of migrant workers in developed countries are
branded as illegal, with the consequence that their human rights are constantly violated.
In order to understand the problem of migrant workers in Ansan, in South Korea, as well
as in the world, and to find some solutions for it, much more needs to be studied.
References:
Bae-Gyoon Park. Labor regulation and economic change: a view on the Korean economic
crisis. Geoforum. Bolume 32, Issue 1, February 2001. Pages 61-75.
http://www.japanfocus.org/products/topdf/2383
Tragic
Fire
Illuminates
South
Korea's
Treatment of Migrant Workers
马颖，周剑麟 「政府权威与战后韩国的经济发展」『亚太经济』2006 年第 1 期
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