Immigration Laws: February, 2001 - Number #14

Korea is struggling to convert foreign trainees- foreigners who work in Korea but are not entitled to Korea's minimum wage or covered by Korean labor laws- into workers with the same rights as Koreans. Trainees, whose monthly payment is set at 650,000 won ($576), earn more if they "go illegal" by abandoning the small employer to whom they were assigned, and many do.

The Korea Federation of Small Business, which manages the trainee program, does not want major changes. However, the government wants to improve conditions for foreigners in the country- in part because it is pressuring Japan to improve conditions for Koreans there. The government shelved a reform package that would have included having the government run the program, and having the foreigners considered workers instead of trainees.

There are about 635,000 ethnic Koreans who are permanent residents of Japan. Most were born in Korea or are the children of Koreans brought to Japan during Japan's 35-year occupation of the Korean peninsula between 1910 to 1945. Many of these Koreans in Japan have been reluctant to become Japanese citizens, which means they cannot vote. Korea, which advocates voting rights for Koreans living in Japan, enacted legislation in 2000 to extend local voting rights to permanent foreign residents by 2002 in Korea.

In 1995, the Japanese Supreme Court ruled that Japan's 3,302 local and regional governments could grant foreigners local voting rights without violating the constitution, and 15 percent have done so. However, an effort in 2000 to extend local voting rights to permanent foreign residents in Japan was not approved.

About 1,500 foreigners a month were denied entry into Korea in 2000 because immigration inspectors feared they were arriving to illegally seek jobs, up from 1,000 a month in 1999. Almost half of those denied entry were Thais, followed by Pakistanis and Bangladeshis.

Emigration. The number of Koreans who emigrated to foreign countries in 2000 increased 21 percent over 1999 levels, according to the Foreign Ministry. About 60 percent of the emigrants went to Canada, 34 percent to the US and two percent each to Australia and New Zealand. Observers attribute increased emigration to economic conditions.

"MDP shelves introduction of work permit system," Korea Times, January 11, 2001. Kim Ji-ho, "Korean emigrants increased notably last year amid economic downturn," Korea Held, January 9, 2001.