Korea is heading to a multicultural society. The nation needs the influx of foreigners to maintain industries and homes. Migrant workers are active in growing areas of manufacturing and service businesses, including high-tech ones. One out of every 10 marriages has a foreign-born bride. However, acceptance of ethnic diversity should not mean Korea turning into a haven for illegal immigrants and spawning troublesome minority communities.
This is the sixth year since the work permit system was introduced, allowing industrial firms to employ foreign workers for a standard three-year period. An average of 3,000 immigrant workers should leave the country every month upon the expiration of their work permit. The reality is that about 40 percent of them are overstaying their visa period, choosing the status of illegal immigrants to play hide-and-seek with the authorities.
The number of foreigners married to Korean men and women passed the 200,000 mark at the end of the first half of 2011. The growing international marriages include cases where illegal entrants use marriage as a means of getting legal immigrant status. The result is the high rate of divorce in interracial couples; the breakup of such couples increased sevenfold over the past 10 years.
Nearly 300,000 ethnic Koreans mostly from China and Central Asia have come to the country at the invitation of their relatives since 2007. Many of them pass their maximum period of sojourn to work here, often harbored by their employers.
Officially, the number of illegal immigrants has decreased these past few years with steady efforts of the authorities who have deported thousands each year. Yet, economic recovery led industries to absorb more and more immigrant workers at factories, construction sites and even at rural farms. Chinese, Vietnamese, Philippine, Mongolian and other ethnic communities have grown in suburban Seoul and Gyeonggi Province and crimes have increased there.
Immigration authorities are warning of what they call “immigrant explosion” and foresee serious social troubles caused by the submerging of “illegals.” Acts of violence, fraud, prostitution and human trafficking will grow rapidly if immigration policies fail to keep those illegal residents under control.
The sanctity of marriage is threatened when false nuptials are held and false certificates are produced to get entry into the country. Some illegal entrants here find women in vulnerable situations, including those physically or mentally handicapped, make them pregnant and force them into bogus marriages.
Time has come to review the effect of various policy measures implemented over the past several years to take care of immigrant workers, such as the work permit system and the entrance privilege for overseas ethnic Koreans. A more orderly demand and supply process for foreign manpower is required. A wise policy option will be offering incentives for reentry when immigrant workers leave the country at the end of their legal period of stay.
Conditional amnesty may be considered in order to bring those illegal residents out in the open and give them a chance through individual examinations. Search and indiscriminate deportation may not be the best solution when we consider the economic realities facing the weak small manufacturers who are mainly dependent on the immigrant manpower. Government measures should be focused on weeding out potential criminals in the foreign community while not discouraging the good people from pursuing their Korean dreams.
