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By Fr. Jack Trisolini
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Rev. Jack Trisolini |
On Oct. 28, Justice Minister Lee Kwi-nam wrote a lengthy article for The Korea Times outlining his commitment to making Korea an open society for foreigners.
The minister quite correctly began his journalistic contribution by citing the 2009 Human Development Report by the U.N. Development Program (UNDP) in which the 21st century is defined as ``the Great Migration Era'' because of stark increases in the flow of goods and capital and mass movements of populations across borders.
Lee then went on to his main thesis which, summed up, seemed to be that Korea wants only highly educated, talented migrants ― the best and the brightest equipped with advanced knowledge.
He seemed to say that only those who can help the nation become a leader in information and technology innovation, or migrants rich enough to invest in business are welcome. The contribution and dedication ordinary migrant workers have made and continue to make to the economy was not mentioned.
The minister pointed out that the composition of those migrating to Korea has undergone change over the past 30 years. It has diversified in range from manual laborers, to immigrants by marriage (about 120,000 over the past 10 years), international students and professional workers.
He estimated that since 2002 the number of people who had lost or renounced Korean citizenship had increased to 1.8 million, far surpassing the current number of 83,000 naturalized or newly reinstated Korean citizens.
In brief, he pointed out that Korea has suffered a net and continuing outflow of Korean citizens to other countries. To counter population loss, he said the Ministry of Justice has introduced a business start-up visa (D8) and job-seekers visa (D10) to attract foreign professionals especially those graduating from local universities.
Immigrants who invest $500,000 in creating jobs in Korea are granted a ``Green Card.'' Really! But, will these migrants stay to bolster the population loss and the economy, or just make their ``bundle'' and leave?
Lee also vaunted the new ``medical tourism'' visas issued for foreign patients who need a long-term stay to receive medical treatment in Korean hospitals. The process has been streamlined particularly to benefit Chinese medical tourists.
He pointed out that the number of foreign residents in Korea had risen to 1.15 million and continues to rise. Lee lamented the rising problem of people remaining in the nation illegally.
He made it a point to justify the present administration's consistent and intensified laws against illegal aliens. The minister noted that there were 220,000 illegal aliens in the nation in 2007. By late 2009 the normal attrition of migrants leaving Korea and crackdowns had reduced that number to 184,000.
Conveniently not mentioned was, that too often, migrants have died or been seriously injured when crackdowns have turned brutal. Evidently, basic human rights are not important in Lee's vision of an open Korea!
Minister Lee expressed the view that illegal aliens hindered the government's efforts to attract skilled and highly specialized foreign workers. He bogusly claimed it caused friction between foreign migrant workers and Korean workers in the job market.
One wonders how such a highly positioned person could have made such unjustifiable and even outrageous allegations! Skilled professionals and other necessary foreign workers were already present in Korea before migrant manual workers began entering the country after the 1988 Olympics.
If the pay is right, professionals and skilled workers will always continue to come despite the presence of foreign workers doing manual work.
By the way, if the migrant workers were really so unnecessary, why did the Korean government create the falsely labeled ``industrial trainees system'' to encourage cheap labor to come to Korea?
It's well known that most migrant workers have been hired for jobs Koreans don't want and have consistently refused to do. Most of them are law-abiding and hard-working.
Small business owners in Korea have known this for quite some time and made their complaints known to the government ― but to no avail. Evidently the high and mighty and the movers and shakers of Korean society seldom, if ever, discuss these points with ordinary small Korean business owners.
After all, it's their businesses that suffer when the migrant workers they've hired, trained and, often times, become fond of are apprehended and forcibly deported. Needless to say, all the work these migrants have done to learn Korean and live harmoniously in Korea is just flushed down the drain!
The justice minister even accused migrant manual workers of making slums out of the neighborhoods where they live! But, just as happened and continues to happen in all advanced countries, migrants who are manual laborers have usually entered a host country at the lowest step of the ladder.
They merely inherit the slums that were already there but have been vacated by locals who have begun their climb up the ladder.
Lee announced that a bill revising the Immigration Law will be submitted to the National Assembly and take effect as early as the second half of 2012.
The Justice Ministry insists this is to prevent foreigners deported after being convicted of criminal activity from re-entering the country under false identities.
For this purpose (and from here onward it's not clear) a provision to the new law will require non-Koreans entering the country to provide their biometric information (fingerprints, photos etc.).
The law will also require that they apply for alien registration. Lee did not specifically mention whether this provision to the law (fingerprinting and submitting photos) will apply to all tourists.
Criminal elements usually take advantage of tourist visas etc. to enter a country for unlawful purposes. Let's hope that there will be sufficient dialog with all concerned when this bill is debated and drawn up.
Minister Lee's article simply trumpeted the present administration's murkily unclear policies on migration. It very lightly overlooked the way some government officials and unscrupulous business people shamelessly treat migrant workers in our midst.
If he wrote the article all by himself, shame on him! If it was written for him, he should have been more careful to monitor it for errors, misrepresentations and omissions. Maybe he needs to listen a bit more attentively to ``outside" opinions.
Fr. Jack Trisolini is with the ministry for migrant workers at the Labor Pastoral Commission of the Archdiocese of Seoul. The views expressed in the above article are the author's own and do not reflect the editorial policy of The Korea Times.
글 출처 : The Korea Times 12-11-2009 |