Ethnic Chinese in Korea Now in Service Business

Including the ethnic Chinese Koreans, many foreign citizens of Korean origin are legally allowed to get a job in various fields of the service industry other than the one related to dancing and drinking.

The government will also increase the number of foreign industry-trainees by 18,750 (14.8%) to 145,000. The trainee system was originally conceived to relieve the domestic labor shortage and provide more opportunities for foreigner to be trained in Korea.

On July 17, 2002, the government announced “Advanced Measures For Use of Foreign Workers” including the aforementioned measures. One government source stressed, “From 1999 on, the number of foreigners out of status have increased sharply. If we just leave the situation as it is, it will pose a serious problem to our society. Our position is to allow legal employment and crack down on illegal one.”

The government, however, allows only ethnic Koreans to engage in the service industry considering the number of them already in that industry and the shortage of domestic workers. Thus, foreigners of Korean origin can stay for maximum 2 years (One-year initial period and one-year extension). But they still cannot get a job related to dancing and drinking establishments.

In addition, the government mandated the one-month employment efforts to reduce the effect on the labor market. Therefore, employers who wish to hire foreigners should make efforts to hire domestic workers at least for one month. For one business entity, a maximum of 10 foreigners can be hired.

The government also announced it would lower the age limit to 40 or more in order to ease the immigration procedure for those who want to visit their relatives in Korea. This is the second time of lowering after the last November’s from 50 to 45.

On the other hand, the administration confirmed its policy extradite all the current illegal workers by the end of next March, and adjusted the quota for trainees, to make up for the loss, as follows: 130,000 for small and medium sized businesses; 3,000 for the fishing industry; 5,000 for the farming industry; and 7,500 for the the construction industry.

The government estimated that as of March 2002, the total of 227,000 foreigners are working and 266,000 of them (78.9%) have overstayed out of status.

Dong-Ki Sung esprit@donga.com