Anticipating proactive solutions

Serdal featured in the “Immigration Age” series of the JoongAng Ilbo has been living in South Korea for 15 years. He is a cook at a Turkish restaurant in Mapo, Seoul. He speaks fluent Korean. Since he has been spending most of his adulthood in Korea, he feels more at home in Korea than his home country of Turkiye. His friends are mostly here. He attempted to apply for a permanent residency to chase his Korean dream but may have to give up. He was told he needed a college degree and documents stating annual earning of a minimum 85 million won ($60,000).

Academic and income standard is essential to earn residency in Korea, where selectiveness and barriers in favor of high levels of education and earnings remain part of immigration policy.

Li Jibing from China must leave Korea soon. He has been working as a crew member on a fishing boat, but a new work permit will be due soon. He needs an E-7 visa if he wants to work in Korea for up to five years, but he lacks a college degree and efficiency in Korean.

There are thousands of foreigners working in Korea as unskilled workers. The E-7 requiring a college degree and high level of specialization in return for a long-term stay goes out to 5,000 a year. The quota has gone up from 2,000 last year due to persistent demand from industrial sites.

“We cannot find any Korean to work for us even if we offer 5 million won a month,” says Li’s employer. Farming, fishing, and manufacturing sectors have long been dependent on foreign workers. But Korea’s immigration policy sends them back home by the time they have become skilled.

Japan on the other hand has opened up widely for foreigners. Its immigration has been adjusting to thinning population and work force. Tokyo set up the Immigration Services Agency four years ago. It removed resident status limit for low-to medium-level workers needed in construction, farming, and manufacturing industries suffering chronic labor shortage.

The industrial categories enabling de facto permanent stay are increasing. Japan, which used to be as closed as Korea in immigration control, has changed to address structural constraints from its low birth rate and aging phenomenon.

Korea has the lowest birth rate in the world, worse than Japan. The economically active population in Korea will drop to 28 million by 2040 from the current 37 million. The policy to encourage births has had little effect.

The only realistic solution is to draw foreigners to Korea. But the outdated immigration policy gets in the way. President Yoon Suk Yeol has ordered “radical and preemptive” measures on immigration matters after reading the series of the JoongAng Ilbo.

We anticipate proactive actions.