Police and immigration officials launched the biggest crackdown on illegal immigrants of the LMB administration, raiding the furniture factory complex of Maseok, Namyangju and an industrial zone in Yeoncheon, arresting about 100 illegal migrant workers.
Officials apparently surrounded the target areas and advanced, using tools to break down doors. Witnesses say five illegal migrants were injured in the operation.
A Justice Ministry official said they believed there to be about 700 illegal migrants in Maseok and about 200 in Yeoncheon, and that they would take strong measures against disturbances caused by illegal migrants.
He also said they’d launch two or three more major raids before the end of the year.
The crackdowns are part of the government’s plan to reduce the number of illegal immigrants — currently estimated at 220,000 — to around 200,000 by the end of the year, and to 10% of the total foreigner population by 2012 (it’s currently at 19.3%). The ministry put these plans in place when it judged that the activity of illegal migrants — including forming a union and protesting to have their immigration status legalized and participating in political protests such as demonstrations against the deployment of Korean troops to Iraq — had reached a serious level.
The Hankyoreh Shinmun had another quote from the Justice Ministry: “We launched a major, concentrated crackdown as the lack of public security — like areas where illegal aliens gather becoming slums and hotbeads of foreigner crime — grew serious.”
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Hotbeads of foreigner crime?
That will take some getting used to, but I think the minjok can handle it.
imagine if this happend in the states the ACLU would be all over the lawsuits, law enforcement would be called racist bigots and the MILLIONS of illegals would demand amnesty
imagine if this happend in the states the ACLU would be all over the lawsuits, law enforcement would be called racist bigots and the MILLIONS of illegals would demand amnesty
#2,
But isn’t it a bit much for illegal immigrants to try to form unions?
Yes, I imagine that the KCLU is not perhaps as active as its barbarian cousin.
Did I read this right?:
“We launched a major, concentrated crackdown as the lack of public security — like areas where 아저씨들 gather becoming slums and hotbeds of sexual crime — grew serious.”
Oh good, finally a crackdown in 신림. It’s about time.
The Seoul District Court ruled that forming a union was legal, but the Justice ministry appealed and the case is now pending in the supreme court. Keep in mind also that the union is not just made up of illegal workers, though those who have been here long enough to speak the language well and understand the society had only been able to reach that point in the past by becoming illegal (under the trainee system, which was just discontinued last year, if I remember correctly).
I’d be way out of line if I pretended to be in touch with the ins and outs of migrant workers in Korea. However, in my experience with illegal English teachers, I can say this: the overwhelming majority of illegal teachers want to be legal, and have been assured by their employers that they are in fact legal, or that the paperwork for their visas will be finished any day now (they’ll be told this line for YEARS).
Only recently have we seen any accountability for employers with illegal workers, but it’s obviously not enough. Seems to me if the police and government took to that angle more aggressively, many of these “problems” with foreigners would go away.
I hope they clean up Dongbu Ichondong next.
The target is illegal 3-D workers from developing countries, not English teachers.
“imagine if this happend in the states the ACLU would be all over the lawsuits, law enforcement would be called racist bigots and the MILLIONS of illegals would demand amnesty”
Every country in the world should have the right to enforce their immigration laws. There have been series of highly publicized raids against illegal Korean prostitutes in the United States, and the illegals were rightfully caught and deported. Why shouldn’t any country be allowed to do the same?
they need to get into the haebangchon rats nest.
“foreigner popular” = foreign population.
“Foreign” is an adjective; “foreigner” is not.
the Language Nazi
it’s always the same problem, that not only applies to korea, but to most developed countries as well. illegal workers usually serve a purpose: they are cheaper ! it’s a shared responsibility: the employers are to blame at least as much: they don’t pay taxes for them, and are not bind in any employer – employee contract that would guarantee some basic work rights to the workers. from there the spiral goes, some workers not feeling accepted or respected turn to disrespect themselves, and so on… it’s also understandable that some of them are trying to form or join unions, to try to have their basic rights respected.
not trying to take the blame out of them, I’d simply like to know which measures are taken against the employers. there should be some form of crackdown to force them to fine them and legalize their workers (which means pay them the right price and give them rights every worker deserve)
@cm,
I understand that these raids target 3-D workers. All I’m saying is that the police should perhaps focus more on 3-D employers. This article portrays such workers as criminals, when in reality, many of them may be victims. Meanwhile, the true criminals, the employers, face little or no consequences. In this, I concur wholeheartedly with br.
But, as I prefaced, I have little experience with migrant workers in Korea. So I’m curious as to what extent my “exploited worker” scenario actually holds water.
As a foreign resident, I can’t help but wonder what kind of message they are trying to send. The timing is worrisome:
Korean stocks are taking a blow, so is the Korean currency, and LG Display just got slapped with a 500 million dollar fine in the US.
There you go…. 20,000 more jobs available for Korean citizens displaced because of the down-turn in the economy.
Shouldn’t take long for the Korean employers to replace the illegal, evil foreigners with loyal Koreans trying to get out of their parents’ basements and the prostitutes displaced by the recent crackdowns on the sex-trade industry!
A win-win situation, no?
#15 – “There you go…. 20,000 more jobs available for Korean citizens displaced because of the down-turn in the economy.
Shouldn’t take long for the Korean employers to replace the illegal, evil foreigners with loyal Koreans trying to get out of their parents’ basements and the prostitutes displaced by the recent crackdowns on the sex-trade industry!
A win-win situation, no?”
Well, it would appear so, but I don’t know too many Koreans who are willing to take 3-D jobs. Admittedly, we’re talking about hard and sometimes dangerous work, but most people here seem to believe – rightly or wrongly – that these jobs are beneath them.
Most recent university graduates would far rather stay in their parents’ basements – playing countless hours of StarCraft, eating cup after cup of ramyeon, and watching stimulating “gag concerts” on TV, etc. – than taking a job in a factory or construction site.
Young Koreans, even those without university degrees, seem to frequently quit alright jobs and take a breather. While I would be inclined to keep making money until something better came along, many of the soon-to-be graduates I talk to aren’t that interested in taking or staying in a mediocre job in the meantime. Until parents are willing to kick them out or pay rent, this probably won’t change.
And, prostitutes aren’t going to be willing to take a significant pay cut for a factory job. (A job – as hard as it may be to believe – that could turn out to be as dangerous and degrading as turning tricks.) I suspect a lot of the sex workers are waiting out the latest in a long line of largely cosmetic crackdowns, or are relocating to areas/venues where the crackdown isn’t happening.
Speaking of slums, I live in Korea.
Plenty of Koreans in Australia are willing to do crappy jobs and get their hands dirty, so it is hard to believe that there are no Koreans willing to do it in Korea. If there were no illegals and legal foreign workers for these types of jobs, the jobs would not go unfilled. They would either pay employees a decent, living wage, or move to robotics.
Plenty of Koreans in Australia are willing to do crappy jobs and get their hands dirty because plenty of Koreans feel that other countries are better to do crappy work in.
And, sorry shakuhachi, I’m sceptical that “if there were no illegals and legal foreign workers for these types of jobs, the jobs would not go unfilled. They would either pay employees a decent, living wage, or move to robotics”. Is there evidence of this? I don’t think they would pay employees a decent, living wage. I think they would just work the workers they DO have even harder or cut more corners. I think a lot of Koreans know this so that’s why they don’t mind doing dirty work in Austraila, for instance. ;P
Melissa, there was a crackdown on illegal immigrants in the US at a certain company doing jobs that Americans supposedly don’t want to do. When the immigrants were taken into custody, Americans lined up for the jobs.
http://www.hattiesburgamerican.....1/80826023
If Koreans don’t want to do the work in the first place, it will be impossible for them to get more productivity out of existing workers without increasing their renumeration. Anyway, there are never any jobs that people do not want to do. There are just jobs that they will not do under a certain level of payment. The market can sort out how much such work is worth, and there will not be a shortage of workers. Illegal workers distort this process by pushing down the rate to that below tolerable to the natives.
In agreement with #20.
But what about the natives who benefit from cheap things?
illegal immigration, and illegal labor is due to unionized labor.
i think all US Koreans I know of hire Mexicans to do home improvement, moving, lawn mowing, and possibly plumbing jobs, electrician jobs, etc.
these plumbers charge like they are wall street mid managers.
if America could outsource them, they will at a heart beat.
so far, the biggest loser to unionized labor is the manufacturing industry of America.
these jobs were dying in the 1980s.
next is the GM, Ford, Chrysler.
objectively, they make more powerful, more luxurious, and as gas efficient cars compared Hyundai. Reliability is a question. Hyundai’s not stupid enough to offer 100k, 10 yr warranties, if they expect to be fixing them all the time. Hyundai’s not dying. Big 3 are. All fingers point to their social program obligations. I have GM health care. I have GM pensions. I am UAW.
Looks like Obama will bail them out and continue this.
If Obama is replaced after 4 yrs, it will be due to $. Failure to revive the economy. That alone would guarantee replacement.
If I were Obama, I would let the Big 3 die, and sell it off like Daewoo was sold off.
#20 – “Illegal workers distort this process by pushing down the rate to that below tolerable to the natives.”
Yeah, but are we talking the symptom or the cause? Were multitudes of Korean companies in Incheon, Ansan, Suwon, Pyeongtaek, etc. be: A) willing to give legal Korean workers good wages and benefits, and B) unwilling to hire illegal foreign workers for shitty wages and benefits, this wouldn’t be such a big problem. Migrant workers wouldn’t be here were there not a demand for them.
By the way, ever notice how the Korean government seems to know exactly how many illegal foreign workers there are in Korea at any given time? Not unlike with the occasional crackdowns on prostitution, crackdowns on migrant workers are somewhat cosmetic. Cheap, illegal workers are essential to the manufacturing sector here – if not directly to the big companies, than to many of their subcontractors and suppliers – and the government, at least for the most part, is not interested in taking action that could seriously hamper Korean automotive production, to give but one example.
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