Migrant workers harvest and package vegetables in a greenhouse in Gasan-myeon, South Korea. Though a shrinking population makes imported labour vital, migrant workers routinely face predatory employers, inhumane conditions and other abuse. — ©2024 The New York Times Company
SAMSUNG phones. Hyundai cars. LG TVs. South Korean exports are available in virtually every corner of the world. But the nation is more dependent than ever before on an import to keep its factories and farms humming – foreign labour.
This shift is part of the fallout from a demographic crisis that has left South Korea with a shrinking and ageing population. Data released recently showed that last year the country broke its own record – again – for the world’s lowest total fertility rate.
President Yoon Suk-yeol’s government has responded by more than doubling the quota for low-skilled workers from less-developed nations, including Vietnam, Cambodia, Nepal, the Philippines and Bangladesh. Hundreds of thousands of them now toil in South Korea, typically in small factories, or on remote farms or fishing boats – jobs that locals consider too dirty, dangerous or low-paying.
Bangladeshi migrant workers Badhan Muhammad Sabur Kazi, Asis and Chandra in Haksa Village, a small complex of cheap and rundown apartments in Pocheon, a town northeast of Seoul. — ©2024 The New York Times Company
With little say in choosing or changing employers, many foreign workers endure predatory bosses, inhumane housing, discrimination and other abuses.
One of these is Chandra Das Hari Narayan, a native of Bangladesh. In July, working in a wooded park north of Seoul, South Korea, he was ordered to cut down a tall tree. Though the law requires a safety helmet when doing such work, he was not given one.
A falling branch hit his head, knocking him out and sending blood spilling from his nose and mouth.
After his bosses refused to call an ambulance, a fellow migrant worker rushed him to a hospital, where doctors found internal bleeding in his head and his skull fractured in three places. His employer reported only minor bruises to authorities, according to a document it filed for workers’ compensation for Chandra without his approval.
“They would not have treated me like this if I were South Korean,” said Chandra, 38. “They treat migrant workers like disposable items.”
The work can be deadly – foreign workers were nearly three times more likely to die in work-related accidents compared with the national average, according to a recent study. Such findings have alarmed rights groups and foreign governments; in January the Philippines prohibited its citizens from taking seasonal jobs in South Korea.
But South Korea remains an attractive destination, with more than 300,000 low-skilled workers on temporary work visas. (Those figures do not include the tens of thousands of ethnic Korean migrants from China and former Soviet republics, who typically face less discrimination.) About 430,000 additional people have overstayed their visas and are working illegally, according to government data.
Migrant workers often land in places like Pocheon, a town northeast of Seoul where factories and greenhouses rely heavily on overseas labour.
Sammer Chhetri, 30, got here in 2022 and sends US$1,500 of his US$1,750 monthly paycheck to his family in Nepal.
“You can’t make this kind of money in Nepal,” said Chhetri, who works from sunrise to dark in long, tunnel-shaped plastic greenhouses.
Another Nepalese worker, Hari Shrestha, 33, said his earnings from a South Korean furniture factory have helped his family build a house in Nepal.
Then there is the allure of South Korean pop culture, its globally popular TV dramas and music.
“Whenever I call my teenage daughter back home, she always asks, ‘Daddy, have you met BTS yet?’” said Asis Kumar Das, 48, who is from Bangladesh.
For nearly three years, Asis worked 12-hour shifts, six days a week, in a small textile factory for a monthly salary of about US$2,350 – which he did not regularly receive.
“They have never paid me on time or in full,” he said, showing an agreement his former employer signed with him promising to pay part of his overdue wages by the end of the month.
Asis is far from alone. Migrant workers annually report US$91mil in unpaid wages, according to government data.
The Labour Ministry said it is “making all-out efforts” to improve working and living conditions for these workers. It is sending inspectors to more workplaces, hiring more translators and enforcing penalties for employers who mistreat workers, it said.
Some towns are building public dormitories after local farmers complained that the government was importing foreign workers without adequate housing plans.
The government has also offered “exemplary” workers visas that allow them to bring over their families.
Officials have said that South Korea intends to “bring in only those foreigners essential to our society” and “strengthening the crackdown on those illegally staying here.”
But the authorities – who plan to issue a record 165,000 temporary work visas this year – have also scaled back some services, for instance cutting off funding for nine migrant support centres.
Migrants also say they face racist or xenophobic attitudes in South Korea.
“They treat people differently according to skin colour,” said Asis, the textile worker. “In the crowded bus, they would rather stand than take an empty seat next to me. I ask myself, ‘Do I smell?’”
Biswas Sree Shonkor, 34, a plastics factory worker, said his pay remained flat while his employer gave raises to and promoted South Korean workers he helped train.
Chandra said that even worse than workplace injuries like the one he suffered in the arboretum was how managers insulted foreign workers, but not locals, for similar mistakes.
“We don’t mind doing the hard work,” he said. “It’s not our body but our mind that tires.” — ©2024 The New York Times Company
