Migrant Workers' Television (Korea)

Migrant Social Movements and MWTV

Historically, Korea's development has been shaped mainly by struggles between different political and economic groups within a relatively homogeneous national culture. However, with neoliberal globalization, low-paid foreign workers have increased in number rapidly since the late 1980s. Mostly originating from economically less developed Asian countries (China, Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, Mongolia, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Burma), labor migration has accelerated the ethnic diversification of the Korean working class. The government projects the number will reach a million in 2010.

However, it is clear that neither government bureaucracies nor private industries were prepared to provide adequate conditions for the migrant workers. Until 2003 when Korea government changed its mandate on the migrant workers from a guest worker program to an Employment Permit System (EPS), the migrant workers were not considered as “laborers” but as “trainees,” which means that they were systematically excluded from any labor protection.

Thus, it was not rare in the workplace for migrant workers to suffer severely from exploitation, racist abuse, industrial accidents, sexual abuse, illegal layoffs, and so forth. Being “illegal,” they are constantly threatened by tough government crackdowns and forced deportations. Some even die while trying to escape immigration raids. Thus, it might not have been truly accidental when nine undocumented workers detained in Yosoo immigration detention center in 2007 were not rescued from an accidental fire in the building. “The Modern Slave,” which is a metaphorical description of the migrant workers, denotes their harsh and unjust living and working conditions.

The Foreign Workers Employment Bill to initiate the EPS in 2003 was a small but essential measure to remedy the serious rights violations for migrant workers. The bill's adoption is a significant victory achieved by almost a decade of struggle. The so-called migrant social movements (MSMs) are organized and mobilized by the diverse ideological, national, and ethnic communities to achieve basic rights for the foreign migrant workers. Since the initial protests in 1993 motivated by the tragic suicide of a Chinese migrant worker, MSMs have challenged and sometimes changed the laws and policies afflicting migrant workers in Korea. Moreover, the movement also has challenged Korean civil society to create new forms of collective action with the [Page 333]increasing engagement of migrant communities in the movement.

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