Intersections of the Migration Regime and the Care Regime: The South Korean Case Gyuchan Kim A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Sociological Studies The University of Sheffield March 2016 CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES iii LIST OF FIGURES v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vii ABSTRACT viii CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Finding Connections: Migration and Care 1 1.2. The South Korean Case 4 1.3. The Research 7 CHAPTER 2. CARE, MIGRATION AND THEIR INTERSECTIONS 13 2.1. Introduction 13 2.2. Care: the Concept 15 2.3. Care and the Welfare State 18 2.4. Migration and Transnationalisation of Care 23 2.5. Intersections of Migration Regime and Care Regime 27 2.6. Conclusion 35 CHAPTER 3. RESEARCH METHODS 37 3.1. Introduction 37 3.2. Research Orientations 37 3.3. Data Methods 43 3.4. Conclusion 53 CHAPTER 4. MIGRATION TRANSITION IN KOREA 55 4.1. Introduction 55 4.2. Migration Growth in Korea 56 4.3. Factors Contributing to the Growth 63 4.4. Conclusion 83 CHAPTER 5. MIGRATION REGIME OF KOREA 87 5.1. Introduction 87 5.2. Institutional Backgrounds 91 5.3. Unskilled Labour Migration Policy 101 5.4. Co-ethnic Migration Policy 109 i 5.5. Marriage Migration Policy 116 5.6. Discussion and Conclusion 126 CHAPTER 6. CARE REGIME OF KOREA 131 6.1. Introduction 131 6.2. The Korean Welfare State 132 6.3. Care and the Korean Welfare State 142 6.4. Care Rebalancing on the Macro-level 155 6.5. Care Rebalancing on the Micro-level 171 6.6. Discussion and Conclusion 179 CHAPTER 7. INTERSECTIONS OF THE MIGRATION REGIME AND 183 THE CARE REGIME IN KOREA 7.1. Introduction 183 7.2. Intersection 1: Co-ethnic Migrant Workers in Paid Care Work 185 7.3. Intersection 2: Marriage Migrants in Unpaid Care Work 205 7.4. Conclusion 219 CHAPTER 8. CONCLUSIONS 223 8.1. Introduction 223 8.2. Findings and Contributions 223 8.3. Policy Implications for Korea 230 8.4. Suggestions for Future Research 232 8.5. Epilogue 234 APPENDICES 235 BIBLIOGRAPHY 241 ii LIST OF TABLES Table 1.1 Indicators for the analysis of care and migration regimes 9 Table 2.1 International migrant stock by region (millions) 32 Table 2.2 Percentage of female migrants in the international migrant stock by 33 region (%) Table 4.1 Migration growth by route in Korea (stock, person) 59 Table 4.2 Naturalisation from marriage migration in Korea (accumulative, 63 person) Table 4.3 Analytical frame to examine factors contributing migration growth in 64 Korea Table 4.4 Trend in international marriages in Korea (cases, %) 72 Table 4.5a Change in attitudes on marriage: 2002 and 2014 compared (%) 74 Table 4.5b Change in attitudes on international marriage: 2008 and 2014 74 compared (%) Table 4.6 Labour migrant sending countries to Korea and their economic 76 indicators, 2014 (person, %) Table 4.7 Correlation between the scale of labour migration into Korea and 77 economic performances of the sending countries Table 4.8 Chinese migrants by route in Korea (stock), 2014 82 Table 5.1 Analytical frame in the examination of the Korean migration regime 90 Table 5.2 Budget allocations for the First Basic Plan for Immigration Policy 93 (million KRW) Table 5.3 The Basic Plan for Immigration Policy: 1st and 2nd round compared 95 Table 5.4 Migration routes and scales by visa type in Korea, 2014 98 Table 5.5 Residency regulations on labour and family migrants in Korea as of 100 2015 Table 5.6 Composition of labour migrants in Korea, 2014 102 Table 5.7 Development of unskilled labour migration policies in Korea 103 Table 5.8 Yearly admission quota for the EPS by industry in Korea (person) 107 Table 5.9 Co-ethnic migrants by visa type in Korea, 2014 111 Table 5.10 ‘Overseas Compatriot’ and ‘Working Visit’ migrants by nationality in 112 Korea, 2014 Table 5.11 Comparison between general unskilled labour migration visa (E-9) 114 and ‘Working Visit’ visa (H-2) Table 5.12 Comparison between ‘Overseas Compatriot’ visa (F-4) and ‘Working 115 Visit’ visa (H-2) Table 5.13 Marriage migrant population by origin and sex in Korea (stock), 2014 117 Table 5.14 The Basic Plan for Multicultural Family Policy: 1st and 2nd round 119 compared iii Table 5.15 Labour and social rights of marriage migrants in Korea 121 Table 5.16 Gender structure in the Korean migration regime, 2013 (person) 129 Table 6.1 Structure of the Korean social security system 132 Table 6.2 Structure of the ‘Basic Plan for Ageing Society and Population’ 153 Table 6.3 Analytical frame to examine the Korean care regime 155 Table 6.4 Care policy developments in Korea 156 Table 6.5 Government spending on childcare by programme in Korea (million 157 KRW, %) Table 6.6 Childcare cash benefits per month in Korea, 2014 (KRW) 162 Table 6.7 Eldercare regimes compared in Korea 164 Table 6.8 Finance of the LTCI in Korea, 2008 - 2013 (million KRW, %) 165 Table 6.9 The accumulative number of LTCI applicants and beneficiaries by 166 each year in Korea (person, %) Table 6.10 Care professionals working for the LTCI in Korea (person) 168 Table 6.11 Primary care givers for children who do not use formal institutional 173 care services, 2010 (%) Table 6.12 Primary care givers for older people who are entitled to the LTCI care 173 services, 2010 - 2013 (%) Table 7.1 Intersections between the migration regime and the care regime in 184 Korea Table 7.2 List of service jobs open to co-ethnic migrants under the WVP in 186 Korea Table 7.3 Family-employer qualification to hire migrant care workers in Korea 187 Table 7.4 Co-ethnic migrant workers by industry in Korea, 2012 (%) 188 Table 7.5 Co-ethnic migrant workers by occupation in Korea (%) 189 Table 7.6 Primary reasons to hire migrant domestic workers in Korea 193 Table 7.7 Care worker regime in Korea 205 Table 7.8 ‘Multicultural Family Policies’ across Marriage Migrants’ Life- 207 course Table 7.9 Regional distribution of marriage migrants by sex, 2012 (%) 215 Table 7.10 Household compositions of ‘multicultural families’ by sex, 2009 (%) 216 iv LIST OF FIGURES Figure 2.1 Growth in migrant stocks in East Asian countries 33 Figure 4.1 Growth of migrant stock in Korea (person, %) 58 Figure 4.2 Growth in labour migration by skill-level in Korea (stock, person) 60 Figure 4.3 Growth in family migration by visa category in Korea (stock, person) 61 Figure 4.4 Growth in co-ethnic migrants in Korea (stock, person) 62 Figure 4.5 Primary reason to hire migrant workers by industry (selected), 2009 67 (%) Figure 4.6 Reasons for migrant workers to choose Korea, 2009 (cases) 78 Figure 5.1 The governing system of Korean migration policies 92 Figure 5.2 Labour migration regime of Korea by skill and ethnicity (visa type) 128 Figure 6.1 Ageing trend in Korea (%, age) 145 Figure 6.2 Projections on the percentage of the population aged 80 or over, 145 selected countries (%) Figure 6.3 Change in the household size in Korea (%, person) 147 Figure 6.4 Change in the household makeup of the families with the aged 65 or 148 over in Korea (%, person) Figure 6.5 Increase in female-headed households and their marital statuses in 148 Korea (%, person) Figure 6.6 Trend in the women’s labour market participation rate in Korea (%) 150 Figure 6.7 Gender difference in the labour market participation in Korea (1,000 151 persons) Figure 6.8 Increase in childcare institutions in Korea 159 Figure 6.9 Increase in childcare institutions and enrolled children in Korea 161 Figure 6.10 The number of children attending childcare centres by age in Korea 161 Figure 6.11 Growth in eldercare facilities in Korea (number) 167 Figure 6.12 Public spending on the elderly and the family sectors in Korea as 169 percentage of GDP (%) Figure 6.13 Gendered patterns of labour market participation rates by age in 174 Korea (%) Figure 6.14 Use of parental leaves in Korea (person, %) 176 Figure 6.15 Time used for care/domestic work per day by gender and earning 179 type, 2004 and 2009 (minutes) Figure 7.1 Trend in divorce of marriage migrants in Korea (cases, %) 209 Figure 7.2 Income (monthly) distribution of marriage migrant households, 2012 210 (1,000 KRW, %) Figure 7.3 Growth in children of marriage migrants by age cohort in Korea, 212 (person, %) v LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS CIS Commonwealth of Independent States EPS Employment Permit System, Korea GCC Global Care Chain(s) GDP Gross Domestic Product ILO International Labour Organisation IMF International Monetary Fund IOM International Organisation for Migration IPC Immigration Policy Committee of Korea ITS Industrial Trainee System, Korea KEIS Korea Employment Information Service KIHASA Korea Institute of Health and Social Affairs KIS Korea Immigration Service KLI Korea Labour Institute LTCI Long-Term Care Insurance MOEL Ministry of Employment and Labour of Korea MOGAHA Ministry of Government Administration and Home Affairs MOGEF Ministry of Gender Equality and Family of Korea MOHW Ministry of Health and Welfare of Korea MOJ Ministry of Justice of Korea OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development SMBA Small and Medium Business Administration of Korea SME Small and Medium-sized Enterprise(s) TFR Total Fertility Rate UN The United Nations WVP Working Visit Programme, Korea vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I cannot honestly claim that this thesis is only the fruit of my hard work.