(In observance of the International Migrants Day on December 18)
In response to looming labor shortages in the so-called “3-D” industries (difficult, dangerous, dirty), Korea has allowed the entry of low-skilled foreign workers since 1990’s. Its Industrial Trainee Scheme introduced in 1993 was inadequate to address labor demand (an increasing employment of irregular foreign workers), unequipped to warrant trainees’ labor rights and social protection, and associated with high recruitment cost borne by trainees. The latter appears to be liked with trainees’ overstay - to recoup their initial sunk cost.