Migrant Centers Across Korea

Korea takes pride in calling itself a monoethnic country...but things are changing fast. In the past 30 years, there is a slow but constant increase in the number of foreigners in the country. At the moment, almost 2 percent of the entire population is foreign born which stands at a modest 1.6 million. More than 55 percent of the entire foreigners are the migrant workers - doing the 3D jobs in Korea.

Korea does not allow immigration into the country and the new trends of marrying foreigners is tackled with an agenda of integration rather than assimilation. According to a latest research, a very high percentage of Korean men are marrying foreign women mostly from China, Japan, Vietnam, the Philippines, Russia, Mongolia and the US.

There are about 36 migrant centers in Seoul and its satellite cities to cater to the needs of the migrants. Over the past decade, besides the 'The Immigration Control Act', Korea has come up with several other laws specifically meant for foreigners and they include:

1. Act on the Treatment of Foreigners in Korea.
2. Act on Foreign Workers' Employment, etc.
3. Support for Multicultural Families Act.
4. Act on the Immigration and Legal Status of Overseas Koreans.
5. Basic Law on Social Security (applied to those who are married to Koreans and
obtained Korean nationality and the offspring of such marriage).

These are some of the major laws that are all available online in English.
Migrant workers both skilled and unskilled falls under a few more laws such as The Labor Standard Act, Minimum Wage Act, and so on. It is mportant to know them because the ignorance of law is no excuse!