“What We Want” Activities
Research
1-1 FOA launched its research activities from this year. As its first project, the research institute published reports on the situation of human rights in the detention centers, street campaigns, and the general situations in detention centers. Currently there are about 1,000 migrants detained in these centers. Our campaign team sold t-shirts ($10) and sent protest cards to the Minister of Justice. Our reports were published in Korean.
1-2. The second research project focused on documenting the life stories of marriage immigrants. The subjects of this documentation were selected among the participants of our Korean language classes. Most of marriage immigrants complained about various kinds of difficulties they face in Korea such as their everyday troubles with their in-laws, problems with language, and difficulties resulting from their financial dependency. The reports on this project will be published in late February, 2009. We also plan to conduct research on the social rights of migrant women in the year 2009. Since the start of financial crisis, a growing number of women face economic difficulties or crisis in their marriage life. As a result, many women are looking for jobs in various sectors. We plan to research on their general working conditions.
Publication
1-3. FOA completed all the preparation to publish bilingual children’s books (total 15 fairy tales from three different countries) and animation for the children of multicultural families. The books and animation are in Vietnamese, Russian, and Tagalog, and will be distributed to marriage immigrants.
1-4. White paper on the Yeosu fire accident was published. It includes various materials published by NGOs, government, and the media.
Migrants’ Weekly School
1-5. Vietnamese Class
Every Sunday Qien from Vietnam teaches Vietnamese language to local Koreans. Qien is one of our Korean language students. Her Vietnamese class is at 11-12 and fee is 30,000 Won.
1-6. Russian Class for Children
One of our Korean language class students, Julia, along with others from Central Asia now teaches Russian language, culture, and plays to local children every Saturday. Now there are six pre-school children as students in the class. Most of the students are the children of marriage migrants from countries such as Russia and Uzbekhistan. They enjoy their time to learn about their mothers’ countries and cultures. Hours: 11:00- 12:30 Sat.
Fee: 20,000 Won
1-7. Asia Girls, Women’s Play Team
Asia Girls is made up of three Filipinas, and made their debut at the end of year party in 2008. For this, they got together every week to learn dancing, singing, and speaking. Women from other countries are welcome to join.
Fee: Free
1-8. Human Rights and Culture Education Session for Korean Children
Women migrants - Qien (Vietnam), Marie (Philippines), Natasha (Uzbekistan), and Julia (Russia) - held two classes for local children to educate them about human rights and diverse Asian cultures. The teachers introduced their cultures, customs, and food as well as their experiences in Korea. At the end of each class, children had chance to write their virtual friends who are from family of (im)migrant backgrounds.
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Migrant Workers’ Declaration of Human Rights
We are mere economic tools here in South Korea. The dignity and rights that every human should enjoy only exist beyond our reach, outside the barriers of nationality and economic capacity. Yet Korea has become a multicultural society. A society that neglects dignity and basic human rights cannot be truly multicultural. Korea is a society where right to migrant labor are distorted into the right to use economic tools, where exclusion and discrimination is encouraged with every modifier on earth, where the only response to the clamor for right to migrant labor and abolition of discrimination is forced deportation, and where nationality and economic capacity define social rights, equality, and the value of labor. The so-called ‘multicultural society’ in Korea is a deception. Fifteen years ago, our predecessors volunteered to be confined in chains to expose the hypocrisy and falsehood of Korean Society. But today, we are going to break these very chains of discrimination and suppression. This is our resistance to all the policies aimed to use us as economic tools.
We refuse Korean government’s migrant labor policy of short-term cycle. For we are not machines easily used and disposed in case of need. A short-term cycle policy without an understanding and concern for people means an onset of discrimination and anti-human rights. It’s a barometer that shows the contradiction of Korean society, which clamors for economic tools but not the neighbors to live together. It advertised to be so generous when it passed the Employment Permit System bill, saying that the rights of migrant workers are now guaranteed. However, we migrant workers would remain as working machines as long as the short-term cycle policy continues to exist. We have already settled down in this country, but the short-term cycle policy denies this fact, regardless of Korean society’s own need and justice. It should be abolished immediately. We have the right to settle down wherever we want to.
We refuse the forced deportation that infringes on human dignity like a witch-hunt. Every person has a personal freedom and the right to that freedom, which should be protected. However, our reality is exactly the opposite. It is chaotic and lawless, saying ‘do whatever you want if you can’ after cornering us to the edge of the bottomless cliff. The minimum right to personal freedom cannot find its place before the color of skin and the nationality. The Korean government’s claim that its ruthless regulation is to protect our human rights and stabilize the society is a mere lie to hide its illegal deeds of anti-human rights. The regulation and deportation, which are carried at the expense of our lives to make us the perpetual working machines, should be stopped immediately. We are humans with rights to our own dignity and lives.
We refuse the current Employment Permit System that restricts our rights to our labor and the values thereof. It denies the three labor rights (right to organize, right to collective bargaining, and the right to strike) that should be guaranteed for every worker, and it only guarantees the rights to employment instead of the right to labor. The Employment Permit System also denies the right not to be held in slavery or servitude. We are slave workers deprived of right to organize labor union and the freedom to move from workplace to workplace. In a society where the right to earn the same amount of wage for the same amount of labor has already been infringed, we are mere obsolete machines who can barely earn the minimum wage. Korean government should stop this effort to maintain this unequal policy. It should stop its brutal regulation/deportation and the threat to alter migrant workers’ status of residence. We are humans with freedom to choose our occupations, and we know the value of our work and our rights to labor.
Yes, we are the workers on this land, and at the same time the humans. We reject the Korean eyes that want us to remain poor and miserable. This workaholic machine, which always smiles despite its 10-year exile from family, sleep in a container box without any sunshine or heater, and the fact that a rookie Korean earns more than 10-year veteran migrant worker, is not us any longer. We are the workers and humans who pay tax as Korean workers and have the rights to enjoy universal rights and public service guaranteed to all the citizens in this nation.
And we know that it is the solidarity rights that we need to exercise in order to realize all the aforementioned rights. We know only too well. Thus, we give our hands to all the discriminations in Korean society today, to those who resist the discrimination against nonstandard workers, women, farmers, the disabled, sexual minorities, and much more. In the end, we will make Korea a more equal society, and furthermore make it a world where human rights are fully guaranteed.
Participants of the convention to urge the government to stop brutal regulation/deportation of migrant workers and guarantee human rights and labor rights. ###
We are mere economic tools here in South Korea. The dignity and rights that every human should enjoy only exist beyond our reach, outside the barriers of nationality and economic capacity. Yet Korea has become a multicultural society. A society that neglects dignity and basic human rights cannot be truly multicultural. Korea is a society where right to migrant labor are distorted into the right to use economic tools, where exclusion and discrimination is encouraged with every modifier on earth, where the only response to the clamor for right to migrant labor and abolition of discrimination is forced deportation, and where nationality and economic capacity define social rights, equality, and the value of labor. The so-called ‘multicultural society’ in Korea is a deception. Fifteen years ago, our predecessors volunteered to be confined in chains to expose the hypocrisy and falsehood of Korean Society. But today, we are going to break these very chains of discrimination and suppression. This is our resistance to all the policies aimed to use us as economic tools.
We refuse Korean government’s migrant labor policy of short-term cycle. For we are not machines easily used and disposed in case of need. A short-term cycle policy without an understanding and concern for people means an onset of discrimination and anti-human rights. It’s a barometer that shows the contradiction of Korean society, which clamors for economic tools but not the neighbors to live together. It advertised to be so generous when it passed the Employment Permit System bill, saying that the rights of migrant workers are now guaranteed. However, we migrant workers would remain as working machines as long as the short-term cycle policy continues to exist. We have already settled down in this country, but the short-term cycle policy denies this fact, regardless of Korean society’s own need and justice. It should be abolished immediately. We have the right to settle down wherever we want to.
We refuse the forced deportation that infringes on human dignity like a witch-hunt. Every person has a personal freedom and the right to that freedom, which should be protected. However, our reality is exactly the opposite. It is chaotic and lawless, saying ‘do whatever you want if you can’ after cornering us to the edge of the bottomless cliff. The minimum right to personal freedom cannot find its place before the color of skin and the nationality. The Korean government’s claim that its ruthless regulation is to protect our human rights and stabilize the society is a mere lie to hide its illegal deeds of anti-human rights. The regulation and deportation, which are carried at the expense of our lives to make us the perpetual working machines, should be stopped immediately. We are humans with rights to our own dignity and lives.
We refuse the current Employment Permit System that restricts our rights to our labor and the values thereof. It denies the three labor rights (right to organize, right to collective bargaining, and the right to strike) that should be guaranteed for every worker, and it only guarantees the rights to employment instead of the right to labor. The Employment Permit System also denies the right not to be held in slavery or servitude. We are slave workers deprived of right to organize labor union and the freedom to move from workplace to workplace. In a society where the right to earn the same amount of wage for the same amount of labor has already been infringed, we are mere obsolete machines who can barely earn the minimum wage. Korean government should stop this effort to maintain this unequal policy. It should stop its brutal regulation/deportation and the threat to alter migrant workers’ status of residence. We are humans with freedom to choose our occupations, and we know the value of our work and our rights to labor.
Yes, we are the workers on this land, and at the same time the humans. We reject the Korean eyes that want us to remain poor and miserable. This workaholic machine, which always smiles despite its 10-year exile from family, sleep in a container box without any sunshine or heater, and the fact that a rookie Korean earns more than 10-year veteran migrant worker, is not us any longer. We are the workers and humans who pay tax as Korean workers and have the rights to enjoy universal rights and public service guaranteed to all the citizens in this nation.
And we know that it is the solidarity rights that we need to exercise in order to realize all the aforementioned rights. We know only too well. Thus, we give our hands to all the discriminations in Korean society today, to those who resist the discrimination against nonstandard workers, women, farmers, the disabled, sexual minorities, and much more. In the end, we will make Korea a more equal society, and furthermore make it a world where human rights are fully guaranteed.
Participants of the convention to urge the government to stop brutal regulation/deportation of migrant workers and guarantee human rights and labor rights. ###
STATEMENT
STATEMENT I
Towards a multicultural society where respect of difference rather than discrimination rules:
Artists’ Statement
On the Maseok Mass Crackdown
On November 12th Maseok and Chungsan area (Yonchon-gun) of the Namyangjoo city appeared as if a war took. It was because Ministry of Justice launched a massive crackdown jointly with the police department under the pretext of arresting ‘illegal’ foreign migrant workers. As a result, about one hundred thirty foreigners got arrested while many others were injured in the process. Three out of them were required for a surgical operation. The government’s crackdown on that day was done without any respect for human rights of foreign migrant workers. For example, a Bangladeshi woman had to ease herself with a handcuff still placed on one hand and a Korean colleague of hers watching for her. Later on, while asserting for further crackdown, Ministry of Justice stated that “regulations on illegal foreigners and their illegal activities are necessary for the maintenance of legal order and protection of local residents as well as the foreigners’ own human rights”. This event gives us a concrete picture of how the current government’s policy on foreign workers will be processed from now on.
As clearly shown in the current worldwide economic crisis triggered by the financial crisis in the US, national borders proved to be useless with the free migration of capital. The same situation is true with labor. Our economy cannot function without migrant workers. Recently there arose voices complaining that foreigners are taking our jobs. But, with a close look, one will find how such way of thinking is groundless. Foreign workers are not taking away what young job seekers are looking for. They work in furniture factories with permanent risk of their fingers cut, in leather manufacturing factories with lethal odors from chemical materials, and in small restaurants where they have to wash dishes all day without a rest. The government knows this as well as the small business owners who were also inflicted by the November 12 crackdown. Nonetheless, it is trying a worse scenario out of the Employment Permit System, which already has been criticized as a slavery system without migrant’s freedom to choose their workplaces. As an example, Ways to Improve Unskilled Foreign Workforce Policy presented by the Presidential Council on National Competitiveness on September 25 suggests to lower the minimum wage of migrant workers and requires them to pay for their own meal and accommodation, which originally were charged to their employers. It is doubted if such policy would strengthen the national economy. Even if so, it cannot be a desirable direction in a long-term perspective. We, who have the history of long labor migration to foreign countries, should seriously worry what kind of ill consequences will be brought by such discriminatory policies on foreign workers.
At this moment, we need to reflect fundamentally on how our society has been treating foreigner workers. Isn’t our deep prejudice towards foreign workers from the so-called developing countries shaming our grand project towards becoming an advanced nation? There is a sect in our society that treats them as a potential source of crime. It is problematic to generalize the whole group with a few cases. We vividly remember the terrible infanticide that occured a few years ago in the Seorae Vaillage. In regards to the event, while substantially shocked by its brutality, we still displayed a mature attitude by not generalizing it as the problem of the whole French resident community in Korea. When Cho Seung Hee’s massacre occurred in Virginia Tech, many Koreans felt a kind of collective guilt. Americans found it unintelligible why so many Koreans found it as their own deed not as Cho’s individual misdeed. What should be deported out of the country are not migrant workers but our own prejudice and ignorance.
The Lee government asks what is wrong with regulating ‘illegal’ migrant workers and execute law legitimately. Not only it is doubted if they strictly followed the law in the course of their crackdowns, but what is more crucial is the danger with the idea that whatever is by law is always just. We are deeply worried that the tyranny of legalism will not stop at policing and deporting ‘illegal’ migrant workers but will further oppress various minorities in our society including irregular workers.
We see the issue of migrant worker as the measure of our own consciousness and awareness of multiculturalism. With a growing migrant population in the past ten some years, we should overcome the idea of exclusive nationalism. We should acknowledge that there can be Koreans who are dark skinned. We should accept marriage immigrants as equally Korean mothers even though they cannot speak Korean language well. We should accept all of them as our good neighbors whether they be Southeast Asian migrant workers laboring in factories in Ansan, French residents in Seorae Village, or the foreign guests in the TV show Minyodul eui suda. We cannot sustain the Korean Wave with the same mentality that discriminated the halfies born between Korean women and US soldiers and the apathy towards their suffering.
Pulled over the car
Saw it on my way
Written in a clear, green board
Vietnam, that proud name in red letters
And that blurb just below it . . .
They will never run away
-From A Placard to be Abused by Park Nam Joon
Language devoid of tolerance towards the other easily becomes violent. Unfortunately, since the Independence, we have been speaking only one language without accepting others. The language of progress, defeat, and nationalistic victory… Today such language gave birth to expressions like “foreign brides keep the house well” or “Vietnamese girls do not run away,” which reveal the shameless ignorance we have. ‘Different’ languages do not mean ‘they are wrong.’
A multicultural society where respect of difference rather than discrimination rules is our future. Forced orderliness cannot be what we want today. The real power in this global era comes from diversity and difference.
1. Stop crackdown against all migrant workers.
1. Improve the Employment Permit System, the modern slavery.
1. Include Korean Chinese under the Overseas Koreans Law.
1. Amend the Korean Nationality Act that mandates the candidates to pass Korean language written exam and to complete the social unification course from January 1, 2009.
1. Provide a comprehensive blueprint for a multicultural and human rights-friendly society.
Association of artists concerned with migrant issues in Korea, December 17, 2008
STATEMENT II
MTU members strongly condemn the Korean government's barbaric crackdown in Maseok!
"The ongoing action that Korean government is utterly inhumane and directly goes against their policy of globalization. The Korean government's actions towards migrant workers establish the impression of the Korean psyche in general, that they are ungrateful opportunistic bunch who would squeeze out every drop of blood from their workers and discard of them like they were less than trash. To think that in Korea's early years, migrant workers gave great contributions to the manufacturing industries, the primary reason why Korea is enjoying their tiger economic status today.""This crackdown against Migrants are extremely inhumanity. Stop this cruelty.""It is no good. Therefore MTU design is OK""Let's fight for Migrants' rights"
OUR STATEMENT:A Call to Action against the Massive Crackdown Against Migrant Workers in Masok, South KoreaA massive and unlawful crackdown by the Ministry of Justice and police force took place in the Seong-Sang Furniture Factory Complex in Masok (Namyangju City, Gyounggi-Do, Korea) today on November 12th from 9:30AM. This crackdown was a co-operation between the Prosecutor's Office and the Police force, with 100 police officers, and immigration offices of Seoul, Eujeongbu, and Incheon Airport. The crackdown began with the block-down of the front and the back gate of the Masok factory complex with police buses, and the immigration officers grabbed migrant workers on the street, in the factories, in the dormitories and homes, resulting in more than 100 migrant workers in custody. During the crackdown, human rights of migrant workers were severely violated during the crackdown, as the immigration officers failed to present proper identification, verbal and physical abuse, excessive use of force including handcuffs, unlawful breaking and entering into personal homes and factories, and racially-based targeting of migrant workers regardless of checking their passport or visa. Among those who were taken by the immigration include a young Bangladesh mother of a four-year-old, and a Nepalese male worker in de facto marriage with a Korean woman, awaiting official documentations sent from Nepal with their 11-month-old son. Also, many migrant workers were injured during this violent crackdown while running away from the chase from immigration officers, two among which needing serious operations. One migrant worker injured his knees and foot while running away from the immigration, but was locked in the immigration office without given treatment despite his several pleas of pains and medical needs. According to the press release from the Ministry of Justice, another crackdown also took place in the Cheong-San Farm in Yeon-Chon, Gyounggi-Do in a similar manner. This massive crackdown is putting migrant workers, documented and undocumented, in the state of terror and fear, depriving them of their labor and human rights. The fact that police force was active and present during the immigration crackdown makes us question the willingness from the government to protect the basic human rights of migrant workers. In this state of terror that the crackdown created, many migrant workers are afraid of stepping out of their homes, to the extent that a pregnant Filipina woman with a valid working visa was afraid of going to a hospital. Despite of the apparent violence that was place upon the lives of migrant workers, the Ministry of Justice is claiming that “this massive crackdown operation is to uphold the order of foreigners’ residence because the living area of illegal aliens has become slums free of public order and the hotbed of crimes committed by foreigners,” according to their press release. The Ministry further argues that this crackdown “is inevitable to uphold the national legal order, to protect local citizens, and to protect the human rights of illegal aliens themselves.” Yet the data on the crimes in Masok area shows that the rate of crime for foreigners is even lower than that of Korean citizens, and the local citizens contest the absurdity of claiming Masok as a slum full of crimes. Rather, the factory complex of Masok is the center of local economy, and this kind of massive crackdown against migrant workers who work and live side by side with Korean citizens hurt the local residents, rather than protecting them, let alone protecting the rights of migrant workers. In fact, the true reason that these two places—Masok and Yeon-Chon-- were selected as targets of massive crackdown under the Lee Myoung-Bak government is because of their previous history of resisting the violent immigration crackdown, where local Korean citizens and migrant workers all came together to fight for their rights. In the face of this unlawful and violent crackdown, we demand the government to apologize and to release those who were taken during the crackdown. The legal order cannot be stepped upon the human rights violation of migrant workers nor the violent against them. Therefore, we ask the government to take the following action:-- Stop unlawful and violent crackdown against migrant workers-- Stop the proposed co-operation of massive crackdown with immigration and police force-- Apologize for human rights violations and bring those responsible to justice-- Release the migrant workers from the crackdown immediatelyNovember 12, 2008Seoul-Incheon-Gyounggi Migrant Trade Union
Towards a multicultural society where respect of difference rather than discrimination rules:
Artists’ Statement
On the Maseok Mass Crackdown
On November 12th Maseok and Chungsan area (Yonchon-gun) of the Namyangjoo city appeared as if a war took. It was because Ministry of Justice launched a massive crackdown jointly with the police department under the pretext of arresting ‘illegal’ foreign migrant workers. As a result, about one hundred thirty foreigners got arrested while many others were injured in the process. Three out of them were required for a surgical operation. The government’s crackdown on that day was done without any respect for human rights of foreign migrant workers. For example, a Bangladeshi woman had to ease herself with a handcuff still placed on one hand and a Korean colleague of hers watching for her. Later on, while asserting for further crackdown, Ministry of Justice stated that “regulations on illegal foreigners and their illegal activities are necessary for the maintenance of legal order and protection of local residents as well as the foreigners’ own human rights”. This event gives us a concrete picture of how the current government’s policy on foreign workers will be processed from now on.
As clearly shown in the current worldwide economic crisis triggered by the financial crisis in the US, national borders proved to be useless with the free migration of capital. The same situation is true with labor. Our economy cannot function without migrant workers. Recently there arose voices complaining that foreigners are taking our jobs. But, with a close look, one will find how such way of thinking is groundless. Foreign workers are not taking away what young job seekers are looking for. They work in furniture factories with permanent risk of their fingers cut, in leather manufacturing factories with lethal odors from chemical materials, and in small restaurants where they have to wash dishes all day without a rest. The government knows this as well as the small business owners who were also inflicted by the November 12 crackdown. Nonetheless, it is trying a worse scenario out of the Employment Permit System, which already has been criticized as a slavery system without migrant’s freedom to choose their workplaces. As an example, Ways to Improve Unskilled Foreign Workforce Policy presented by the Presidential Council on National Competitiveness on September 25 suggests to lower the minimum wage of migrant workers and requires them to pay for their own meal and accommodation, which originally were charged to their employers. It is doubted if such policy would strengthen the national economy. Even if so, it cannot be a desirable direction in a long-term perspective. We, who have the history of long labor migration to foreign countries, should seriously worry what kind of ill consequences will be brought by such discriminatory policies on foreign workers.
At this moment, we need to reflect fundamentally on how our society has been treating foreigner workers. Isn’t our deep prejudice towards foreign workers from the so-called developing countries shaming our grand project towards becoming an advanced nation? There is a sect in our society that treats them as a potential source of crime. It is problematic to generalize the whole group with a few cases. We vividly remember the terrible infanticide that occured a few years ago in the Seorae Vaillage. In regards to the event, while substantially shocked by its brutality, we still displayed a mature attitude by not generalizing it as the problem of the whole French resident community in Korea. When Cho Seung Hee’s massacre occurred in Virginia Tech, many Koreans felt a kind of collective guilt. Americans found it unintelligible why so many Koreans found it as their own deed not as Cho’s individual misdeed. What should be deported out of the country are not migrant workers but our own prejudice and ignorance.
The Lee government asks what is wrong with regulating ‘illegal’ migrant workers and execute law legitimately. Not only it is doubted if they strictly followed the law in the course of their crackdowns, but what is more crucial is the danger with the idea that whatever is by law is always just. We are deeply worried that the tyranny of legalism will not stop at policing and deporting ‘illegal’ migrant workers but will further oppress various minorities in our society including irregular workers.
We see the issue of migrant worker as the measure of our own consciousness and awareness of multiculturalism. With a growing migrant population in the past ten some years, we should overcome the idea of exclusive nationalism. We should acknowledge that there can be Koreans who are dark skinned. We should accept marriage immigrants as equally Korean mothers even though they cannot speak Korean language well. We should accept all of them as our good neighbors whether they be Southeast Asian migrant workers laboring in factories in Ansan, French residents in Seorae Village, or the foreign guests in the TV show Minyodul eui suda. We cannot sustain the Korean Wave with the same mentality that discriminated the halfies born between Korean women and US soldiers and the apathy towards their suffering.
Pulled over the car
Saw it on my way
Written in a clear, green board
Vietnam, that proud name in red letters
And that blurb just below it . . .
They will never run away
-From A Placard to be Abused by Park Nam Joon
Language devoid of tolerance towards the other easily becomes violent. Unfortunately, since the Independence, we have been speaking only one language without accepting others. The language of progress, defeat, and nationalistic victory… Today such language gave birth to expressions like “foreign brides keep the house well” or “Vietnamese girls do not run away,” which reveal the shameless ignorance we have. ‘Different’ languages do not mean ‘they are wrong.’
A multicultural society where respect of difference rather than discrimination rules is our future. Forced orderliness cannot be what we want today. The real power in this global era comes from diversity and difference.
1. Stop crackdown against all migrant workers.
1. Improve the Employment Permit System, the modern slavery.
1. Include Korean Chinese under the Overseas Koreans Law.
1. Amend the Korean Nationality Act that mandates the candidates to pass Korean language written exam and to complete the social unification course from January 1, 2009.
1. Provide a comprehensive blueprint for a multicultural and human rights-friendly society.
Association of artists concerned with migrant issues in Korea, December 17, 2008
STATEMENT II
MTU members strongly condemn the Korean government's barbaric crackdown in Maseok!
"The ongoing action that Korean government is utterly inhumane and directly goes against their policy of globalization. The Korean government's actions towards migrant workers establish the impression of the Korean psyche in general, that they are ungrateful opportunistic bunch who would squeeze out every drop of blood from their workers and discard of them like they were less than trash. To think that in Korea's early years, migrant workers gave great contributions to the manufacturing industries, the primary reason why Korea is enjoying their tiger economic status today.""This crackdown against Migrants are extremely inhumanity. Stop this cruelty.""It is no good. Therefore MTU design is OK""Let's fight for Migrants' rights"
OUR STATEMENT:A Call to Action against the Massive Crackdown Against Migrant Workers in Masok, South KoreaA massive and unlawful crackdown by the Ministry of Justice and police force took place in the Seong-Sang Furniture Factory Complex in Masok (Namyangju City, Gyounggi-Do, Korea) today on November 12th from 9:30AM. This crackdown was a co-operation between the Prosecutor's Office and the Police force, with 100 police officers, and immigration offices of Seoul, Eujeongbu, and Incheon Airport. The crackdown began with the block-down of the front and the back gate of the Masok factory complex with police buses, and the immigration officers grabbed migrant workers on the street, in the factories, in the dormitories and homes, resulting in more than 100 migrant workers in custody. During the crackdown, human rights of migrant workers were severely violated during the crackdown, as the immigration officers failed to present proper identification, verbal and physical abuse, excessive use of force including handcuffs, unlawful breaking and entering into personal homes and factories, and racially-based targeting of migrant workers regardless of checking their passport or visa. Among those who were taken by the immigration include a young Bangladesh mother of a four-year-old, and a Nepalese male worker in de facto marriage with a Korean woman, awaiting official documentations sent from Nepal with their 11-month-old son. Also, many migrant workers were injured during this violent crackdown while running away from the chase from immigration officers, two among which needing serious operations. One migrant worker injured his knees and foot while running away from the immigration, but was locked in the immigration office without given treatment despite his several pleas of pains and medical needs. According to the press release from the Ministry of Justice, another crackdown also took place in the Cheong-San Farm in Yeon-Chon, Gyounggi-Do in a similar manner. This massive crackdown is putting migrant workers, documented and undocumented, in the state of terror and fear, depriving them of their labor and human rights. The fact that police force was active and present during the immigration crackdown makes us question the willingness from the government to protect the basic human rights of migrant workers. In this state of terror that the crackdown created, many migrant workers are afraid of stepping out of their homes, to the extent that a pregnant Filipina woman with a valid working visa was afraid of going to a hospital. Despite of the apparent violence that was place upon the lives of migrant workers, the Ministry of Justice is claiming that “this massive crackdown operation is to uphold the order of foreigners’ residence because the living area of illegal aliens has become slums free of public order and the hotbed of crimes committed by foreigners,” according to their press release. The Ministry further argues that this crackdown “is inevitable to uphold the national legal order, to protect local citizens, and to protect the human rights of illegal aliens themselves.” Yet the data on the crimes in Masok area shows that the rate of crime for foreigners is even lower than that of Korean citizens, and the local citizens contest the absurdity of claiming Masok as a slum full of crimes. Rather, the factory complex of Masok is the center of local economy, and this kind of massive crackdown against migrant workers who work and live side by side with Korean citizens hurt the local residents, rather than protecting them, let alone protecting the rights of migrant workers. In fact, the true reason that these two places—Masok and Yeon-Chon-- were selected as targets of massive crackdown under the Lee Myoung-Bak government is because of their previous history of resisting the violent immigration crackdown, where local Korean citizens and migrant workers all came together to fight for their rights. In the face of this unlawful and violent crackdown, we demand the government to apologize and to release those who were taken during the crackdown. The legal order cannot be stepped upon the human rights violation of migrant workers nor the violent against them. Therefore, we ask the government to take the following action:-- Stop unlawful and violent crackdown against migrant workers-- Stop the proposed co-operation of massive crackdown with immigration and police force-- Apologize for human rights violations and bring those responsible to justice-- Release the migrant workers from the crackdown immediatelyNovember 12, 2008Seoul-Incheon-Gyounggi Migrant Trade Union
A Letter From MAY By May, President of the Filipino Migrants’ Association in Bucheon
A Letter From MAY
By May, President of the Filipino Migrants’ Association in Bucheon
Good afternoon everybody, and first I would like to say thank you to Mr. Elmer & Ms. Mauren of Armnet for inviting me to join on this seminar. My name is "May Cordova".Born in Bacolod city, married in korean, have an 8 yrs. old daughter and a legal residence of Bucheon city South Korea. As we gather here today to share everybody's story about our married and living life in the foreign land. And my story is going like this; I meet my husband in Manila year 1999, during those days i'm working as a saleslady in "supermarket".He is a member of a group called UNIFICATION. This group founded by a North Korean guy name MOON SUN MYUNG or as known as Rev. Sun Myung Moon here in philippines. How I meet my husband? Oh that's so interesting..He decided to join on this group for the purpose to marry a pinay, and he submitted his picture in the church he belong in korea ( one of the requirements) to get married. Then he match with pinay through their pictures, they got married, he attend the blessing in korea and this lady also attend the blessing ceremony here philippines. They never meet yet in personal its just they're already couple in the pictures cause they marry them self holding the pictures of each others. Then he decided to came here in philippines to meet the lady he married in pictures, together with some korean guys, and when he arrive in the one of the center of unification. the troubles start. The lady can't meet him for some reasons and the leaders assign some unification members to find somebody to become his couple on that day. I'm working as a saleslady near in one of the main center in quezon city. Virgie dela Cruz is one of my regular costumer in supermarket but I have no idea that she is also a member of unification group, but on that day she approach me to join in the party she prepared for the koreans she said but even how convincing words she's saying still I response her NO but maybe shes desperate to bring me on the center even my co-workers convincing me telling " why won't you try who knows this is your lucky chance ".Until I decided to accept the invitation but, I decided also to bring my cousin for the purpose of what happen with me I have my witness. Virgie dela Cruz, bring us in Antipolo i'm not sure which part of Antipolo cause its already almost 10:30 in the evening when we arrive the place. And the shocking part is when we enter the entrance gate I saw a lot of koreans, then the leader guide us to the office and giving us a 2 pages biodata type to answer the questions. Me and my cousin are looking each others (it seems asking whats this) because some questions are so sensitive & too personal but we answer all those questions and the second shocking part is after we response all the questions they're telling us to prepared, make our self presentable then they bring us to another room on that room theres a lot of pinay candidates they're talking each other about there korean spouse, their plans, some are look so happy and excited with matching a great smile saying to somebody "i saw him I know that's him his so handsome wearing nice outfit "and so on and so fort .But me and my cousin hearing those topic feel so nervous were talking oh my god whats this, asking its other if were in prostitute. After a while some leaders announcing that the name called transfer to another room. And that's the 3rd shocking, me & my cousin are belong to the names called so we followed the instruction, we transfer to the next room koreans are sitting in the opposite side with us, then its started calling names until my turn came & my husband is my partner some korean leader guided us in to the garden starting asking some information about me .Then next morning they gathered us again for some another announcement that's the 4th shocking part , why? because they are announcing to be prepared for wedding ceremony at the afternoon .Maybe some of you thinking why i'm still following them, right? simple, because you can't ran out on that place, no neighbors no vehicles to bring back where you from its sorrounded by the mountains and a lady age 19 from the province of Bacolod is so young don't know what to do so I think that's the reason why still following them. To continue my story on that day afternoon they prepared us for wedding ceremony, they give us weeding gown , until the ceremony's finish .Then after the ceremony they bring back us to Antipolo for some unification traditional things one of this is hitting the butt of each couples. The good thing is no honeymoon happen that's out of the rules of unification. After a year he came back here in philippines to meet my parents ,and after a months the unification office send my passport with visa & ticket to korea. And just after a month i'm already bringing the child of us still don't know how to speak korean also can't eat yet korean spicy foods, but I have no choice anymore but to face all the circumtances i've entered. At first I think I can't stay longer in the land of korea , for much reason theres a cultural, weather, foods, language, and most specially of living style differences. We always have a trouble about the cultural & some families problems. Most of the koreans are forcing us (they're foreign wives) to followed their culture, yeah we did but the trouble is they want us to forget our culture for the reason we married them, but for me that's the big cause of the problems of the migrant married couples. All I wanted is to be fair for us, we accept their culture so I think they must also accept the culture of they're wives. Until I meet "BUCHEON CITY MIGRANT OFFICE"They're handling different cases of foreign workers before , until our group founded since year 2004 , the first members are just 5 persons including ate Anna, she is the brain of this kfwa group also the first president of the said group, until the number of members become bigger & bigger. The purpose of our group is to "INSPIRE & ENCOURAGE " each member to share experiences & ideas, helping each other in any terms and to inspired everybody to become strong for all struggle in life here in korea, and the plans of the group is to become more active in any programs of the center. All the members are joining migrant center for the reason that we can shout & show who we are & where we from, here in migrant house we can share to anybody our culture we had. The benefits here , we have free korean classes , computer classes ,also art class for the kids, and also some seminars for migrant families, also we had a new group also under by migrant house its a group of filipino workers in korea legal & illegal, man & women are welcome to join on this group. We are very much thankful to migrant house for supporting us as their part of the house. We are just hoping that they will continue this kind of humanly projects not only for filipino but for all the migrants workers & migrant wives.
THANK YOU....
TRULY YOURS,
MAY
By May, President of the Filipino Migrants’ Association in Bucheon
Good afternoon everybody, and first I would like to say thank you to Mr. Elmer & Ms. Mauren of Armnet for inviting me to join on this seminar. My name is "May Cordova".Born in Bacolod city, married in korean, have an 8 yrs. old daughter and a legal residence of Bucheon city South Korea. As we gather here today to share everybody's story about our married and living life in the foreign land. And my story is going like this; I meet my husband in Manila year 1999, during those days i'm working as a saleslady in "supermarket".He is a member of a group called UNIFICATION. This group founded by a North Korean guy name MOON SUN MYUNG or as known as Rev. Sun Myung Moon here in philippines. How I meet my husband? Oh that's so interesting..He decided to join on this group for the purpose to marry a pinay, and he submitted his picture in the church he belong in korea ( one of the requirements) to get married. Then he match with pinay through their pictures, they got married, he attend the blessing in korea and this lady also attend the blessing ceremony here philippines. They never meet yet in personal its just they're already couple in the pictures cause they marry them self holding the pictures of each others. Then he decided to came here in philippines to meet the lady he married in pictures, together with some korean guys, and when he arrive in the one of the center of unification. the troubles start. The lady can't meet him for some reasons and the leaders assign some unification members to find somebody to become his couple on that day. I'm working as a saleslady near in one of the main center in quezon city. Virgie dela Cruz is one of my regular costumer in supermarket but I have no idea that she is also a member of unification group, but on that day she approach me to join in the party she prepared for the koreans she said but even how convincing words she's saying still I response her NO but maybe shes desperate to bring me on the center even my co-workers convincing me telling " why won't you try who knows this is your lucky chance ".Until I decided to accept the invitation but, I decided also to bring my cousin for the purpose of what happen with me I have my witness. Virgie dela Cruz, bring us in Antipolo i'm not sure which part of Antipolo cause its already almost 10:30 in the evening when we arrive the place. And the shocking part is when we enter the entrance gate I saw a lot of koreans, then the leader guide us to the office and giving us a 2 pages biodata type to answer the questions. Me and my cousin are looking each others (it seems asking whats this) because some questions are so sensitive & too personal but we answer all those questions and the second shocking part is after we response all the questions they're telling us to prepared, make our self presentable then they bring us to another room on that room theres a lot of pinay candidates they're talking each other about there korean spouse, their plans, some are look so happy and excited with matching a great smile saying to somebody "i saw him I know that's him his so handsome wearing nice outfit "and so on and so fort .But me and my cousin hearing those topic feel so nervous were talking oh my god whats this, asking its other if were in prostitute. After a while some leaders announcing that the name called transfer to another room. And that's the 3rd shocking, me & my cousin are belong to the names called so we followed the instruction, we transfer to the next room koreans are sitting in the opposite side with us, then its started calling names until my turn came & my husband is my partner some korean leader guided us in to the garden starting asking some information about me .Then next morning they gathered us again for some another announcement that's the 4th shocking part , why? because they are announcing to be prepared for wedding ceremony at the afternoon .Maybe some of you thinking why i'm still following them, right? simple, because you can't ran out on that place, no neighbors no vehicles to bring back where you from its sorrounded by the mountains and a lady age 19 from the province of Bacolod is so young don't know what to do so I think that's the reason why still following them. To continue my story on that day afternoon they prepared us for wedding ceremony, they give us weeding gown , until the ceremony's finish .Then after the ceremony they bring back us to Antipolo for some unification traditional things one of this is hitting the butt of each couples. The good thing is no honeymoon happen that's out of the rules of unification. After a year he came back here in philippines to meet my parents ,and after a months the unification office send my passport with visa & ticket to korea. And just after a month i'm already bringing the child of us still don't know how to speak korean also can't eat yet korean spicy foods, but I have no choice anymore but to face all the circumtances i've entered. At first I think I can't stay longer in the land of korea , for much reason theres a cultural, weather, foods, language, and most specially of living style differences. We always have a trouble about the cultural & some families problems. Most of the koreans are forcing us (they're foreign wives) to followed their culture, yeah we did but the trouble is they want us to forget our culture for the reason we married them, but for me that's the big cause of the problems of the migrant married couples. All I wanted is to be fair for us, we accept their culture so I think they must also accept the culture of they're wives. Until I meet "BUCHEON CITY MIGRANT OFFICE"They're handling different cases of foreign workers before , until our group founded since year 2004 , the first members are just 5 persons including ate Anna, she is the brain of this kfwa group also the first president of the said group, until the number of members become bigger & bigger. The purpose of our group is to "INSPIRE & ENCOURAGE " each member to share experiences & ideas, helping each other in any terms and to inspired everybody to become strong for all struggle in life here in korea, and the plans of the group is to become more active in any programs of the center. All the members are joining migrant center for the reason that we can shout & show who we are & where we from, here in migrant house we can share to anybody our culture we had. The benefits here , we have free korean classes , computer classes ,also art class for the kids, and also some seminars for migrant families, also we had a new group also under by migrant house its a group of filipino workers in korea legal & illegal, man & women are welcome to join on this group. We are very much thankful to migrant house for supporting us as their part of the house. We are just hoping that they will continue this kind of humanly projects not only for filipino but for all the migrants workers & migrant wives.
THANK YOU....
TRULY YOURS,
MAY
Mixed Marriage and keys to Happiness
Mixed Marriage and
Keys to Happiness
A Story of One Asian Immigrant
By Tatiana Simbirtseva, Moscow
We are a mixed couple. I am Russian, 51, and my husband is an Indian, 64. We have been together for 12 years. We met in our mature age, so I did not know my husband when he, an 18-year old boy from a hot Asian country, first came to Moscow in 1963. He remembers it was snowing on the day of his arrival and it was the first snow he saw in his life. This unusual experience marked the beginning of his long travel inside another civilization, which has been lasting for more than 40 years already. This travel was sometimes exciting, sometimes tragic or troublesome. I can only sigh with pity that I was not with him then. Now, when I have got to know the life of my husband very well, I am sure that it deserves been described in a novel. The world is becoming very wide and simultaneously small. Millions of people leave for other countries in search of luck, happiness, peace, fortune, truth, faith, adventure and many other things… What should be preserved and what can be abandoned? What should an immigrant cherish? I feel that the story of my husband, which I describe below, can be a useful on-the-way reading for the world travelers.
***
My husband was born in 1944 in an Indian family in Burma – a country, which is presently called Myanmar. That is why he has two names. One is Indian – Khanhaya, as his parents called him, and the second is Burmese – Aun. This name he chose himself when he got in touch with the Burmese people for whom pronunciation of Indian names was very difficult. I call him Aun. His native place was a distant village some hundred miles from Rangoon, where only Indian peasants lived. They were forcefully brought there to cultivate sugar cane in the time when India was a colony of England. Living in Burma they never mixed with Burmese and strictly preserved their national traditions. The village has not changed much since. There is still no electricity there, no TV or telephone and Aun, who graduated as an engineer from a university abroad, is remembered as one of most prominent fellow-villagers. At 7 Aun went to a primary Indian school in the neighborhood, which taught in Hindi. Four years later he entered a middle Burmese school and walked there seven kilometers every morning and back at daytime in any weather. Burmese language is very different from Hindi, but it was essential for an educated man in Myanmar, and soon Aun learned it very well. Now he says that it is his native tongue. At the middle school he got his first experience of another culture as his class-mates there were all Burmese. Aun had a passion for studying and was an excellent student, especially in mathematics. In his class he was surrounded with respect and thus his adjustment to the Burmese society was not difficult. Very early he got a dream of studying abroad. It was realized in 1963, when the new military government of Burma, which decided to build socialism in their country, sent him to the Soviet Union as one of the best school graduates. It was the time when many Asian countries sent their young people to the USSR to learn and gain experience of socialism. So Aun came to Moscow along with many Vietnamese, Mongol, Afghan and other Asians.
Tatiana and her husband, AunThey were complete strangers in Russia. From the first day here they got a lot of problems and food was most difficult of them. Asian food, especially Indian, is very hot. Russian food is unflavored. Russians don’t use spices, which are so essential for Indians. They also eat much beef, and Aun was a vegetarian. His parents were Hindu believers. This faith strictly prohibits eating meat in general and particularly cow flesh, which is perceived like eating one’s mother. Every time when Aun got to the eatery he got dizzy. The smell there seemed disgusting to him. For several days he could not make himself to eat even a piece. The same was with the other new-comers. So they began to search for a way out. The Vietnamese, who were most numerous and lived in a group, every day appointed a person in charge of the kitchen and by turns prepared collective morning and evening meals. Other students prepared food in their native style by themselves. It took a lot of time not only because of cooking but because there were no necessary ingredients in Moscow shops and the students had to hunt for them at private markets. Restaurants were scarce and very expensive. Some students could not stand those torments. They gave up the idea of studying in Russia and returned home.
“They never quarreled. Unanimity of views in upbringing children, mutual understanding and tolerance were the main things, which they treasured.”
Aun was the only Burmese student in his university and decided the food problem in his own way. “If I have come to study, I can’t spend time preparing food”, - he thought. So he began to eat in eateries together with his Russian classmates. It was not tasty, but saved time and money. Several weeks later the dizziness, which he felt every time when he got into the eatery, disappeared. In some months he started to eat beef. It was a big victory. His new habits allowed him to visit Russian houses. He made some local friends and met Masha – a Russian girl who worked in his university. They fell in love and settled together. Their family life started not without complications. Before Aun left for the USSR his father had signed an obligation that his son would not marry while studying abroad. Otherwise his father was to pay a big fine. An opinion prevailed that family was an obstacle to studying well. But any rule has an exception. Aun spoke Russian almost as a native and his marks were so excellent that a special permission to marry was granted to him by the Burmese government. He was invited to the embassy and an official there told him that it was an exceptional privilege for his excellent performance in the university. Aun married with Masha officially by the end of his studies.
By that time Aun had finally solved his food problem. He invented a sauce of bitter pepper, lemons and green tomatoes and prepared it in big quantities once a year in autumn when pepper was available in the market. He added it to Russian dishes and the new taste somehow reminded him of Indian food, which he missed. He was sure that people ate in order to live, but did not live in order to eat. Masha would have liked to cook Indian or Burmese food for him but a serious reason prevented her from any cooking. Soon after their first daughter was born she got a disease – asthma. Smells – spices, fried oil, soap, etc. - caused asphyxiation and threatened her condition. So Aun began to prepare food and wash clothes by turns with his mother-in-law. He was devoted, young, energetic and responsible, and the home routine did not seem boring to him. The thought that Masha needed him and relied on him made him even stronger. They enjoyed every minute together in spite of their sudden misfortune.
In 5 years Aun graduated from the university with highest marks and went to Burma with his family. Masha followed him without hesitation in spite of the fact that Burma was much poorer than the Soviet Union. They settled in Rangoon with his mother and younger brother, as his father had died by that time. Aun’s mother could neither read nor write but she was a wise woman. She cordially met her Russian daughter-in-law, prepared meals for all the family and never imposed her will on them. She suspected that her son had eaten beef in Russia but preferred never to ask about it in order to preserve peace in the family. Otherwise she would have to curse him for violation of faith. Remembering those years Aun says: “If you bring a foreign wife to your country you take a responsibility, which is much bigger than that of husbands in ordinary families. It’s double efforts. Not only you must provide for the family and train your wife to live in unknown surroundings. You also must train your relatives to treat her well and smooth cultural discrepancies. You become an intermediary and usually receive the first blow if their contact is not positive. Such an adjustment could last for years, but you should be persistent for the sake of your family”.
In Burma Aun worked as a civil officer. The salary was not enough for six people. They counted every penny, but neither poverty, not Masha’s disease, which steadily aggravated, disturbed their peace and harmony. They never quarreled. Unanimity of views in upbringing children, mutual understanding and tolerance were the main things, which they treasured. Being a good engineer, Aun arranged their small 2-room apartment in European style, which included lavatory, bathroom and other facilities, to which Masha had got used at home. She liked reading and they had a big collection of Russian books, which made their home look like a library. Being busy in the office and with the family in the evenings Aun wrote fiction at nights. He felt as if he had wings. In some years he was admitted into the Association of Burmese writers. His stories were gladly published by literary magazines. They brought little income but gave satisfaction and attracted new friends. Soon their second daughter, Sanda, was born. They lived in Burma for 7 years. At home they spoke mostly in Russian. Masha learned very little of Hindu or Burmese – enough to communicate with relatives and go to the market. Meanwhile Aun’s younger brother learned good Russian and his little daughters spoke Hindi and Burmese fluently and readily translated for their mother. Then her health began to deteriorate rapidly and they returned to Moscow in hope that change of climate would improve her condition. The hope turned to be vain. In 6 years she died. She was 38. Their 18-year-long married life was over. After her death Aun remained in Russia for ever. He began to work at the Radio Moscow World Service and grew his daughters alone. The girls forgot the Burmese language rather quickly, but they never forgot their experience at their father’s native country. It influenced their lives in future.
There was a rule in Russia till some years ago that people wrote their nationality in their passports. When Aun’s daughters became 16 and the time came to receive their passports the elder daughter Nila (with her pale skin she resembled her mother) wrote that she was “Russian” in her passport. The second daughter Sanda, who was swarthy and looked very much like her father, wrote that she was “an Indian”. This separation of nationalities turned to be symbolic. After graduating school, at 17, Sanda went to India to search for her roots. Aun supported her decision and provided her with money necessary to pay for living and education. Sanda learned Hindi, studied for 4 years and graduated from Delhi University with a ‘tourism manager’ diploma. She also married a nice Indian man - Harry. His parents, provincial nobility, were against their marriage but they had to put up with it when their two grandchildren were born. Harry was a capable engineer and wanted to establish his own business. Aun adviced him to come to Russia. “If you manage to run your business successfully in Russia, which is in transition period from socialist system to capitalism and business is very complicated, you’ll be able to prosper anywhere”, - these were his words. Harry followed the advice. He came to Moscow, hired a very qualified teacher of Russian and began to speak rather fluently in less than half year. Soon he established a company, which sold communication equipment, and gained recognition as a highly qualified expert in his field. Sanda helped him in the office and took care of the household. After 10 years in Moscow they returned to India. I remember our last meeting before their departure. It was Sanda’s birthday. When all the guests were seated, Harri took his cup of wine and looking at his wife said: “I drink it for you. You’re my everything”. I was greatly moved by his words as Asian men seldom say beautiful words to their wives.
Now Sanda, Harry and their daughter of 15 and son of 13 live in Bangalore, India, together with his parents. At home they speak Hindi and English and actively communicate in Russian with relatives in Moscow. Aun’s eldest daughter Nila lives in Moscow. As Sanda has not become a ‘complete Indian’ Nila is not a ‘complete Russian’. She also married an Indian man, who is a doctor. I feel that Aun, their Indian father, once and for all set an example for his children and greatly influenced their choice of spouses. Nila has 4 children, speaks fluent Hindi, wears Indian traditional clothes ‘sari’ at home and prepares tasty Indian dishes. Generally speaking, both Aun’s daughters live in the world where Indian and Russian cultures are equally present, and their children speak languages of both parents.
Is it necessary to teach the mother’s (father’s) language, if the family lives in the father’s (mother’s) country? Judging by his experience Aun answers the following: “It is desirable. The world is wide. Life is complicated and it may happen so that people have to move from the father’s native country to that of the mother. Mastering mother’s language is an obvious advantage in such a case. But it is not an indispensable condition of human happiness. Not every mixed family has an opportunity to teach languages to their children. No need to be too much upset because of it. As Sanda’s example proves, the other parent’s language can be learned when the child grows up. On the other hand, it may never be learned at all. To my mind, the main thing, which we can do for our children, is to plant an interest to the family origins and respect to cultures of both parents from early years. Such family education enriches children’s personality; makes them tolerant, flexible, open-minded, receptive. These qualities of character create a firm basis for their future success in this quickly changing and globalizing world”. ###
Keys to Happiness
A Story of One Asian Immigrant
By Tatiana Simbirtseva, Moscow
We are a mixed couple. I am Russian, 51, and my husband is an Indian, 64. We have been together for 12 years. We met in our mature age, so I did not know my husband when he, an 18-year old boy from a hot Asian country, first came to Moscow in 1963. He remembers it was snowing on the day of his arrival and it was the first snow he saw in his life. This unusual experience marked the beginning of his long travel inside another civilization, which has been lasting for more than 40 years already. This travel was sometimes exciting, sometimes tragic or troublesome. I can only sigh with pity that I was not with him then. Now, when I have got to know the life of my husband very well, I am sure that it deserves been described in a novel. The world is becoming very wide and simultaneously small. Millions of people leave for other countries in search of luck, happiness, peace, fortune, truth, faith, adventure and many other things… What should be preserved and what can be abandoned? What should an immigrant cherish? I feel that the story of my husband, which I describe below, can be a useful on-the-way reading for the world travelers.
***
My husband was born in 1944 in an Indian family in Burma – a country, which is presently called Myanmar. That is why he has two names. One is Indian – Khanhaya, as his parents called him, and the second is Burmese – Aun. This name he chose himself when he got in touch with the Burmese people for whom pronunciation of Indian names was very difficult. I call him Aun. His native place was a distant village some hundred miles from Rangoon, where only Indian peasants lived. They were forcefully brought there to cultivate sugar cane in the time when India was a colony of England. Living in Burma they never mixed with Burmese and strictly preserved their national traditions. The village has not changed much since. There is still no electricity there, no TV or telephone and Aun, who graduated as an engineer from a university abroad, is remembered as one of most prominent fellow-villagers. At 7 Aun went to a primary Indian school in the neighborhood, which taught in Hindi. Four years later he entered a middle Burmese school and walked there seven kilometers every morning and back at daytime in any weather. Burmese language is very different from Hindi, but it was essential for an educated man in Myanmar, and soon Aun learned it very well. Now he says that it is his native tongue. At the middle school he got his first experience of another culture as his class-mates there were all Burmese. Aun had a passion for studying and was an excellent student, especially in mathematics. In his class he was surrounded with respect and thus his adjustment to the Burmese society was not difficult. Very early he got a dream of studying abroad. It was realized in 1963, when the new military government of Burma, which decided to build socialism in their country, sent him to the Soviet Union as one of the best school graduates. It was the time when many Asian countries sent their young people to the USSR to learn and gain experience of socialism. So Aun came to Moscow along with many Vietnamese, Mongol, Afghan and other Asians.
Tatiana and her husband, AunThey were complete strangers in Russia. From the first day here they got a lot of problems and food was most difficult of them. Asian food, especially Indian, is very hot. Russian food is unflavored. Russians don’t use spices, which are so essential for Indians. They also eat much beef, and Aun was a vegetarian. His parents were Hindu believers. This faith strictly prohibits eating meat in general and particularly cow flesh, which is perceived like eating one’s mother. Every time when Aun got to the eatery he got dizzy. The smell there seemed disgusting to him. For several days he could not make himself to eat even a piece. The same was with the other new-comers. So they began to search for a way out. The Vietnamese, who were most numerous and lived in a group, every day appointed a person in charge of the kitchen and by turns prepared collective morning and evening meals. Other students prepared food in their native style by themselves. It took a lot of time not only because of cooking but because there were no necessary ingredients in Moscow shops and the students had to hunt for them at private markets. Restaurants were scarce and very expensive. Some students could not stand those torments. They gave up the idea of studying in Russia and returned home.
“They never quarreled. Unanimity of views in upbringing children, mutual understanding and tolerance were the main things, which they treasured.”
Aun was the only Burmese student in his university and decided the food problem in his own way. “If I have come to study, I can’t spend time preparing food”, - he thought. So he began to eat in eateries together with his Russian classmates. It was not tasty, but saved time and money. Several weeks later the dizziness, which he felt every time when he got into the eatery, disappeared. In some months he started to eat beef. It was a big victory. His new habits allowed him to visit Russian houses. He made some local friends and met Masha – a Russian girl who worked in his university. They fell in love and settled together. Their family life started not without complications. Before Aun left for the USSR his father had signed an obligation that his son would not marry while studying abroad. Otherwise his father was to pay a big fine. An opinion prevailed that family was an obstacle to studying well. But any rule has an exception. Aun spoke Russian almost as a native and his marks were so excellent that a special permission to marry was granted to him by the Burmese government. He was invited to the embassy and an official there told him that it was an exceptional privilege for his excellent performance in the university. Aun married with Masha officially by the end of his studies.
By that time Aun had finally solved his food problem. He invented a sauce of bitter pepper, lemons and green tomatoes and prepared it in big quantities once a year in autumn when pepper was available in the market. He added it to Russian dishes and the new taste somehow reminded him of Indian food, which he missed. He was sure that people ate in order to live, but did not live in order to eat. Masha would have liked to cook Indian or Burmese food for him but a serious reason prevented her from any cooking. Soon after their first daughter was born she got a disease – asthma. Smells – spices, fried oil, soap, etc. - caused asphyxiation and threatened her condition. So Aun began to prepare food and wash clothes by turns with his mother-in-law. He was devoted, young, energetic and responsible, and the home routine did not seem boring to him. The thought that Masha needed him and relied on him made him even stronger. They enjoyed every minute together in spite of their sudden misfortune.
In 5 years Aun graduated from the university with highest marks and went to Burma with his family. Masha followed him without hesitation in spite of the fact that Burma was much poorer than the Soviet Union. They settled in Rangoon with his mother and younger brother, as his father had died by that time. Aun’s mother could neither read nor write but she was a wise woman. She cordially met her Russian daughter-in-law, prepared meals for all the family and never imposed her will on them. She suspected that her son had eaten beef in Russia but preferred never to ask about it in order to preserve peace in the family. Otherwise she would have to curse him for violation of faith. Remembering those years Aun says: “If you bring a foreign wife to your country you take a responsibility, which is much bigger than that of husbands in ordinary families. It’s double efforts. Not only you must provide for the family and train your wife to live in unknown surroundings. You also must train your relatives to treat her well and smooth cultural discrepancies. You become an intermediary and usually receive the first blow if their contact is not positive. Such an adjustment could last for years, but you should be persistent for the sake of your family”.
In Burma Aun worked as a civil officer. The salary was not enough for six people. They counted every penny, but neither poverty, not Masha’s disease, which steadily aggravated, disturbed their peace and harmony. They never quarreled. Unanimity of views in upbringing children, mutual understanding and tolerance were the main things, which they treasured. Being a good engineer, Aun arranged their small 2-room apartment in European style, which included lavatory, bathroom and other facilities, to which Masha had got used at home. She liked reading and they had a big collection of Russian books, which made their home look like a library. Being busy in the office and with the family in the evenings Aun wrote fiction at nights. He felt as if he had wings. In some years he was admitted into the Association of Burmese writers. His stories were gladly published by literary magazines. They brought little income but gave satisfaction and attracted new friends. Soon their second daughter, Sanda, was born. They lived in Burma for 7 years. At home they spoke mostly in Russian. Masha learned very little of Hindu or Burmese – enough to communicate with relatives and go to the market. Meanwhile Aun’s younger brother learned good Russian and his little daughters spoke Hindi and Burmese fluently and readily translated for their mother. Then her health began to deteriorate rapidly and they returned to Moscow in hope that change of climate would improve her condition. The hope turned to be vain. In 6 years she died. She was 38. Their 18-year-long married life was over. After her death Aun remained in Russia for ever. He began to work at the Radio Moscow World Service and grew his daughters alone. The girls forgot the Burmese language rather quickly, but they never forgot their experience at their father’s native country. It influenced their lives in future.
There was a rule in Russia till some years ago that people wrote their nationality in their passports. When Aun’s daughters became 16 and the time came to receive their passports the elder daughter Nila (with her pale skin she resembled her mother) wrote that she was “Russian” in her passport. The second daughter Sanda, who was swarthy and looked very much like her father, wrote that she was “an Indian”. This separation of nationalities turned to be symbolic. After graduating school, at 17, Sanda went to India to search for her roots. Aun supported her decision and provided her with money necessary to pay for living and education. Sanda learned Hindi, studied for 4 years and graduated from Delhi University with a ‘tourism manager’ diploma. She also married a nice Indian man - Harry. His parents, provincial nobility, were against their marriage but they had to put up with it when their two grandchildren were born. Harry was a capable engineer and wanted to establish his own business. Aun adviced him to come to Russia. “If you manage to run your business successfully in Russia, which is in transition period from socialist system to capitalism and business is very complicated, you’ll be able to prosper anywhere”, - these were his words. Harry followed the advice. He came to Moscow, hired a very qualified teacher of Russian and began to speak rather fluently in less than half year. Soon he established a company, which sold communication equipment, and gained recognition as a highly qualified expert in his field. Sanda helped him in the office and took care of the household. After 10 years in Moscow they returned to India. I remember our last meeting before their departure. It was Sanda’s birthday. When all the guests were seated, Harri took his cup of wine and looking at his wife said: “I drink it for you. You’re my everything”. I was greatly moved by his words as Asian men seldom say beautiful words to their wives.
Now Sanda, Harry and their daughter of 15 and son of 13 live in Bangalore, India, together with his parents. At home they speak Hindi and English and actively communicate in Russian with relatives in Moscow. Aun’s eldest daughter Nila lives in Moscow. As Sanda has not become a ‘complete Indian’ Nila is not a ‘complete Russian’. She also married an Indian man, who is a doctor. I feel that Aun, their Indian father, once and for all set an example for his children and greatly influenced their choice of spouses. Nila has 4 children, speaks fluent Hindi, wears Indian traditional clothes ‘sari’ at home and prepares tasty Indian dishes. Generally speaking, both Aun’s daughters live in the world where Indian and Russian cultures are equally present, and their children speak languages of both parents.
Is it necessary to teach the mother’s (father’s) language, if the family lives in the father’s (mother’s) country? Judging by his experience Aun answers the following: “It is desirable. The world is wide. Life is complicated and it may happen so that people have to move from the father’s native country to that of the mother. Mastering mother’s language is an obvious advantage in such a case. But it is not an indispensable condition of human happiness. Not every mixed family has an opportunity to teach languages to their children. No need to be too much upset because of it. As Sanda’s example proves, the other parent’s language can be learned when the child grows up. On the other hand, it may never be learned at all. To my mind, the main thing, which we can do for our children, is to plant an interest to the family origins and respect to cultures of both parents from early years. Such family education enriches children’s personality; makes them tolerant, flexible, open-minded, receptive. These qualities of character create a firm basis for their future success in this quickly changing and globalizing world”. ###
Damunhwa as Sensitivity Rearing Programs
Damunhwa as Sensitivity Rearing Programs*
By EuyRyung Jun,
Ph.D. Student, Anthropology,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Terrence Turner, an anthropologist, has once distinguished what he calls “critical multiculturalism” from what he calls “difference multiculturalism” (1993). According to him, while the former uses cultural difference and diversity as the basis of challenging, rethinking, and relativizing the dominant culture of power, the latter tends to reify and even fetishize difference and otherness. In Alain Badiou’s term, it is a “tourist’s fascination for the diversity of morals, customs and beliefs” (2001: 26). Arguing the notion of a ‘recognition of the other (e.g., Taylor 1994) does not shed any light on the concrete real, Badiou criticizes contemporary ethics for being reduced to humanitarianism and discourses of rights to difference. He continues that the ‘differences’ that are so much celebrated in such discourses are only ‘acceptable differences’ – if not exactly the same as ‘us’ (24). This is the ethics of dominant groups that distinguishes what is acceptable from what is not in its conception of difference. That is, while a display of ‘benign differences’ is openly appreciated and consumed under the narcissistic celebration of the tolerant or cosmopolitan self, any radical difference is used to justify further exclusion of foreigners and migrants, which again leads to naturalization and racialization of culture, and fixation of identities. In a similar vein, Mahmood Mamdani warns against what he calls the “culture talk” or “culturalization of politics,” a process in which political issues, relations, and processes are explained as results or parts of some ‘cultural essences’ (2000; 2004).
“The subject of multicultural sensitivity is almost always marked as native Koreans distinguished from their objects, i.e., migrants and racially mixed people and families.”
Although the discourse of damunhwa in Korea has appeared only recently – in early to mid-2000s and thus it is difficult to predict exactly how it will evolve, the present movements in the country invite many of the above critiques. A few of the characteristics of the phenomenon of damunhwa in Korea can be summarized as follows. First, the majority of actors who mobilize damunhwa and tolerance towards Other are middle-class Koreans working in NGOs, government, and academic sectors. Second, most of what are called damunhwa programs organized by local NGOs and sponsored by state agencies feature cultural festivals and cultural classes where individuals, who are mostly Koreans, can learn about migrants’ traditional cultures and experience exotic cuisines, costumes, and customs (or the 3Cs). Third, while ‘culture’ in the discourses of damunhwa is often referred to mean something natural, essential, and thus before or separate from politics,[1] cultural difference and rights to it emerged as something to be protected unconditionally. Fourth, it has become a widespread practice, especially among concerned NGO, government, academic, and media circles, to use the word damunhwa to directly refer to migrants’ racially different and mixed family and children, e.g., damunhwa gajong (“multicultural family”) and damunhwa orini (“multicultural children”).[2]
All of the above tendencies combined together in damunwha discourses and practices, I argue, depoliticize the issues of difference and otherness transforming them into a technical matter; individual Koreans can simply improve their attitudes towards foreigners and migrants, be open and tolerant towards their different food, customs, and cultures, and thus develop what is called damunhwajok gamsusong (“multicultural sensitivity”). In her powerful critique of discourses of tolerance, Wendy Brown notes how they always designate tolerating subjects separately from tolerated objects, in which the latter “will always be those who deviate from the norm, never those who uphold it, but they will also be further articulated as (deviant) individuals through the very discourse of tolerance.” (2006: 44). She continues to criticize how tolerance discourses involving minority groups redefine the problem of inequality and social justice as that of “therapeutic and behavioral” one (16):
It is important to note how various damunhwa programs that have emerged since early 20
00s have been precisely focusing on rearing multicultural and human rights-friendly sensitivity among individual Koreans. In one of the interviews I conducted in 2006, the representative of a local NGO, who initiated the first such program in the migrant advocacy circle, asserted how it felt necessary to organize a program for local residents to develop a cultural sensitivity needed to co-exist peacefully with migrants. She especially emphasized how Koreans are ignorant of diverse and different cultures of migrants and how such ignorance may become a significant barrier in bridging the social gap and distance between Koreans and migrants. Another interview I conducted in the same year with another activist from a different organization reverberated a similar logic in organizing damunhwa programs. What they commonly agreed upon is the importance of damunhwa education on children that such sensitivity training on difference and human rights is much more effective when done in and on the youth. The children who learn to respect others’ difference and rights would grow as good multicultural citizens. For example, the pamphlet of the “human rights class - difference means beautiful,” one of such programs for children organized by a local NGO introduces the class like below:
Our human rights class - difference means beautiful is an Asian cultural experience and human rights education program that supports our children to become free from prejudices and fear of what is different from us and to grow up as healthy and tolerant members of society who are capable of cohabiting with global citizens through experiences in cultures of various Asian countries.
The program is apparently focused on developing multicultural sensitivity among the ‘native,’ or racially or ethnically Korean, children who are referred to as “our children” vis-Ã -vis migrants and their children. The subject of multicultural sensitivity is almost always marked as native Koreans distinguished from their objects, i.e., migrants and racially mixed people and families. Increasingly, while munhwa, or “culture,” in the term da-munhwa, or multi-culture, is used to refer not simply to any culture[3] but specifically to those that have been stigmatized as inferior, undesirable, peculiar, primitive, and/or under/less-developed, things Korean, e.g., Korean culture and Korean people, are further articulated as a relatively color-less, ‘culture’-less subject thus assuming a position of universality and reasserting superiority vis-Ã -vis migrants’ particularity and their inferiority (Brown 2006; Zizek 1997).
To sum up, more or less operating as a technical manual of how to treat better and behave with various Others, damunhwa programs as they emerged in Korea naturalize existing power relations between natives and migrants, and citizens and foreigners by defining an issue of structural inequality as a matter of developing and improving individual sensitivity. Discussions on issues of difference and inequality cannot simply be reduced to a narcissistic critique of the Korean self or a matter of individual activists’ good will to build a ‘good society.’ Rather, what we need now is a radical inquiry on the political, economic, and social conditions in which discourses of damunhwa have emerged in Korea and their overall effects.##
* This is a part of a paper titled Beyond Damunhwa and Discourses of Sensitivity Rearing, which was delivered at the IAPH Symposium XIII, Seoul, Korea, 2008.
[1] For example, in a symposium titled “Making Multi-Cultural Society: Comparison between Germany and the U.S,” held in May 2008, I observed how some of the participants, who were indeed debating against one another, more or less treated ‘culture’ commonly as some kind of sanctuary from things political.
[2] I have even encountered a term such as “damunhwa tea”!
[3] The term damunhwa is hardly used to refer to things that have been traditionally associated with powerful Others, e.g., ‘American culture,’ ‘Japanese food,’ or ‘French literature.’
By EuyRyung Jun,
Ph.D. Student, Anthropology,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Terrence Turner, an anthropologist, has once distinguished what he calls “critical multiculturalism” from what he calls “difference multiculturalism” (1993). According to him, while the former uses cultural difference and diversity as the basis of challenging, rethinking, and relativizing the dominant culture of power, the latter tends to reify and even fetishize difference and otherness. In Alain Badiou’s term, it is a “tourist’s fascination for the diversity of morals, customs and beliefs” (2001: 26). Arguing the notion of a ‘recognition of the other (e.g., Taylor 1994) does not shed any light on the concrete real, Badiou criticizes contemporary ethics for being reduced to humanitarianism and discourses of rights to difference. He continues that the ‘differences’ that are so much celebrated in such discourses are only ‘acceptable differences’ – if not exactly the same as ‘us’ (24). This is the ethics of dominant groups that distinguishes what is acceptable from what is not in its conception of difference. That is, while a display of ‘benign differences’ is openly appreciated and consumed under the narcissistic celebration of the tolerant or cosmopolitan self, any radical difference is used to justify further exclusion of foreigners and migrants, which again leads to naturalization and racialization of culture, and fixation of identities. In a similar vein, Mahmood Mamdani warns against what he calls the “culture talk” or “culturalization of politics,” a process in which political issues, relations, and processes are explained as results or parts of some ‘cultural essences’ (2000; 2004).
“The subject of multicultural sensitivity is almost always marked as native Koreans distinguished from their objects, i.e., migrants and racially mixed people and families.”
Although the discourse of damunhwa in Korea has appeared only recently – in early to mid-2000s and thus it is difficult to predict exactly how it will evolve, the present movements in the country invite many of the above critiques. A few of the characteristics of the phenomenon of damunhwa in Korea can be summarized as follows. First, the majority of actors who mobilize damunhwa and tolerance towards Other are middle-class Koreans working in NGOs, government, and academic sectors. Second, most of what are called damunhwa programs organized by local NGOs and sponsored by state agencies feature cultural festivals and cultural classes where individuals, who are mostly Koreans, can learn about migrants’ traditional cultures and experience exotic cuisines, costumes, and customs (or the 3Cs). Third, while ‘culture’ in the discourses of damunhwa is often referred to mean something natural, essential, and thus before or separate from politics,[1] cultural difference and rights to it emerged as something to be protected unconditionally. Fourth, it has become a widespread practice, especially among concerned NGO, government, academic, and media circles, to use the word damunhwa to directly refer to migrants’ racially different and mixed family and children, e.g., damunhwa gajong (“multicultural family”) and damunhwa orini (“multicultural children”).[2]
All of the above tendencies combined together in damunwha discourses and practices, I argue, depoliticize the issues of difference and otherness transforming them into a technical matter; individual Koreans can simply improve their attitudes towards foreigners and migrants, be open and tolerant towards their different food, customs, and cultures, and thus develop what is called damunhwajok gamsusong (“multicultural sensitivity”). In her powerful critique of discourses of tolerance, Wendy Brown notes how they always designate tolerating subjects separately from tolerated objects, in which the latter “will always be those who deviate from the norm, never those who uphold it, but they will also be further articulated as (deviant) individuals through the very discourse of tolerance.” (2006: 44). She continues to criticize how tolerance discourses involving minority groups redefine the problem of inequality and social justice as that of “therapeutic and behavioral” one (16):
It is important to note how various damunhwa programs that have emerged since early 20
00s have been precisely focusing on rearing multicultural and human rights-friendly sensitivity among individual Koreans. In one of the interviews I conducted in 2006, the representative of a local NGO, who initiated the first such program in the migrant advocacy circle, asserted how it felt necessary to organize a program for local residents to develop a cultural sensitivity needed to co-exist peacefully with migrants. She especially emphasized how Koreans are ignorant of diverse and different cultures of migrants and how such ignorance may become a significant barrier in bridging the social gap and distance between Koreans and migrants. Another interview I conducted in the same year with another activist from a different organization reverberated a similar logic in organizing damunhwa programs. What they commonly agreed upon is the importance of damunhwa education on children that such sensitivity training on difference and human rights is much more effective when done in and on the youth. The children who learn to respect others’ difference and rights would grow as good multicultural citizens. For example, the pamphlet of the “human rights class - difference means beautiful,” one of such programs for children organized by a local NGO introduces the class like below:
Our human rights class - difference means beautiful is an Asian cultural experience and human rights education program that supports our children to become free from prejudices and fear of what is different from us and to grow up as healthy and tolerant members of society who are capable of cohabiting with global citizens through experiences in cultures of various Asian countries.
The program is apparently focused on developing multicultural sensitivity among the ‘native,’ or racially or ethnically Korean, children who are referred to as “our children” vis-Ã -vis migrants and their children. The subject of multicultural sensitivity is almost always marked as native Koreans distinguished from their objects, i.e., migrants and racially mixed people and families. Increasingly, while munhwa, or “culture,” in the term da-munhwa, or multi-culture, is used to refer not simply to any culture[3] but specifically to those that have been stigmatized as inferior, undesirable, peculiar, primitive, and/or under/less-developed, things Korean, e.g., Korean culture and Korean people, are further articulated as a relatively color-less, ‘culture’-less subject thus assuming a position of universality and reasserting superiority vis-Ã -vis migrants’ particularity and their inferiority (Brown 2006; Zizek 1997).
To sum up, more or less operating as a technical manual of how to treat better and behave with various Others, damunhwa programs as they emerged in Korea naturalize existing power relations between natives and migrants, and citizens and foreigners by defining an issue of structural inequality as a matter of developing and improving individual sensitivity. Discussions on issues of difference and inequality cannot simply be reduced to a narcissistic critique of the Korean self or a matter of individual activists’ good will to build a ‘good society.’ Rather, what we need now is a radical inquiry on the political, economic, and social conditions in which discourses of damunhwa have emerged in Korea and their overall effects.##
* This is a part of a paper titled Beyond Damunhwa and Discourses of Sensitivity Rearing, which was delivered at the IAPH Symposium XIII, Seoul, Korea, 2008.
[1] For example, in a symposium titled “Making Multi-Cultural Society: Comparison between Germany and the U.S,” held in May 2008, I observed how some of the participants, who were indeed debating against one another, more or less treated ‘culture’ commonly as some kind of sanctuary from things political.
[2] I have even encountered a term such as “damunhwa tea”!
[3] The term damunhwa is hardly used to refer to things that have been traditionally associated with powerful Others, e.g., ‘American culture,’ ‘Japanese food,’ or ‘French literature.’
Damunhwa as Sensitivity Rearing Programs
Damunhwa as Sensitivity Rearing Programs*
By EuyRyung Jun,
Ph.D. Student, Anthropology,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Terrence Turner, an anthropologist, has once distinguished what he calls “critical multiculturalism” from what he calls “difference multiculturalism” (1993). According to him, while the former uses cultural difference and diversity as the basis of challenging, rethinking, and relativizing the dominant culture of power, the latter tends to reify and even fetishize difference and otherness. In Alain Badiou’s term, it is a “tourist’s fascination for the diversity of morals, customs and beliefs” (2001: 26). Arguing the notion of a ‘recognition of the other (e.g., Taylor 1994) does not shed any light on the concrete real, Badiou criticizes contemporary ethics for being reduced to humanitarianism and discourses of rights to difference. He continues that the ‘differences’ that are so much celebrated in such discourses are only ‘acceptable differences’ – if not exactly the same as ‘us’ (24). This is the ethics of dominant groups that distinguishes what is acceptable from what is not in its conception of difference. That is, while a display of ‘benign differences’ is openly appreciated and consumed under the narcissistic celebration of the tolerant or cosmopolitan self, any radical difference is used to justify further exclusion of foreigners and migrants, which again leads to naturalization and racialization of culture, and fixation of identities. In a similar vein, Mahmood Mamdani warns against what he calls the “culture talk” or “culturalization of politics,” a process in which political issues, relations, and processes are explained as results or parts of some ‘cultural essences’ (2000; 2004).
“The subject of multicultural sensitivity is almost always marked as native Koreans distinguished from their objects, i.e., migrants and racially mixed people and families.”
Although the discourse of damunhwa in Korea has appeared only recently – in early to mid-2000s and thus it is difficult to predict exactly how it will evolve, the present movements in the country invite many of the above critiques. A few of the characteristics of the phenomenon of damunhwa in Korea can be summarized as follows. First, the majority of actors who mobilize damunhwa and tolerance towards Other are middle-class Koreans working in NGOs, government, and academic sectors. Second, most of what are called damunhwa programs organized by local NGOs and sponsored by state agencies feature cultural festivals and cultural classes where individuals, who are mostly Koreans, can learn about migrants’ traditional cultures and experience exotic cuisines, costumes, and customs (or the 3Cs). Third, while ‘culture’ in the discourses of damunhwa is often referred to mean something natural, essential, and thus before or separate from politics,[1] cultural difference and rights to it emerged as something to be protected unconditionally. Fourth, it has become a widespread practice, especially among concerned NGO, government, academic, and media circles, to use the word damunhwa to directly refer to migrants’ racially different and mixed family and children, e.g., damunhwa gajong (“multicultural family”) and damunhwa orini (“multicultural children”).[2]
All of the above tendencies combined together in damunwha discourses and practices, I argue, depoliticize the issues of difference and otherness transforming them into a technical matter; individual Koreans can simply improve their attitudes towards foreigners and migrants, be open and tolerant towards their different food, customs, and cultures, and thus develop what is called damunhwajok gamsusong (“multicultural sensitivity”). In her powerful critique of discourses of tolerance, Wendy Brown notes how they always designate tolerating subjects separately from tolerated objects, in which the latter “will always be those who deviate from the norm, never those who uphold it, but they will also be further articulated as (deviant) individuals through the very discourse of tolerance.” (2006: 44). She continues to criticize how tolerance discourses involving minority groups redefine the problem of inequality and social justice as that of “therapeutic and behavioral” one (16):
It is important to note how various damunhwa programs that have emerged since early 20
00s have been precisely focusing on rearing multicultural and human rights-friendly sensitivity among individual Koreans. In one of the interviews I conducted in 2006, the representative of a local NGO, who initiated the first such program in the migrant advocacy circle, asserted how it felt necessary to organize a program for local residents to develop a cultural sensitivity needed to co-exist peacefully with migrants. She especially emphasized how Koreans are ignorant of diverse and different cultures of migrants and how such ignorance may become a significant barrier in bridging the social gap and distance between Koreans and migrants. Another interview I conducted in the same year with another activist from a different organization reverberated a similar logic in organizing damunhwa programs. What they commonly agreed upon is the importance of damunhwa education on children that such sensitivity training on difference and human rights is much more effective when done in and on the youth. The children who learn to respect others’ difference and rights would grow as good multicultural citizens. For example, the pamphlet of the “human rights class - difference means beautiful,” one of such programs for children organized by a local NGO introduces the class like below:
Our human rights class - difference means beautiful is an Asian cultural experience and human rights education program that supports our children to become free from prejudices and fear of what is different from us and to grow up as healthy and tolerant members of society who are capable of cohabiting with global citizens through experiences in cultures of various Asian countries.
The program is apparently focused on developing multicultural sensitivity among the ‘native,’ or racially or ethnically Korean, children who are referred to as “our children” vis-Ã -vis migrants and their children. The subject of multicultural sensitivity is almost always marked as native Koreans distinguished from their objects, i.e., migrants and racially mixed people and families. Increasingly, while munhwa, or “culture,” in the term da-munhwa, or multi-culture, is used to refer not simply to any culture[3] but specifically to those that have been stigmatized as inferior, undesirable, peculiar, primitive, and/or under/less-developed, things Korean, e.g., Korean culture and Korean people, are further articulated as a relatively color-less, ‘culture’-less subject thus assuming a position of universality and reasserting superiority vis-Ã -vis migrants’ particularity and their inferiority (Brown 2006; Zizek 1997).
To sum up, more or less operating as a technical manual of how to treat better and behave with various Others, damunhwa programs as they emerged in Korea naturalize existing power relations between natives and migrants, and citizens and foreigners by defining an issue of structural inequality as a matter of developing and improving individual sensitivity. Discussions on issues of difference and inequality cannot simply be reduced to a narcissistic critique of the Korean self or a matter of individual activists’ good will to build a ‘good society.’ Rather, what we need now is a radical inquiry on the political, economic, and social conditions in which discourses of damunhwa have emerged in Korea and their overall effects.##
* This is a part of a paper titled Beyond Damunhwa and Discourses of Sensitivity Rearing, which was delivered at the IAPH Symposium XIII, Seoul, Korea, 2008.
[1] For example, in a symposium titled “Making Multi-Cultural Society: Comparison between Germany and the U.S,” held in May 2008, I observed how some of the participants, who were indeed debating against one another, more or less treated ‘culture’ commonly as some kind of sanctuary from things political.
[2] I have even encountered a term such as “damunhwa tea”!
[3] The term damunhwa is hardly used to refer to things that have been traditionally associated with powerful Others, e.g., ‘American culture,’ ‘Japanese food,’ or ‘French literature.’
By EuyRyung Jun,
Ph.D. Student, Anthropology,
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Terrence Turner, an anthropologist, has once distinguished what he calls “critical multiculturalism” from what he calls “difference multiculturalism” (1993). According to him, while the former uses cultural difference and diversity as the basis of challenging, rethinking, and relativizing the dominant culture of power, the latter tends to reify and even fetishize difference and otherness. In Alain Badiou’s term, it is a “tourist’s fascination for the diversity of morals, customs and beliefs” (2001: 26). Arguing the notion of a ‘recognition of the other (e.g., Taylor 1994) does not shed any light on the concrete real, Badiou criticizes contemporary ethics for being reduced to humanitarianism and discourses of rights to difference. He continues that the ‘differences’ that are so much celebrated in such discourses are only ‘acceptable differences’ – if not exactly the same as ‘us’ (24). This is the ethics of dominant groups that distinguishes what is acceptable from what is not in its conception of difference. That is, while a display of ‘benign differences’ is openly appreciated and consumed under the narcissistic celebration of the tolerant or cosmopolitan self, any radical difference is used to justify further exclusion of foreigners and migrants, which again leads to naturalization and racialization of culture, and fixation of identities. In a similar vein, Mahmood Mamdani warns against what he calls the “culture talk” or “culturalization of politics,” a process in which political issues, relations, and processes are explained as results or parts of some ‘cultural essences’ (2000; 2004).
“The subject of multicultural sensitivity is almost always marked as native Koreans distinguished from their objects, i.e., migrants and racially mixed people and families.”
Although the discourse of damunhwa in Korea has appeared only recently – in early to mid-2000s and thus it is difficult to predict exactly how it will evolve, the present movements in the country invite many of the above critiques. A few of the characteristics of the phenomenon of damunhwa in Korea can be summarized as follows. First, the majority of actors who mobilize damunhwa and tolerance towards Other are middle-class Koreans working in NGOs, government, and academic sectors. Second, most of what are called damunhwa programs organized by local NGOs and sponsored by state agencies feature cultural festivals and cultural classes where individuals, who are mostly Koreans, can learn about migrants’ traditional cultures and experience exotic cuisines, costumes, and customs (or the 3Cs). Third, while ‘culture’ in the discourses of damunhwa is often referred to mean something natural, essential, and thus before or separate from politics,[1] cultural difference and rights to it emerged as something to be protected unconditionally. Fourth, it has become a widespread practice, especially among concerned NGO, government, academic, and media circles, to use the word damunhwa to directly refer to migrants’ racially different and mixed family and children, e.g., damunhwa gajong (“multicultural family”) and damunhwa orini (“multicultural children”).[2]
All of the above tendencies combined together in damunwha discourses and practices, I argue, depoliticize the issues of difference and otherness transforming them into a technical matter; individual Koreans can simply improve their attitudes towards foreigners and migrants, be open and tolerant towards their different food, customs, and cultures, and thus develop what is called damunhwajok gamsusong (“multicultural sensitivity”). In her powerful critique of discourses of tolerance, Wendy Brown notes how they always designate tolerating subjects separately from tolerated objects, in which the latter “will always be those who deviate from the norm, never those who uphold it, but they will also be further articulated as (deviant) individuals through the very discourse of tolerance.” (2006: 44). She continues to criticize how tolerance discourses involving minority groups redefine the problem of inequality and social justice as that of “therapeutic and behavioral” one (16):
It is important to note how various damunhwa programs that have emerged since early 20
00s have been precisely focusing on rearing multicultural and human rights-friendly sensitivity among individual Koreans. In one of the interviews I conducted in 2006, the representative of a local NGO, who initiated the first such program in the migrant advocacy circle, asserted how it felt necessary to organize a program for local residents to develop a cultural sensitivity needed to co-exist peacefully with migrants. She especially emphasized how Koreans are ignorant of diverse and different cultures of migrants and how such ignorance may become a significant barrier in bridging the social gap and distance between Koreans and migrants. Another interview I conducted in the same year with another activist from a different organization reverberated a similar logic in organizing damunhwa programs. What they commonly agreed upon is the importance of damunhwa education on children that such sensitivity training on difference and human rights is much more effective when done in and on the youth. The children who learn to respect others’ difference and rights would grow as good multicultural citizens. For example, the pamphlet of the “human rights class - difference means beautiful,” one of such programs for children organized by a local NGO introduces the class like below:
Our human rights class - difference means beautiful is an Asian cultural experience and human rights education program that supports our children to become free from prejudices and fear of what is different from us and to grow up as healthy and tolerant members of society who are capable of cohabiting with global citizens through experiences in cultures of various Asian countries.
The program is apparently focused on developing multicultural sensitivity among the ‘native,’ or racially or ethnically Korean, children who are referred to as “our children” vis-Ã -vis migrants and their children. The subject of multicultural sensitivity is almost always marked as native Koreans distinguished from their objects, i.e., migrants and racially mixed people and families. Increasingly, while munhwa, or “culture,” in the term da-munhwa, or multi-culture, is used to refer not simply to any culture[3] but specifically to those that have been stigmatized as inferior, undesirable, peculiar, primitive, and/or under/less-developed, things Korean, e.g., Korean culture and Korean people, are further articulated as a relatively color-less, ‘culture’-less subject thus assuming a position of universality and reasserting superiority vis-Ã -vis migrants’ particularity and their inferiority (Brown 2006; Zizek 1997).
To sum up, more or less operating as a technical manual of how to treat better and behave with various Others, damunhwa programs as they emerged in Korea naturalize existing power relations between natives and migrants, and citizens and foreigners by defining an issue of structural inequality as a matter of developing and improving individual sensitivity. Discussions on issues of difference and inequality cannot simply be reduced to a narcissistic critique of the Korean self or a matter of individual activists’ good will to build a ‘good society.’ Rather, what we need now is a radical inquiry on the political, economic, and social conditions in which discourses of damunhwa have emerged in Korea and their overall effects.##
* This is a part of a paper titled Beyond Damunhwa and Discourses of Sensitivity Rearing, which was delivered at the IAPH Symposium XIII, Seoul, Korea, 2008.
[1] For example, in a symposium titled “Making Multi-Cultural Society: Comparison between Germany and the U.S,” held in May 2008, I observed how some of the participants, who were indeed debating against one another, more or less treated ‘culture’ commonly as some kind of sanctuary from things political.
[2] I have even encountered a term such as “damunhwa tea”!
[3] The term damunhwa is hardly used to refer to things that have been traditionally associated with powerful Others, e.g., ‘American culture,’ ‘Japanese food,’ or ‘French literature.’
A Tale of Migrant Workers:organizing ourselves
A Tale of Migrant Workers:
Organizing Ourselves
By Masum, MTU Former General Secretary,
(Presented at the International Assembly of Migrant Workers, Manila, October 2008)
Organizing migrant workers is a very personal subject for me. This is because it I came to organizing and union activism very organically as a result of my own hardships as a migrant worker in South Korea. Therefore, my presentation today will be a personal one, based on my life experiences.
On May 30, 1996 I arrived in South Korea from Bangladesh with a lot of dreams. When I arrived at Kimpo Airport, I was alone, but suddenly I found myself in a room inside the airport with hundreds of foreigners. Immigration officers had confiscated our passports and tickets. Of the people there, only 12 people were granted visas; the rest were deported. I was one of the lucky ones who got a visa.
After 2 months, my thoughts began to change a lot. I thought, “I am not lucky at all. I am actually very unlucky.” This was because at my workplace I had become a mute person who could not speak or understand. Several times I was physically abused by my supervisor because I didn’t know how to speak Korean.
It was through my personal experience that I began to first assist and then to organize migrant workers. After 1 year, the IMF financial crisis struck South Korea. I could not get my salary for 7 months. After this, I changed workplaces. One day during November 1998, one of my collegues name Luis, who was from Peru, cut his hand while cleaning a machine. Our employer refused to offer him financial support or compensation. We, the migrant workers, raised money for his treatment and I, myself, stayed with him in the hospital for one and a half months because he could not speak English or Korean very well. While I raised money for Luis’ hospital bill, I came to know of several similar cases in the area where I worked in Uijeongbu. None of us new were to go to get help. At that time I did not know about the religious groups who help migrant workers.
In 1999 I came to know one Bangladeshi who cut his finger while working. He was being financially supported by an organization called Joint Committee for Migrant Workers in Korea. Because I wanted to find a better way to support people around me I tried to contact and work with this organization, but it was in Seoul and there was nothing in my area. When I needed them they were not available. So, instead I began to build a community organization of Bangladeshi workers so that would help each other. If someone was jobless we would try to help him find a job. If someone didn’t get paid we would talk to their employer. If someone was sick we would try to help him.
In 1999-2000 there were several suicides among migrant workers. These were tragic responses to the conditions at factories and the crackdown against undocumented migrant workers. The embassy did not help to get the dead men’s salary or provide financial support so we collected money to send the bodies back.
In 2000 I also became ill. On June 26 I had an operation for an ulcer. I had to pay the full amount. I didn’t get any support from insurance as a migrant worker. After the operation I had to rest for a couple of months. This was a crucial time for me to think about how to encourage migrant workers to fight for their rights. I traveled around Seoul and Gyeonggi Province and heard that some migrants were trying to build a labor union. They were doing this through the Solidarity Network for Migrants Rights and Freedom, a coalition of 4 migrant workers and some Korean activities, however I was unable to contact them.
It was in 2002 that I finally joined up with the unionizing migrant workers. In 2002 before the Korea-Japan World Cup, the Korean government had announced that migrants who voluntarily went back to their country would get visas until after the World Cup. I went to immigration office to apply for a visa but when I went there I saw some people gathered outside and shouting. I went over and at last met the people who I had been searching for for 1 ½ years. I came to know they had established a migrant workers’ branch in a trade union called the Equality Trade Union. I became a member.
In ETUMB we put together a program for consciousness raising among migrant workers making them aware of the role migrant workers were playing in the South Korean economy and how they were helping the country to get over the economic crisis. We also educated people about the government’s response- forced deportation or self deportation through the temporary visa program. I went back to my area of Uijeongbu and organized people as ETUMB members in the same way I had done in the past. I found however, that unionizing was much more difficult than organizing in the form of a Bangladeshi community organization as I had done in the past. This is because people who work abroad often think they willl just earn a lot of money and then go home and have an easier life. So, they think, why be involved in struggle or fighting against some other country’s government? In addition some NGOs were offering education, health services and legal support for migrant workers and many people felt they could just receive these tings from Koreans instead of fighting for them themselves. Sometimes my friends would criticize me saying, “Why are you doing this? Just work, earn money and go back.” At this time I came to feel how very hard my task was.
Some of us like myself came to South Korea through a broker on a 3-month tourist visa but others came through the Industrial Trainee System. Under this system there was a rule that you could not renew your visa unless your employer did it for you each year. And you were not allowed to leave your workplace. So people were very afraid if they joined the union their employers would not renew their visas. It was a lot easier to go to the NGOs for help. In addition, we, the organizers were migrants with the support of some Korean volunteers. So many people thought that ETUMB was not strong and could not fight or provide protections like NGOs.
We had to reach out to people from many different countries so we tried to translate our demands into many language and started passing them out to workers. And we carried out struggles to protect jobs, get back-wages so as to win the trust of workers at the local level. The best example of these struggles were in Seongsu Industrial Complex and Maseok Furniture Complex. These were a new sort of struggle and form of organizing. We raised our voices against physical abuse and asked for severance pay, increase in wages and also coverage for food and housing.
The people who had ignored us or been afraid in 2002 began to come out in 2003. There had been a lot of criticism of the Trainee System so the government was moving to implement the EPS system. ETUMB protested the EPS because it really did not change the trainee system. All of a sudden the government give its last warning to the migrants who did not return to their countries would face a crackdown starting in November of that year.
.
On 2003 Nov. 14th nearly 300 migrant workers and Korean activists began a sit-in protest at Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul. Of these over 200 were migrant workers and the rest were Korean union activists. At that time it was not just ETUMB, but also Nepal Community Council, Kasammako, Indonesian Labor Committee, some Burmese organizations like Burma Action and also some individuals from Pakistan, Usbeckistan, Nigeria Ghana, Algeria. But after just one day there was a split in the delegation. This was because of many differences in ideology and opinion among the Korean activists and the fact that they were not paying attention to the needs of the migrant workers. In the end ETUMB, part of NCC, Kasammako and the Indonesian Labor Committee stayed at Myeongdong Cathedral and the rest went to another place and started a separate sit-in protest.
After that I started to think a lot and actually became more resolved. I started to think a lot about how we could bring more migrant workers into the union. We carried out the sit-in protest for over a year – 381 days. And we started organizing supporters in all areas, people who supported our demands: Stop crackdown, Abolish ITS and EPS and respect migrant workers’ rights. Due to the crackdown a lot of people could not move around freely outside but they supported our demands in their hearts.
Within our sit-in struggle we made different teams such as education, organizing, struggle and international solidarity work. Our educational team worked hard to develop the consciousness of all migrant workers. We made flyers in ten different languages. We went to many areas in South Korea (Seoul, Gyeonggi, Inchoen and beyond) in order to organize them. This led to the establishment of a migrant workers’ branch in the Seongseo Industrial Complex Union in Daegu.
In our sit-in struggle there were some members of the Construction Workers Union who were being oppressed by the government and their employers. Their participation in our sit-in struggle made us think more about how to build the consciousness of Korean workers to support migrant workers. We talked to the Construction Workers Union about how they were poorly affected by the migrant workers and how they could overcome this and we helped them to understand that because migrant workers were getting paid less the employers would hire them instead of Korean workers and thus Korean workers would loose work. This helped us to create a bridge with the construction workers.
We also made links with irregular workers. On Oct. 26th there was a rally for irregular workers. One of the leaders of the Workers Welfare Corporation, Lee Yong-suk, committed protest suicide right in front of us. Right before he died he said “I’m ok, comrades, please lets fight for our rights.” After that migrant workers began to fight with the police and they came to know that Korean workers were also repressed. Before that we thought that only migrant workers were exploited but we realized this was not true. Through these small events we came close to Korean labor organizations.
During the 381 days of sit-in struggle we were able to make the issue of migrant workers know to South Korean society. We did a lot of outreach to reach the migrant workers from over 100 countries working in South Korea. Through these activities our union won acknowledgement and respect. At that time we realize that if we wanted to organize migrant workers we had to use many different methods- area-based, nationality-base, culture-based. In particular we learned that different language groups had to be organized by someone who spoke their language and also that we had to be very carefully of religious and political conflicts among people. Discrimination between different language, cultural and religious groups was common at our workplaces. But we realized that if this came out during our struggle it would break our organization. So we were very careful and tried hard to overcome this.
During that time we were attacked in ways we could not imaging. Samar Thapa, the head leader of our sit-in protest, was kidnapped and deported by the immigration authorities. In addition, many of our local leaders were targeted and deported. This weakened us greatly because when someone who had contacts with the people in one area was deported it meant we would loose those contacts and the whole area had to be reorganized.
We were unable to win any of our demands through out sit-in protest; however we were very successfully in raising the consciousness about migrant workers among Korean workers and citizens on a mass level. We ended our sit-in on December 8th 2004. After we end the sit-in we returned to the areas where we worked to make a little money but also to focus on organizing other migrant workers.
On April 24, 2005 we held a meeting with ETUMB members and the new people we had organized from many different countries. At that meeting we transformed ETUMB into MTU, an independent union led by migrant workers ourselves. In ETUMB we were able to become members but in MTU all elected leaders were migrant workers and the secretariat was run by migrant workers. We applied to the Labor Ministry for union status but it was rejected. However after fighting a legal battle we won recognition from the Seoul, High Court on February 1, 2007. Unfortunately the Ministry of Labor appealed to the Supreme Court where the decision is still pending.
After we made the union our first president, President Anwar, was targeted arrested and detained. Many of our local leaders were also targeted and deported. In 2007 I myself, along with our president and vice president, were also targeted arrested and eventually deported. The reason I am mentioning this is to point out the extent to which the government went to attack us and break our union. This is because we were standing up for our rights. The stronger we have become the more the government has attacked.
When we started organizing there were not many women but a few very amazing female activists from Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Some of these comrades were also targeted, arrested and deported. Therefore, for a while there have not been any women members of MTU. However recently we have started to focus on women worker organizing so now more and more women are joining MTU.
For a long time we have insisted that KCTU and Korean unions have to organize migrant workers. This is because in a union of only migrant workers we have not been able to expand due to the government’s attack. Currently, KCTU is starting to organize migrant workers at the level of both local general unions and industrial unions like the Metal Workers Union and the Federation of Construction Industry Unions. Although MTU is only in the Seoul-Gyeong-Incheon area KCTU is expanding to organize migrant workers in other areas in South Korea. In addition, there are some NGOs that our supporting us to organize migrant workers. MTU is participating in all of these efforts. We are not trying only to strengthen ourselves but to support various forms of organizing around the country. If we can get over racism, both between Koreans and migrant workers and among migrant workers ourselves, we can achieve our goals. We have to do this now more than ever. ##
Daring to Struggle:
MTU and Undocumented Migrant Worker Organizing in South Korea
By Wol-san Liem, International Solidarity Coordinator Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union (Presented at the
Global People’s Action on Migration, Development and Human Rights Manila, October 26, 2008)
Introduction
One might not think that migrant worker unionizing would start with undocumented migrant workers. In South Korea, however, this is exactly how it has begun. In April of 2005, undocumented migrant workers, mostly from Nepal and Bangladesh formed the KCTU-affiliated Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union (MTU) was formed by in April 2005 by undocumented migrant workers, mostly from Bangladesh and Nepal. MTU was founded both as a challenge to the South Korean government’s policy on foreign labor and a response to conditions internal to the South Korean migrants’ rights movement. In particular, MTU’s founders recognized the need to unite and struggle to win migrant workers’ full labor rights in the face of a government policy which denied it to them and to stop the arrest, detention and deportation of undocumented migrant workers. They were also critical of the fact that the movement for migrants’ rights was led as it was primarily by Korean NGOs and religious organizations which often played the role of speaking for migrant workers instead of supporting their independent activities. To overcome this problem, MTU’s founders sought to create an organization through which migrant workers could express their own voices and become central movement actors.
MTU is the first union in South Korea, and one of the few in the world, whose elected officers are all migrant workers. What it more, it is perhaps the only union in the world founded by undocumented migrants. As such it has been the recipient of considerable international attention and, at the same time, heavy government repression. This is what makes MTU an important case for our discussion today; in addition to providing inspiration for and have the potential to set a precedent for undocumented migrant worker struggles in other countries, MTU’s story can provide important incite into the challenges that arising in organizing undocumented migrant workers.
Background
History of Labor Migration to South Korea and South Korean Policy on Foreign Labor
Migrant workers began coming to South Korea in the late 1980s and early 1990s after South Korea became known international through the 1988 Olympics. At this time there was no system regulating foreign labor. Rather, migrants entered South Korean on tourist and other shot-term visas, and quickly began to fill the dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs in small and medium-size factories that native Korean workers shunned. As a way to regulate these highly needed foreign labor force the government implemented the Industrial Trainee System in 1994. Under this system migrants were employed not as workers, but as “trainees” and were thus excluded from labor law protection, making their labor inexpensive and easily exploitable for business owners. Given the unbearable conditions that followed under the Trainee System, including low and unpaid wages, verbal and physical abuse and confiscation of passports, many trainees left their assigned factories, leading to a rise in the number of undocumented migrant workers in South Korea.
Due to heavy social criticism the government eventual introduced the Employment Permit System (EPS) in 2004, phasing out the Trainee System by 2007. Although under the EPS migrant workers are technically protected by labor law, the system preserves the basic intent of the Trainee System by creating a highly unequal relationship between workers and employer and thus facilitating exploitation and abuse, and by excluding low-skilled migrant workers from chances at long-term residence and citizenship.
In timing with the implementation of EPS, the South Korean government carried out a program of voluntary return and partial legalization in 2003, and then began a brutal policy of detention and deportation against undocumented migrant workers the following year. Since that time detention and deportation has been the only measure the government has had for handling undocumented migrant workers, despite the fact that this policy has been largely unsuccessful in reducing their numbers and has led0 to widespread human rights abuses, most notably injury and even death in the process of immigration raids and inhumane conditions inside detention centers. In addition to attempting to stop irregular migration, the crackdown against undocumented migrants also acts as a deterrent against documented migrant workers leaving their workplaces in large numbers, thus contributing to the stabilization of the EPS. For undocumented migrant workers, the insecurity experienced due to fear of the crackdown puts them in an even more vulnerable situation with relation to their employers making them more susceptible to exploitation.
Current State of the Crackdown against Undocumented Migrant Workers
With the advent of the Lee Myeong-bak administration the crackdown on undocumented migrant workers has become even more severe. On September 25th the South Korean ‘Committee on Strengthening National Competitiveness,’ a committee initiated and overseen by the president, issued a report entitled, ‘Plan for Improving Policy on the Unspecialized Foreign Labor Force.’ This report, in addition to proposing measures for reducing the costs of businesses that employ EPS works by putting more costs onto workers, includes a plan to reduce the number of undocumented migrant workers from the current 223,229 to 200,000 by the end of 2008 and down from 19.3% to 10% of the total foreign population in South Korea in the next five years through arrest and deportation. In particular, it calls for strengthening the infrastructure necessary for a joint crackdown by the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Labor and police carried out regularly 2 times a year, the first being from October to December this year. In addition, the plan assumes the passage of bill revising the Immigration Controls Law, initiated last year by the Ministry of Justice, which will strengthen the authority of immigration officers to carry out the crackdown. This full-out attack, justified by the portrayal of undocumented migrant workers as a criminal class in government statements and the mainstream media, should be understood both as an intensification of the racist and exploitative tendencies that have characterized South Korea’s immigration policy in reaction to economic crisis and a turn towards greater overall repression of labor and other progressive forces under the new Lee Myeong-bak administration.
The Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon
Migrants Trade Union
History
The Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union (MTU) was formed in the wake of a year-long protest against the establishment of EPS and the beginning of intense crackdown against undocumented migrant workers. From November 2003 to December 2004 migrant worker organizations including MTU’s predecessor, the Equality Trade Union Migrants Branch, and Korean labor and civil society activists, carried out a sit-in protest at the historic Myeong-dong Cathedral in downtown Seoul. The sit-in attracted wide public attention, making the plight of migrant workers and the horror of the crackdown known in the media and throughout society. It also provided a certain sanctuary for undocumented migrant workers targeted in the crackdown, a training ground for migrant worker activists, and a compressed experience in the difficulties of solidarity between migrant workers and native Koreans, in particular those that arose from the inevitable inequalities in resources, experience, language skills and social status between seasoned Korean activists and organizations and new migrant worker activists and formations. It was through this experience that migrant workers became convinced of both the necessity of a strong relationship with KCTU and Korean workers and the need for an independent organization led entirely by migrant workers themselves. When the sit-in protest ended over a year later in December of 2004, its participants committed themselves to local organizing and the construction of such an organization. As such, the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants’ Trade Union, an independent union for and by migrant workers regardless of visa status and a member of the KCTU Seoul Regional Council, was born on 24 April 2005.
Repression
As a formation through which migrant workers from all countries can unite to demand their rights MTU is both unique and powerful; it is also threatening to the South Korean government, which seeks to maintain migrant workers as an easily exploitable labor force through perpetuating their alienation and low social status. As such MTU has been a target of consistent government repression. Since its founding, the government has refused to acknowledge MTU’s legal union status. It has also targeted MTU leaders for arrest and deportation in an attempt to stop the union’s activities.
Legal Battle
The ambiguity over their legal labor rights is one of the challenges in organizing undocumented migrant workers. The South Korea Ministry of Labor’s originally rejection of MTU’s legal status was made on the basis that the union’s leadership and membership are primarily undocumented migrant workers, supposedly without the same legally protected labor rights as Korean workers. This position was initially upheld in a district court decision on 7 February 2006, but then overturned by the Seoul High Court on 1 February 2007, which held that migrant workers, regardless of residence status, have the full right to freedom of association under the ROK Constitution and labor law. Nonetheless, the Ministry of Labor has appealed this decision to the Supreme Court, where a final decision is still pending, likely to be issued before the end of the year.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has filed a complaint with the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association in regards to the South Korean government’s refusal of MTU’s status. Because this complaint and MTU’s Supreme Court case are of the few that deal with undocumented migrant workers’ right to freedom of association, it is worth taking a brief moment to discuss the basic issues involved.
The central argument of the South Korean ministry of labor is that undocumented migrant workers do not have the same rights protections afforded other workers under the South Korean Constitution and Trade Union Law because they are not lawfully employable under the Immigration Control Law. The problem with this argument lies in a misinterpretation of the scope of the Immigration Control Law which leads to a false assertion that status under immigration law can have the effect of reversing the rights given to all workers under the Constitution and the Trade Union Law.
Both the South Korean Constitution and the Trade Union law protect the 3 basic labor rights (right to form labor unions, right to collective bargaining and right to strike) for all workers regardless of social status, limitable only in the case of public servants and those employed in national defense. The Immigration Control Law aims at prohibiting the act of employing migrant workers without legal residence status. It does not however, pertain to undocumented migrant workers who have already entered into a labor relation with an employer in South Korea and therefore have the status of worker as defined in the Constitution and the Trade Union Law. The High Court ruling upheld the interpretation that in that freedom of association is a fundamental right protected by the Constitution, status under Immigration law cannot be seen as a basis for denying it. As such, the High Court stated clearly that foreigners with irregular residence status have the right to establish labor unions.
This interpretation also has precedent in international law that pertains to South Korea. According to the South Korean Constitution, “Treaties duly concluded and promulgated under the Constitution and generally recognized rules of international law shall have the same force and effect of law as domestic laws of the Republic of Korea” (Article 6, clause 1). Based on this stipulation, protections provided undocumented migrant workers under international agreements that South Korea has ratified, must be respected. These agreements include the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). In particular, the CERD (Committee on the Eradication of Racial Discrimination, which monitors the ICERD) stated in General Recommendation No. 30(2004) “guarantees against racial discrimination apply to non-citizens regardless of their immigration status” (paragraph 7) and that “while States parties may refuse to offer jobs to non-citizens without a work permit, all individuals are entitled to the enjoyment of labour and employment rights, including the freedom of assembly and association, once an employment relationship has been initiated until it is terminated” (paragraph 32).
In addition, ILO Convention No. 87 protects the right to freedom of association for all workers, “without distinction whatsoever” and has been shown to apply to undocumented migrant workers through Committee on Freedom of Association recommendations pertaining to the complaint submitted by the UGT in 2001 and the one submitted by the AFL-CIO and CTM in 2002. While South Korea has not ratified Convention No. 87, it is bound to uphold the rights protected in it as a member of the ILO under the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998).
It is therefore clear that there is able basis for a Supreme Court ruling in favor of MTU’s legal status. Nonetheless, the political climate in South Korea, which is become more and more hostile to migrant workers and all progressive forces makes the outcome of the case a point of consider, which requires the attention of both South Korean and international labor and human rights organizations.
Targeted Crackdown
Beyond the Ministry of Justice’s refusal to acknowledge MTU and the legal battle that has resulted, the South Korean government has also used an abuse of the right to arrest and deport undocumented migrant workers granted under the Immigration Control Law in order to directly attack the union’s leadership. As mentioned earlier, the government has used a tactic of targeted crackdown- premeditated arrest, detention and deportation- against migrant worker leaders since even before MTU w0as formed. Several officers of MTU’s precursor, the Equality Trade Union’s Migrants Branch, were targeted for arrest and detention. Directly, after MTU was founded, our first president was also arrested in the middle of the night and kept in detention for close to a year before finally being released for medical reasons.
The Immigration Authorities attacked again on November 27 last year arresting our second President, Vice President and General Secretary all at the same time in 3 separate locations in Seoul. In each case multiple immigration officers had lay in waiting hidden near their homes or workplace from as early as the night before. All three men were transported to and detained at Cheongju Foreigners’ Detention Center 2.5 hours outside of Seoul. Despite the fact that a National Human Rights Commission investigation was underway December 13th they were taken from their cells in the middle of the night, out a hole cut in the fence at the back of the detention center in order to avoid supporters keeping watch at the front gate and deported early in the morning.
At the time of their arrest and deportation the Immigration Authority and the Ministry of Justice made the absurd claim that the three men were not targeted but had simply been caught in the course of a regular immigration raid. However, as if the fact that this was a targeted crackdown was not already obvious enough, only 5 months after the previous leaders had been detained, MTU’s newly elected President Torna and Vice President Sabur were arrested, detained and deported in exactly the same matter. Immigration officers tracked the men and hid nearby the MTU office and the Vice President’s home for hours waiting to arrest the two at roughly the same time the night of May 2nd. Again the MTU leaders were detained at distant Cheongju Detention Center, unlike other undocumented migrant workers arrested in Seoul, who are detained nearby.
Given that this was undeniably a case of targeted crackdown and thus an abuse of authority granted under the immigration law MTU filed objections to the detention and deportation orders for the two men with the Ministry of Justice and a lawsuit with the Seoul District Court. MTU also made a complaint to the National Human Rights Commission as it had done when the previous leaders were arrested, this time including an application for an urgent appeal for stay of detention until the investigation was over. On 15 March the Standing Committee of the Human Rights Commission made a decision in favor of the stay of detention and issued an urgent appeal calling on the Ministry of Justice and Immigration Authority not to deport President Torna and Vice President Sabur until the investigation of their arrests was completed. Despite the fact, or perhaps because this decision was communicated verbally to concerned parties around noon on the 15th, the two were taken from their cells and transported to Incheon International Airport the same day and finally deported at around 9:30 that evening.
The targeted crackdown against MTU leaders is clearly an abuse of state authority and an act of blatant labor repression meant to break MTU before the Supreme Court decision. Nonetheless, it also demonstrates one of the challenges of organizing undocumented migrant workers; that is, because of the vulnerable legal status of undocumented migrant activists, it is extremely difficult to challenge this sort of attack against them. Indeed, the government of Lee Myeong-bak has become more and more blatant in is acts of repression. In fact the plan issued by the Committee on Strengthen National Competitiveness explicated proclaims an increased crackdown against MTU’s membership, making the absurd claim that the ‘formation of an extra-legal union by illegal residents’ is part of the tendency towards neglect for the law brought about by undocumented migration. This continuous attack against MTU’s leadership in combination with the overall strengthening of crackdown against undocumented migrant workers has created a very dire situation for MTU, draining it of leadership and making it very difficult to meet and organize new members and activists.
On the one hand it should be stated that since targeted crackdown constitutes an attack on the rightful union activities of a KCTU affiliate it must be seen as repression not only against MTU but against KCTU itself and the labor movement in general. On the other hand, however, the strength with which the government has been able to repress MTU calls attention to the particular vulnerability of undocumented migrant workers; as brutal and obvious as targeted crackdown is it is very difficult to challenge on a legal basis and almost impossible for migrant workers to challenge on their own. This is where intervention from international organizations such as the ILO and UN become important; it is uplifting to know that the Committee on Freedom of Association is considering the issue of targeted crackdown along with the issue of MTU’s legal union status and that the problem has also been addressed by the UN Special Rapporteurs on the Human Rights of Migrants and Human Rights Defenders. It is also demonstrates how necessary solidarity with the native Korean labor movement and support from civil society organizations are for undocumented migrant workers who are organizing to demand their rights.
Conclusion
Thus, in conclusion, I would like to make the following suggestion to trade unions and civil society organizations who are seeking to address repression against undocumented migrant workers. First, it is of course highly necessary for labor and human rights organization become a voice criticizing and calling attention to the rights abuse that arise in the course of immigration raids, detention and deportation. In order to foster migrant workers’ agency, however, unions and NGOs need to go beyond simple raising issues to actually providing resources and protection for undocumented migrant workers who seek to stand up for their rights and organize themselves. This means everything from legal and technical support when needed to providing sanctuary and training to undocumented migrants so they may find the space and develop the skills to begin acting for themselves. For unions this means in part actively organizing undocumented migrant workers as union members. Most importantly, it is necessary to recognize and actively support the claim that is at the center of MTU’s Supreme Court case- that is that undocumented migrant workers are still workers, with entitlement to all of the rights afforded workers everywhere in domestic and international law and standards. To recognize this claim means to realize that the attack against undocumented migrant workers is means to maintain them as an easily exploitable workforce and to stop them from organizing, as well as a violation of their fundamental human rights. This in turn means recognizing this attack as an affront to workers everywhere and a central issue of the human rights and labor movements worldwide.
Organizing Ourselves
By Masum, MTU Former General Secretary,
(Presented at the International Assembly of Migrant Workers, Manila, October 2008)
Organizing migrant workers is a very personal subject for me. This is because it I came to organizing and union activism very organically as a result of my own hardships as a migrant worker in South Korea. Therefore, my presentation today will be a personal one, based on my life experiences.
On May 30, 1996 I arrived in South Korea from Bangladesh with a lot of dreams. When I arrived at Kimpo Airport, I was alone, but suddenly I found myself in a room inside the airport with hundreds of foreigners. Immigration officers had confiscated our passports and tickets. Of the people there, only 12 people were granted visas; the rest were deported. I was one of the lucky ones who got a visa.
After 2 months, my thoughts began to change a lot. I thought, “I am not lucky at all. I am actually very unlucky.” This was because at my workplace I had become a mute person who could not speak or understand. Several times I was physically abused by my supervisor because I didn’t know how to speak Korean.
It was through my personal experience that I began to first assist and then to organize migrant workers. After 1 year, the IMF financial crisis struck South Korea. I could not get my salary for 7 months. After this, I changed workplaces. One day during November 1998, one of my collegues name Luis, who was from Peru, cut his hand while cleaning a machine. Our employer refused to offer him financial support or compensation. We, the migrant workers, raised money for his treatment and I, myself, stayed with him in the hospital for one and a half months because he could not speak English or Korean very well. While I raised money for Luis’ hospital bill, I came to know of several similar cases in the area where I worked in Uijeongbu. None of us new were to go to get help. At that time I did not know about the religious groups who help migrant workers.
In 1999 I came to know one Bangladeshi who cut his finger while working. He was being financially supported by an organization called Joint Committee for Migrant Workers in Korea. Because I wanted to find a better way to support people around me I tried to contact and work with this organization, but it was in Seoul and there was nothing in my area. When I needed them they were not available. So, instead I began to build a community organization of Bangladeshi workers so that would help each other. If someone was jobless we would try to help him find a job. If someone didn’t get paid we would talk to their employer. If someone was sick we would try to help him.
In 1999-2000 there were several suicides among migrant workers. These were tragic responses to the conditions at factories and the crackdown against undocumented migrant workers. The embassy did not help to get the dead men’s salary or provide financial support so we collected money to send the bodies back.
In 2000 I also became ill. On June 26 I had an operation for an ulcer. I had to pay the full amount. I didn’t get any support from insurance as a migrant worker. After the operation I had to rest for a couple of months. This was a crucial time for me to think about how to encourage migrant workers to fight for their rights. I traveled around Seoul and Gyeonggi Province and heard that some migrants were trying to build a labor union. They were doing this through the Solidarity Network for Migrants Rights and Freedom, a coalition of 4 migrant workers and some Korean activities, however I was unable to contact them.
It was in 2002 that I finally joined up with the unionizing migrant workers. In 2002 before the Korea-Japan World Cup, the Korean government had announced that migrants who voluntarily went back to their country would get visas until after the World Cup. I went to immigration office to apply for a visa but when I went there I saw some people gathered outside and shouting. I went over and at last met the people who I had been searching for for 1 ½ years. I came to know they had established a migrant workers’ branch in a trade union called the Equality Trade Union. I became a member.
In ETUMB we put together a program for consciousness raising among migrant workers making them aware of the role migrant workers were playing in the South Korean economy and how they were helping the country to get over the economic crisis. We also educated people about the government’s response- forced deportation or self deportation through the temporary visa program. I went back to my area of Uijeongbu and organized people as ETUMB members in the same way I had done in the past. I found however, that unionizing was much more difficult than organizing in the form of a Bangladeshi community organization as I had done in the past. This is because people who work abroad often think they willl just earn a lot of money and then go home and have an easier life. So, they think, why be involved in struggle or fighting against some other country’s government? In addition some NGOs were offering education, health services and legal support for migrant workers and many people felt they could just receive these tings from Koreans instead of fighting for them themselves. Sometimes my friends would criticize me saying, “Why are you doing this? Just work, earn money and go back.” At this time I came to feel how very hard my task was.
Some of us like myself came to South Korea through a broker on a 3-month tourist visa but others came through the Industrial Trainee System. Under this system there was a rule that you could not renew your visa unless your employer did it for you each year. And you were not allowed to leave your workplace. So people were very afraid if they joined the union their employers would not renew their visas. It was a lot easier to go to the NGOs for help. In addition, we, the organizers were migrants with the support of some Korean volunteers. So many people thought that ETUMB was not strong and could not fight or provide protections like NGOs.
We had to reach out to people from many different countries so we tried to translate our demands into many language and started passing them out to workers. And we carried out struggles to protect jobs, get back-wages so as to win the trust of workers at the local level. The best example of these struggles were in Seongsu Industrial Complex and Maseok Furniture Complex. These were a new sort of struggle and form of organizing. We raised our voices against physical abuse and asked for severance pay, increase in wages and also coverage for food and housing.
The people who had ignored us or been afraid in 2002 began to come out in 2003. There had been a lot of criticism of the Trainee System so the government was moving to implement the EPS system. ETUMB protested the EPS because it really did not change the trainee system. All of a sudden the government give its last warning to the migrants who did not return to their countries would face a crackdown starting in November of that year.
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On 2003 Nov. 14th nearly 300 migrant workers and Korean activists began a sit-in protest at Myeongdong Cathedral in Seoul. Of these over 200 were migrant workers and the rest were Korean union activists. At that time it was not just ETUMB, but also Nepal Community Council, Kasammako, Indonesian Labor Committee, some Burmese organizations like Burma Action and also some individuals from Pakistan, Usbeckistan, Nigeria Ghana, Algeria. But after just one day there was a split in the delegation. This was because of many differences in ideology and opinion among the Korean activists and the fact that they were not paying attention to the needs of the migrant workers. In the end ETUMB, part of NCC, Kasammako and the Indonesian Labor Committee stayed at Myeongdong Cathedral and the rest went to another place and started a separate sit-in protest.
After that I started to think a lot and actually became more resolved. I started to think a lot about how we could bring more migrant workers into the union. We carried out the sit-in protest for over a year – 381 days. And we started organizing supporters in all areas, people who supported our demands: Stop crackdown, Abolish ITS and EPS and respect migrant workers’ rights. Due to the crackdown a lot of people could not move around freely outside but they supported our demands in their hearts.
Within our sit-in struggle we made different teams such as education, organizing, struggle and international solidarity work. Our educational team worked hard to develop the consciousness of all migrant workers. We made flyers in ten different languages. We went to many areas in South Korea (Seoul, Gyeonggi, Inchoen and beyond) in order to organize them. This led to the establishment of a migrant workers’ branch in the Seongseo Industrial Complex Union in Daegu.
In our sit-in struggle there were some members of the Construction Workers Union who were being oppressed by the government and their employers. Their participation in our sit-in struggle made us think more about how to build the consciousness of Korean workers to support migrant workers. We talked to the Construction Workers Union about how they were poorly affected by the migrant workers and how they could overcome this and we helped them to understand that because migrant workers were getting paid less the employers would hire them instead of Korean workers and thus Korean workers would loose work. This helped us to create a bridge with the construction workers.
We also made links with irregular workers. On Oct. 26th there was a rally for irregular workers. One of the leaders of the Workers Welfare Corporation, Lee Yong-suk, committed protest suicide right in front of us. Right before he died he said “I’m ok, comrades, please lets fight for our rights.” After that migrant workers began to fight with the police and they came to know that Korean workers were also repressed. Before that we thought that only migrant workers were exploited but we realized this was not true. Through these small events we came close to Korean labor organizations.
During the 381 days of sit-in struggle we were able to make the issue of migrant workers know to South Korean society. We did a lot of outreach to reach the migrant workers from over 100 countries working in South Korea. Through these activities our union won acknowledgement and respect. At that time we realize that if we wanted to organize migrant workers we had to use many different methods- area-based, nationality-base, culture-based. In particular we learned that different language groups had to be organized by someone who spoke their language and also that we had to be very carefully of religious and political conflicts among people. Discrimination between different language, cultural and religious groups was common at our workplaces. But we realized that if this came out during our struggle it would break our organization. So we were very careful and tried hard to overcome this.
During that time we were attacked in ways we could not imaging. Samar Thapa, the head leader of our sit-in protest, was kidnapped and deported by the immigration authorities. In addition, many of our local leaders were targeted and deported. This weakened us greatly because when someone who had contacts with the people in one area was deported it meant we would loose those contacts and the whole area had to be reorganized.
We were unable to win any of our demands through out sit-in protest; however we were very successfully in raising the consciousness about migrant workers among Korean workers and citizens on a mass level. We ended our sit-in on December 8th 2004. After we end the sit-in we returned to the areas where we worked to make a little money but also to focus on organizing other migrant workers.
On April 24, 2005 we held a meeting with ETUMB members and the new people we had organized from many different countries. At that meeting we transformed ETUMB into MTU, an independent union led by migrant workers ourselves. In ETUMB we were able to become members but in MTU all elected leaders were migrant workers and the secretariat was run by migrant workers. We applied to the Labor Ministry for union status but it was rejected. However after fighting a legal battle we won recognition from the Seoul, High Court on February 1, 2007. Unfortunately the Ministry of Labor appealed to the Supreme Court where the decision is still pending.
After we made the union our first president, President Anwar, was targeted arrested and detained. Many of our local leaders were also targeted and deported. In 2007 I myself, along with our president and vice president, were also targeted arrested and eventually deported. The reason I am mentioning this is to point out the extent to which the government went to attack us and break our union. This is because we were standing up for our rights. The stronger we have become the more the government has attacked.
When we started organizing there were not many women but a few very amazing female activists from Nepal, the Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh. Some of these comrades were also targeted, arrested and deported. Therefore, for a while there have not been any women members of MTU. However recently we have started to focus on women worker organizing so now more and more women are joining MTU.
For a long time we have insisted that KCTU and Korean unions have to organize migrant workers. This is because in a union of only migrant workers we have not been able to expand due to the government’s attack. Currently, KCTU is starting to organize migrant workers at the level of both local general unions and industrial unions like the Metal Workers Union and the Federation of Construction Industry Unions. Although MTU is only in the Seoul-Gyeong-Incheon area KCTU is expanding to organize migrant workers in other areas in South Korea. In addition, there are some NGOs that our supporting us to organize migrant workers. MTU is participating in all of these efforts. We are not trying only to strengthen ourselves but to support various forms of organizing around the country. If we can get over racism, both between Koreans and migrant workers and among migrant workers ourselves, we can achieve our goals. We have to do this now more than ever. ##
Daring to Struggle:
MTU and Undocumented Migrant Worker Organizing in South Korea
By Wol-san Liem, International Solidarity Coordinator Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union (Presented at the
Global People’s Action on Migration, Development and Human Rights Manila, October 26, 2008)
Introduction
One might not think that migrant worker unionizing would start with undocumented migrant workers. In South Korea, however, this is exactly how it has begun. In April of 2005, undocumented migrant workers, mostly from Nepal and Bangladesh formed the KCTU-affiliated Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union (MTU) was formed by in April 2005 by undocumented migrant workers, mostly from Bangladesh and Nepal. MTU was founded both as a challenge to the South Korean government’s policy on foreign labor and a response to conditions internal to the South Korean migrants’ rights movement. In particular, MTU’s founders recognized the need to unite and struggle to win migrant workers’ full labor rights in the face of a government policy which denied it to them and to stop the arrest, detention and deportation of undocumented migrant workers. They were also critical of the fact that the movement for migrants’ rights was led as it was primarily by Korean NGOs and religious organizations which often played the role of speaking for migrant workers instead of supporting their independent activities. To overcome this problem, MTU’s founders sought to create an organization through which migrant workers could express their own voices and become central movement actors.
MTU is the first union in South Korea, and one of the few in the world, whose elected officers are all migrant workers. What it more, it is perhaps the only union in the world founded by undocumented migrants. As such it has been the recipient of considerable international attention and, at the same time, heavy government repression. This is what makes MTU an important case for our discussion today; in addition to providing inspiration for and have the potential to set a precedent for undocumented migrant worker struggles in other countries, MTU’s story can provide important incite into the challenges that arising in organizing undocumented migrant workers.
Background
History of Labor Migration to South Korea and South Korean Policy on Foreign Labor
Migrant workers began coming to South Korea in the late 1980s and early 1990s after South Korea became known international through the 1988 Olympics. At this time there was no system regulating foreign labor. Rather, migrants entered South Korean on tourist and other shot-term visas, and quickly began to fill the dirty, dangerous and difficult jobs in small and medium-size factories that native Korean workers shunned. As a way to regulate these highly needed foreign labor force the government implemented the Industrial Trainee System in 1994. Under this system migrants were employed not as workers, but as “trainees” and were thus excluded from labor law protection, making their labor inexpensive and easily exploitable for business owners. Given the unbearable conditions that followed under the Trainee System, including low and unpaid wages, verbal and physical abuse and confiscation of passports, many trainees left their assigned factories, leading to a rise in the number of undocumented migrant workers in South Korea.
Due to heavy social criticism the government eventual introduced the Employment Permit System (EPS) in 2004, phasing out the Trainee System by 2007. Although under the EPS migrant workers are technically protected by labor law, the system preserves the basic intent of the Trainee System by creating a highly unequal relationship between workers and employer and thus facilitating exploitation and abuse, and by excluding low-skilled migrant workers from chances at long-term residence and citizenship.
In timing with the implementation of EPS, the South Korean government carried out a program of voluntary return and partial legalization in 2003, and then began a brutal policy of detention and deportation against undocumented migrant workers the following year. Since that time detention and deportation has been the only measure the government has had for handling undocumented migrant workers, despite the fact that this policy has been largely unsuccessful in reducing their numbers and has led0 to widespread human rights abuses, most notably injury and even death in the process of immigration raids and inhumane conditions inside detention centers. In addition to attempting to stop irregular migration, the crackdown against undocumented migrants also acts as a deterrent against documented migrant workers leaving their workplaces in large numbers, thus contributing to the stabilization of the EPS. For undocumented migrant workers, the insecurity experienced due to fear of the crackdown puts them in an even more vulnerable situation with relation to their employers making them more susceptible to exploitation.
Current State of the Crackdown against Undocumented Migrant Workers
With the advent of the Lee Myeong-bak administration the crackdown on undocumented migrant workers has become even more severe. On September 25th the South Korean ‘Committee on Strengthening National Competitiveness,’ a committee initiated and overseen by the president, issued a report entitled, ‘Plan for Improving Policy on the Unspecialized Foreign Labor Force.’ This report, in addition to proposing measures for reducing the costs of businesses that employ EPS works by putting more costs onto workers, includes a plan to reduce the number of undocumented migrant workers from the current 223,229 to 200,000 by the end of 2008 and down from 19.3% to 10% of the total foreign population in South Korea in the next five years through arrest and deportation. In particular, it calls for strengthening the infrastructure necessary for a joint crackdown by the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Labor and police carried out regularly 2 times a year, the first being from October to December this year. In addition, the plan assumes the passage of bill revising the Immigration Controls Law, initiated last year by the Ministry of Justice, which will strengthen the authority of immigration officers to carry out the crackdown. This full-out attack, justified by the portrayal of undocumented migrant workers as a criminal class in government statements and the mainstream media, should be understood both as an intensification of the racist and exploitative tendencies that have characterized South Korea’s immigration policy in reaction to economic crisis and a turn towards greater overall repression of labor and other progressive forces under the new Lee Myeong-bak administration.
The Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon
Migrants Trade Union
History
The Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants Trade Union (MTU) was formed in the wake of a year-long protest against the establishment of EPS and the beginning of intense crackdown against undocumented migrant workers. From November 2003 to December 2004 migrant worker organizations including MTU’s predecessor, the Equality Trade Union Migrants Branch, and Korean labor and civil society activists, carried out a sit-in protest at the historic Myeong-dong Cathedral in downtown Seoul. The sit-in attracted wide public attention, making the plight of migrant workers and the horror of the crackdown known in the media and throughout society. It also provided a certain sanctuary for undocumented migrant workers targeted in the crackdown, a training ground for migrant worker activists, and a compressed experience in the difficulties of solidarity between migrant workers and native Koreans, in particular those that arose from the inevitable inequalities in resources, experience, language skills and social status between seasoned Korean activists and organizations and new migrant worker activists and formations. It was through this experience that migrant workers became convinced of both the necessity of a strong relationship with KCTU and Korean workers and the need for an independent organization led entirely by migrant workers themselves. When the sit-in protest ended over a year later in December of 2004, its participants committed themselves to local organizing and the construction of such an organization. As such, the Seoul-Gyeonggi-Incheon Migrants’ Trade Union, an independent union for and by migrant workers regardless of visa status and a member of the KCTU Seoul Regional Council, was born on 24 April 2005.
Repression
As a formation through which migrant workers from all countries can unite to demand their rights MTU is both unique and powerful; it is also threatening to the South Korean government, which seeks to maintain migrant workers as an easily exploitable labor force through perpetuating their alienation and low social status. As such MTU has been a target of consistent government repression. Since its founding, the government has refused to acknowledge MTU’s legal union status. It has also targeted MTU leaders for arrest and deportation in an attempt to stop the union’s activities.
Legal Battle
The ambiguity over their legal labor rights is one of the challenges in organizing undocumented migrant workers. The South Korea Ministry of Labor’s originally rejection of MTU’s legal status was made on the basis that the union’s leadership and membership are primarily undocumented migrant workers, supposedly without the same legally protected labor rights as Korean workers. This position was initially upheld in a district court decision on 7 February 2006, but then overturned by the Seoul High Court on 1 February 2007, which held that migrant workers, regardless of residence status, have the full right to freedom of association under the ROK Constitution and labor law. Nonetheless, the Ministry of Labor has appealed this decision to the Supreme Court, where a final decision is still pending, likely to be issued before the end of the year.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions has filed a complaint with the ILO Committee on Freedom of Association in regards to the South Korean government’s refusal of MTU’s status. Because this complaint and MTU’s Supreme Court case are of the few that deal with undocumented migrant workers’ right to freedom of association, it is worth taking a brief moment to discuss the basic issues involved.
The central argument of the South Korean ministry of labor is that undocumented migrant workers do not have the same rights protections afforded other workers under the South Korean Constitution and Trade Union Law because they are not lawfully employable under the Immigration Control Law. The problem with this argument lies in a misinterpretation of the scope of the Immigration Control Law which leads to a false assertion that status under immigration law can have the effect of reversing the rights given to all workers under the Constitution and the Trade Union Law.
Both the South Korean Constitution and the Trade Union law protect the 3 basic labor rights (right to form labor unions, right to collective bargaining and right to strike) for all workers regardless of social status, limitable only in the case of public servants and those employed in national defense. The Immigration Control Law aims at prohibiting the act of employing migrant workers without legal residence status. It does not however, pertain to undocumented migrant workers who have already entered into a labor relation with an employer in South Korea and therefore have the status of worker as defined in the Constitution and the Trade Union Law. The High Court ruling upheld the interpretation that in that freedom of association is a fundamental right protected by the Constitution, status under Immigration law cannot be seen as a basis for denying it. As such, the High Court stated clearly that foreigners with irregular residence status have the right to establish labor unions.
This interpretation also has precedent in international law that pertains to South Korea. According to the South Korean Constitution, “Treaties duly concluded and promulgated under the Constitution and generally recognized rules of international law shall have the same force and effect of law as domestic laws of the Republic of Korea” (Article 6, clause 1). Based on this stipulation, protections provided undocumented migrant workers under international agreements that South Korea has ratified, must be respected. These agreements include the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD), the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). In particular, the CERD (Committee on the Eradication of Racial Discrimination, which monitors the ICERD) stated in General Recommendation No. 30(2004) “guarantees against racial discrimination apply to non-citizens regardless of their immigration status” (paragraph 7) and that “while States parties may refuse to offer jobs to non-citizens without a work permit, all individuals are entitled to the enjoyment of labour and employment rights, including the freedom of assembly and association, once an employment relationship has been initiated until it is terminated” (paragraph 32).
In addition, ILO Convention No. 87 protects the right to freedom of association for all workers, “without distinction whatsoever” and has been shown to apply to undocumented migrant workers through Committee on Freedom of Association recommendations pertaining to the complaint submitted by the UGT in 2001 and the one submitted by the AFL-CIO and CTM in 2002. While South Korea has not ratified Convention No. 87, it is bound to uphold the rights protected in it as a member of the ILO under the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (1998).
It is therefore clear that there is able basis for a Supreme Court ruling in favor of MTU’s legal status. Nonetheless, the political climate in South Korea, which is become more and more hostile to migrant workers and all progressive forces makes the outcome of the case a point of consider, which requires the attention of both South Korean and international labor and human rights organizations.
Targeted Crackdown
Beyond the Ministry of Justice’s refusal to acknowledge MTU and the legal battle that has resulted, the South Korean government has also used an abuse of the right to arrest and deport undocumented migrant workers granted under the Immigration Control Law in order to directly attack the union’s leadership. As mentioned earlier, the government has used a tactic of targeted crackdown- premeditated arrest, detention and deportation- against migrant worker leaders since even before MTU w0as formed. Several officers of MTU’s precursor, the Equality Trade Union’s Migrants Branch, were targeted for arrest and detention. Directly, after MTU was founded, our first president was also arrested in the middle of the night and kept in detention for close to a year before finally being released for medical reasons.
The Immigration Authorities attacked again on November 27 last year arresting our second President, Vice President and General Secretary all at the same time in 3 separate locations in Seoul. In each case multiple immigration officers had lay in waiting hidden near their homes or workplace from as early as the night before. All three men were transported to and detained at Cheongju Foreigners’ Detention Center 2.5 hours outside of Seoul. Despite the fact that a National Human Rights Commission investigation was underway December 13th they were taken from their cells in the middle of the night, out a hole cut in the fence at the back of the detention center in order to avoid supporters keeping watch at the front gate and deported early in the morning.
At the time of their arrest and deportation the Immigration Authority and the Ministry of Justice made the absurd claim that the three men were not targeted but had simply been caught in the course of a regular immigration raid. However, as if the fact that this was a targeted crackdown was not already obvious enough, only 5 months after the previous leaders had been detained, MTU’s newly elected President Torna and Vice President Sabur were arrested, detained and deported in exactly the same matter. Immigration officers tracked the men and hid nearby the MTU office and the Vice President’s home for hours waiting to arrest the two at roughly the same time the night of May 2nd. Again the MTU leaders were detained at distant Cheongju Detention Center, unlike other undocumented migrant workers arrested in Seoul, who are detained nearby.
Given that this was undeniably a case of targeted crackdown and thus an abuse of authority granted under the immigration law MTU filed objections to the detention and deportation orders for the two men with the Ministry of Justice and a lawsuit with the Seoul District Court. MTU also made a complaint to the National Human Rights Commission as it had done when the previous leaders were arrested, this time including an application for an urgent appeal for stay of detention until the investigation was over. On 15 March the Standing Committee of the Human Rights Commission made a decision in favor of the stay of detention and issued an urgent appeal calling on the Ministry of Justice and Immigration Authority not to deport President Torna and Vice President Sabur until the investigation of their arrests was completed. Despite the fact, or perhaps because this decision was communicated verbally to concerned parties around noon on the 15th, the two were taken from their cells and transported to Incheon International Airport the same day and finally deported at around 9:30 that evening.
The targeted crackdown against MTU leaders is clearly an abuse of state authority and an act of blatant labor repression meant to break MTU before the Supreme Court decision. Nonetheless, it also demonstrates one of the challenges of organizing undocumented migrant workers; that is, because of the vulnerable legal status of undocumented migrant activists, it is extremely difficult to challenge this sort of attack against them. Indeed, the government of Lee Myeong-bak has become more and more blatant in is acts of repression. In fact the plan issued by the Committee on Strengthen National Competitiveness explicated proclaims an increased crackdown against MTU’s membership, making the absurd claim that the ‘formation of an extra-legal union by illegal residents’ is part of the tendency towards neglect for the law brought about by undocumented migration. This continuous attack against MTU’s leadership in combination with the overall strengthening of crackdown against undocumented migrant workers has created a very dire situation for MTU, draining it of leadership and making it very difficult to meet and organize new members and activists.
On the one hand it should be stated that since targeted crackdown constitutes an attack on the rightful union activities of a KCTU affiliate it must be seen as repression not only against MTU but against KCTU itself and the labor movement in general. On the other hand, however, the strength with which the government has been able to repress MTU calls attention to the particular vulnerability of undocumented migrant workers; as brutal and obvious as targeted crackdown is it is very difficult to challenge on a legal basis and almost impossible for migrant workers to challenge on their own. This is where intervention from international organizations such as the ILO and UN become important; it is uplifting to know that the Committee on Freedom of Association is considering the issue of targeted crackdown along with the issue of MTU’s legal union status and that the problem has also been addressed by the UN Special Rapporteurs on the Human Rights of Migrants and Human Rights Defenders. It is also demonstrates how necessary solidarity with the native Korean labor movement and support from civil society organizations are for undocumented migrant workers who are organizing to demand their rights.
Conclusion
Thus, in conclusion, I would like to make the following suggestion to trade unions and civil society organizations who are seeking to address repression against undocumented migrant workers. First, it is of course highly necessary for labor and human rights organization become a voice criticizing and calling attention to the rights abuse that arise in the course of immigration raids, detention and deportation. In order to foster migrant workers’ agency, however, unions and NGOs need to go beyond simple raising issues to actually providing resources and protection for undocumented migrant workers who seek to stand up for their rights and organize themselves. This means everything from legal and technical support when needed to providing sanctuary and training to undocumented migrants so they may find the space and develop the skills to begin acting for themselves. For unions this means in part actively organizing undocumented migrant workers as union members. Most importantly, it is necessary to recognize and actively support the claim that is at the center of MTU’s Supreme Court case- that is that undocumented migrant workers are still workers, with entitlement to all of the rights afforded workers everywhere in domestic and international law and standards. To recognize this claim means to realize that the attack against undocumented migrant workers is means to maintain them as an easily exploitable workforce and to stop them from organizing, as well as a violation of their fundamental human rights. This in turn means recognizing this attack as an affront to workers everywhere and a central issue of the human rights and labor movements worldwide.
Who is Migrant Worker in This Country?
Who is Migrant Worker in This Country?
By Mustaque Ahmed Mahbub, Media Activist
Why and how did I come to Korea?
In 1998, after sorrowful seeing off from my family, I left the international airport in Dhaka for Hongkong with a broker to go to Seoul. It was the first time for me to go far away with the passport without any visa.
My family was composed of mother, father and 11 brothers and sisters. My mother had have a kidney problem and needed to take an operation at that moment. Although I wanted to work to support my family and mother's operation financially, it was hard to get a suitable job opportunity after graduating the university. I was thinking of working for a company where I could be paid 100,000 won, but with that money, it was impossible to deal with regular treatment fees which should cost 300,000 won for a month as well as the operation fees. In this situation, I decided going to Korea with the help of a broker. It costed 7 million won. The broker sent me to Honkong at first. We planned to enter Korea after staying in Hongkong for a week, but broker said to me that the circumstance was not so good to go to Korea directly and sent me to China. Afterward, I came and went from China to Hongkong about 10 times for three month like a ball of ping-pong. Meanwhile, I spent all money and could not make a phone call. Having just a meal a day, time had passed.
The broker appeared after three month and told that I could go to Korea. He bought a suit to make me like a business man. Then, we took the flight for Korea, but my document for the immigration control was revealed as fake one. A few immigration officers of big size threatened me to sign on the document for the departure, so in the end I signed and returned to Bangladesh after having a hard time during a couple of days in the detention center of Kimpo airport. I failed to enter Korea helplessly but, brokery fees I had paid could not be returned. One month later, I tried to enter Korea again through another broker. This time, I could pass the immigration control very easily, which made me feel shame of the hardship in China at first attempt. Later I noticed that there had been a kind of connection between the Bangladesh broker and a few immigration officers, so I had been passed easily.
After I came to Korea, my daily life was like a slavery one. I worked for 12 hours a day in the alternation system of day and night and then could get 650,000won per month. It was really hard, but I could not stop working because I was thinking of my mother with illness. Then 6 month later, I heard the news like a bolt from the blue. It was that my mother passed away. With unmanageable deep grief, I wanted to fly to Bangladesh. However, I could not help to stay to pay back money which I had borrowed for coming to Korea and to contribute to my family's support. While I was working in the factory, I organized a Bangladeshi community in Namyangju city. We went for a picnic with friends and tried to solve the problems directly such as unpaid salaries. Meanwhile, in 2002, the Equality Trade Union- Migrants' Branch (ETU-MB) was established and I joined the ETU-MB actively because I agreed with the necessity of labor union activities to improve poor working condition which migrant workers were facing. In November, 2003, migrant organizations such as the ETU-MB and Nepalese community went on the sit-in struggle in Myong-dong cathedral and it was a long and hard struggle having continued for more than one year. During the sit-in struggle, many colleagues such as Samar Thapa who was the president of the ETU-MB were arrested and deported by the immigration bureau. On the other hand, there were many chances to meet Korean solidarity groups and friends during the sit-in struggle. Then, I met a Korean female activist and got married to her in December, 2004. After the marriage, I founded the "Migrant Workers' TV"(MWTV) with current colleagues and have been continuing activities as a media activist to announce the situation of migrant workers.
Why do we migrate?
First of all, the biggest reason to migrate is to solve economic problems. The economic condition of the third world including Bangladesh is too poor for the people to rear a family.
The most common job in Bangladesh can be Ricksha-Wali(man-pulled cart) and they can get only 2000 won a day after working all day long. Most Ricksha-Walis are the people who migrate from the rural to urban areas impecuniously after they lost their lands due to the poor harvests, the natural disasters such as the flood and debts fallen into loan sharks. Such people who are deprived of the backbone of their life migrate to the urban areas and pull the Ricksha or work for the factories in the free trade zone with the low salaries.
In 1974, there was a fatal famine which caused one hundred thousand people's death by starvation. Although there were food which people could survive on, many merchants did not offer food for sale in the market because they wanted to sell with more expensive price. Therefore, a scale of the damage caused by the famine could not avoid becoming much bigger. As often reported by the worldwide press, there are often flooding and many people die of starvation in Bangladesh. That is not because of the direct damage caused by the flood, but because of the weak and unstable economic condition in Bangladesh which effects on making many problems in spite of a minor disaster. For example, the price of onion jump from 5dhaka to 100dhaka per 1Kg after the flood.
In the free trade zone near Dhaka in Bangladesh, many foreign factories including Korean one were established and working condition in that factories are extremely poor. Most of them are contracted out by the famous brands such as NIKE and women and children are mainly working there. Working hours are basically 14-15 hours a day and the salary has not been increased for 12 years. Workers are put in the factories like chicken cages and the doors are often locked outside the factories. In such factories, a fire often breaks out at least one or two times a month and many people are injured or die. Labor union cannot be permitted in the free trade zone and the leadership who try to organize collective action such as a strike are often arrested and killed secretly. Last month, about 200,000 workers went on a general strike but, they were dissolved by the large oppression from the government. While worker's salary makes no progress, prices od commodities are going up.
People who can migrate abroad have better condition than factory workers, Ricksha Wali and homeless people. They choose migration as a survival struggle to escape from the country like the jungle where has just poor labor market and no social security, rather than with a greed to earn a lot of money. That is the reason which they cannot help coming to this country, putting up with the status of "illegal", the crackdown by the immigration bureau, various discrimination and so on.
Many people often point out that the third world countries including Bangladesh are poor due to the natural disaster, over population, laziness as the national character and religion. But there are more fundamental reasons to become a poor country. They are as follows: the successive poverty having been caused by colonial exploitation for more than 200 years, World Bank and IMF which instigate the poverty of the third world countries, the serious corruption by bureaucrats, the abuses by multinational enterprises following only cheap labor force, the natural environment and economic system which can be easily weak by a minor disaster, the control of natural resources by USA and EU.
Finally, poverty is due to the multinational enterprises, countries and governments which are exploiting the third world countries. Therefore, as a struggle against neo-liberalism and globalization securing the free movement of the capital over the borders, the right of worker's free movement should be voiced out.
The things discriminating me 1: Culture and Language
People in Korea are not so kind to me who came from a poor country in Asia. I could manage to endure in some way the discrimination and ignorance against because of my black face and poor Korean speaking. But it was hard for me to face no understanding and no consideration of different culture. For example, on dining together with co-workers once a month, we always went to the pork restaurant but a Korean boss and co-workers had never cared what pork meant for me because I was grown up in the islamic county. They used to press pork on me, saying it would help to clean the blood. Some people cheated me to have pork and after I noticed what I had have, I vomited for a while until my eyes were filled with tears.
Since I didn't know Korean at all in the beginning, I was insulted many times. Just as most migrant workers did, my learning Korean was not aspiring to learn a new language, but squirming to survive in Korea. Whenever I spoke in English in the beginning, a Korean boss and co-workers let fly at me with a stream of abuse. I noticed later that when migrant workers from EU, USA or Canada(USA military or English teacher) spoke in English, Korean people tended to blush with shame or answer kindly with their face beaming with smiles if they could speak well in English.
As time passed, I was getting familiar with speaking in Korean. When I heard "Oh, you speak Korean very well!", I used to shrug my shoulder with joy. However, now after 10 years have passed, I am really tired of hearing "Your Korean speaking is very well". When I take a taxi or subway, buy some stuff in the market and go out for a drink with friend, I cannot avoid hearing that sentence. When I talk in Korean with friends or colleagues in the taxi, there is no exception among taxi drivers to glimpse at me on the back mirror and say "You speak Korean very well. Where are you from?" Then, I answered just for the hell of it "I am Korean. Am I tanned a bit?" As seen from the above cases, Korean society is caught up in mono language and mono culture. For one more example, one day, when I was walking on the street, a child passing with her mom pointed me with her finger and shouted "Mom, there is an American!" Then, her mom said "Oh, no! He is not an American but a foreigner" as if there are three categories of people in Korea: Korean, American and foreigner.
The things discriminating me 2: Media
Major mass media in Korea play an important role to aggravate the discrimination against migrant workers. Needless to say about Cho-sun, Joong-ang and Dong-a ilbo, even newspapers and media which have a friendly attitude to migrant workers tend to show approximately two ways for dealing with them. The one is looking migrant workers as pitiful objects and the other is degrading them as funny existence. "Asia, Asia" or "NeuKkimPyo" produced by MBC can be the representative examples for the first case. Once, touching scene was presented in "Asia, Asia", which family of a migrant worker who had lived separately from the family for a long time were invited to make them meet together. Although many migrant workers were moved and cried by that programme, as a result, TV viewers could have a self-satisfaction and superiority to do something for pitiful "others" as "Korean" and it played a role to conceal or deny the reality of discrimination and system in Korean society. "Blanka" which more or less had calmed down the popularity recently also kept silent for the reality itself, rather a migrant worker just appeared as a comic character to reflect Korean people by themselves.
Moreover, the government and 3 major TV networks have persisted in calling migrant worker as "Woi-guk-in Geun-ro-ja (foreign worker)". Especially, the undocumented are often called "Bul-Beob(illegal)" instead of undocumented workers. Therefore, undocumented migrant worker are announced as "Bul-Beob Woi-guk-in Geun-ro-ja(illegal foreign worker)" by the major mass media. First, the term "Geun-ro-ja" stems from the regime of the president Park Jung Hee in 1970s, which has a purpose to deprive the labourness(rights of worker) and to charge only responsibilities as working people. Second, "foreigner" is a highly negative and exclusive term which means "you are not a Korean" On the contrary, "migrant" is the term emphasizing on "migration" itself. "Migrant" includes people who moved from one place to another place within Korea as well as people from the other countries to Korea in the narrow scope. That is, most Seoul citizens who had moved from the provinces to earn money in the past can be included "migrant" in the wide sense. Lastly, the most problematic term is "illegal". In general, illegality or legality is used to distinguish an action according to the law. However, since "Bul-Beob(illegal)" in "Bul-Beob Woi-guk-in Geun-ro-ja(illegal foreign worker)" defines human beings as illegal or legal, we should use the word "undocumented". We don't call "illegal person" for the people who violate the law. We don't call "illegal baby" for the baby who is born without the legal marriage. Besides, the problem of the word "Bul-Beob(illegal)" is not only with regard to the term. This word is working for ignoring and violating the human rights of migrant workers when the immigration bureau crack down, detain and deport migrant workers like the criminals.
According to the EPS(Employ Permit System) having been in effect since last year, migrant worker can stay maximum for three years in Korea as "legal person" not "illegal person" only if the employer renews the contract per year. Also, since there is no freedom for migrant workers to move the factory, they cannot change the work place even if they want to do because of unpaid salaries or bad working conditions. Under the EPS which just includes employers' benefit, the percentage of staying as "legal person" for three years seems very slim for migrant workers. Moreover, although there is the denizenship system for the people having stayed with legal status in Korea for more than five years, that is just pie in the sky for migrant workers who are allowed to stay for only three years by the EPS.
Then, why does the government want to keep this system making migrant worker "illegal person"? That is the strategy to use workers with cheap price and throw them away in the end. That is the policy which makes a slave of them with cheap price by using their weakness of "illegality", keeps the low salary by rotating new workers regularly and oppresses the unity of migrant workers and their communities. There is a topic that I have often heard. "Migrant workers can earn big money after working for three years. What greed makes them to continue working in Korea after then in spite of the severe discrimination?" Most migrant workers including me came to Korea through brokers and it takes more than two years to earn money as much as fees having been spent for the broker. In this reality, it is not easy to leave Korea just after getting out of debt. The government announced that illegal brokers would be disappeared and everything would be administrated fairly and clearly by the EPS. But, considering the reality that official agencies in each countries as well as illegal brokers get a lot of money from migrant workers and send them to Korea, the announcement of the government is a mere deception.
Lastly, major mass media in Korea are keeping silent about or support the crackdown on undocumented migrant workers with the reason that migrant workers threaten job opportunities of Korean workers. But factories where they work are in the 3D industry which Korean people tend to avoid. If there had not been migrant workers in Korea, those small factories might have been closed. But we have worked all the while. Nowadays, migrant workers are employed in the agricultural areas as well as industrial areas because of the shortage of labour. Without the labour force from migrant workers positioned in the bottom of Korean economy, could it have been maintained? In the result, that migrant workers are stealing the job opportunities of Korean workers is the rootless lies by the major mass media, which has a purpose to discriminate them and deprive of their rights and voice. ###
By Mustaque Ahmed Mahbub, Media Activist
Why and how did I come to Korea?
In 1998, after sorrowful seeing off from my family, I left the international airport in Dhaka for Hongkong with a broker to go to Seoul. It was the first time for me to go far away with the passport without any visa.
My family was composed of mother, father and 11 brothers and sisters. My mother had have a kidney problem and needed to take an operation at that moment. Although I wanted to work to support my family and mother's operation financially, it was hard to get a suitable job opportunity after graduating the university. I was thinking of working for a company where I could be paid 100,000 won, but with that money, it was impossible to deal with regular treatment fees which should cost 300,000 won for a month as well as the operation fees. In this situation, I decided going to Korea with the help of a broker. It costed 7 million won. The broker sent me to Honkong at first. We planned to enter Korea after staying in Hongkong for a week, but broker said to me that the circumstance was not so good to go to Korea directly and sent me to China. Afterward, I came and went from China to Hongkong about 10 times for three month like a ball of ping-pong. Meanwhile, I spent all money and could not make a phone call. Having just a meal a day, time had passed.
The broker appeared after three month and told that I could go to Korea. He bought a suit to make me like a business man. Then, we took the flight for Korea, but my document for the immigration control was revealed as fake one. A few immigration officers of big size threatened me to sign on the document for the departure, so in the end I signed and returned to Bangladesh after having a hard time during a couple of days in the detention center of Kimpo airport. I failed to enter Korea helplessly but, brokery fees I had paid could not be returned. One month later, I tried to enter Korea again through another broker. This time, I could pass the immigration control very easily, which made me feel shame of the hardship in China at first attempt. Later I noticed that there had been a kind of connection between the Bangladesh broker and a few immigration officers, so I had been passed easily.
After I came to Korea, my daily life was like a slavery one. I worked for 12 hours a day in the alternation system of day and night and then could get 650,000won per month. It was really hard, but I could not stop working because I was thinking of my mother with illness. Then 6 month later, I heard the news like a bolt from the blue. It was that my mother passed away. With unmanageable deep grief, I wanted to fly to Bangladesh. However, I could not help to stay to pay back money which I had borrowed for coming to Korea and to contribute to my family's support. While I was working in the factory, I organized a Bangladeshi community in Namyangju city. We went for a picnic with friends and tried to solve the problems directly such as unpaid salaries. Meanwhile, in 2002, the Equality Trade Union- Migrants' Branch (ETU-MB) was established and I joined the ETU-MB actively because I agreed with the necessity of labor union activities to improve poor working condition which migrant workers were facing. In November, 2003, migrant organizations such as the ETU-MB and Nepalese community went on the sit-in struggle in Myong-dong cathedral and it was a long and hard struggle having continued for more than one year. During the sit-in struggle, many colleagues such as Samar Thapa who was the president of the ETU-MB were arrested and deported by the immigration bureau. On the other hand, there were many chances to meet Korean solidarity groups and friends during the sit-in struggle. Then, I met a Korean female activist and got married to her in December, 2004. After the marriage, I founded the "Migrant Workers' TV"(MWTV) with current colleagues and have been continuing activities as a media activist to announce the situation of migrant workers.
Why do we migrate?
First of all, the biggest reason to migrate is to solve economic problems. The economic condition of the third world including Bangladesh is too poor for the people to rear a family.
The most common job in Bangladesh can be Ricksha-Wali(man-pulled cart) and they can get only 2000 won a day after working all day long. Most Ricksha-Walis are the people who migrate from the rural to urban areas impecuniously after they lost their lands due to the poor harvests, the natural disasters such as the flood and debts fallen into loan sharks. Such people who are deprived of the backbone of their life migrate to the urban areas and pull the Ricksha or work for the factories in the free trade zone with the low salaries.
In 1974, there was a fatal famine which caused one hundred thousand people's death by starvation. Although there were food which people could survive on, many merchants did not offer food for sale in the market because they wanted to sell with more expensive price. Therefore, a scale of the damage caused by the famine could not avoid becoming much bigger. As often reported by the worldwide press, there are often flooding and many people die of starvation in Bangladesh. That is not because of the direct damage caused by the flood, but because of the weak and unstable economic condition in Bangladesh which effects on making many problems in spite of a minor disaster. For example, the price of onion jump from 5dhaka to 100dhaka per 1Kg after the flood.
In the free trade zone near Dhaka in Bangladesh, many foreign factories including Korean one were established and working condition in that factories are extremely poor. Most of them are contracted out by the famous brands such as NIKE and women and children are mainly working there. Working hours are basically 14-15 hours a day and the salary has not been increased for 12 years. Workers are put in the factories like chicken cages and the doors are often locked outside the factories. In such factories, a fire often breaks out at least one or two times a month and many people are injured or die. Labor union cannot be permitted in the free trade zone and the leadership who try to organize collective action such as a strike are often arrested and killed secretly. Last month, about 200,000 workers went on a general strike but, they were dissolved by the large oppression from the government. While worker's salary makes no progress, prices od commodities are going up.
People who can migrate abroad have better condition than factory workers, Ricksha Wali and homeless people. They choose migration as a survival struggle to escape from the country like the jungle where has just poor labor market and no social security, rather than with a greed to earn a lot of money. That is the reason which they cannot help coming to this country, putting up with the status of "illegal", the crackdown by the immigration bureau, various discrimination and so on.
Many people often point out that the third world countries including Bangladesh are poor due to the natural disaster, over population, laziness as the national character and religion. But there are more fundamental reasons to become a poor country. They are as follows: the successive poverty having been caused by colonial exploitation for more than 200 years, World Bank and IMF which instigate the poverty of the third world countries, the serious corruption by bureaucrats, the abuses by multinational enterprises following only cheap labor force, the natural environment and economic system which can be easily weak by a minor disaster, the control of natural resources by USA and EU.
Finally, poverty is due to the multinational enterprises, countries and governments which are exploiting the third world countries. Therefore, as a struggle against neo-liberalism and globalization securing the free movement of the capital over the borders, the right of worker's free movement should be voiced out.
The things discriminating me 1: Culture and Language
People in Korea are not so kind to me who came from a poor country in Asia. I could manage to endure in some way the discrimination and ignorance against because of my black face and poor Korean speaking. But it was hard for me to face no understanding and no consideration of different culture. For example, on dining together with co-workers once a month, we always went to the pork restaurant but a Korean boss and co-workers had never cared what pork meant for me because I was grown up in the islamic county. They used to press pork on me, saying it would help to clean the blood. Some people cheated me to have pork and after I noticed what I had have, I vomited for a while until my eyes were filled with tears.
Since I didn't know Korean at all in the beginning, I was insulted many times. Just as most migrant workers did, my learning Korean was not aspiring to learn a new language, but squirming to survive in Korea. Whenever I spoke in English in the beginning, a Korean boss and co-workers let fly at me with a stream of abuse. I noticed later that when migrant workers from EU, USA or Canada(USA military or English teacher) spoke in English, Korean people tended to blush with shame or answer kindly with their face beaming with smiles if they could speak well in English.
As time passed, I was getting familiar with speaking in Korean. When I heard "Oh, you speak Korean very well!", I used to shrug my shoulder with joy. However, now after 10 years have passed, I am really tired of hearing "Your Korean speaking is very well". When I take a taxi or subway, buy some stuff in the market and go out for a drink with friend, I cannot avoid hearing that sentence. When I talk in Korean with friends or colleagues in the taxi, there is no exception among taxi drivers to glimpse at me on the back mirror and say "You speak Korean very well. Where are you from?" Then, I answered just for the hell of it "I am Korean. Am I tanned a bit?" As seen from the above cases, Korean society is caught up in mono language and mono culture. For one more example, one day, when I was walking on the street, a child passing with her mom pointed me with her finger and shouted "Mom, there is an American!" Then, her mom said "Oh, no! He is not an American but a foreigner" as if there are three categories of people in Korea: Korean, American and foreigner.
The things discriminating me 2: Media
Major mass media in Korea play an important role to aggravate the discrimination against migrant workers. Needless to say about Cho-sun, Joong-ang and Dong-a ilbo, even newspapers and media which have a friendly attitude to migrant workers tend to show approximately two ways for dealing with them. The one is looking migrant workers as pitiful objects and the other is degrading them as funny existence. "Asia, Asia" or "NeuKkimPyo" produced by MBC can be the representative examples for the first case. Once, touching scene was presented in "Asia, Asia", which family of a migrant worker who had lived separately from the family for a long time were invited to make them meet together. Although many migrant workers were moved and cried by that programme, as a result, TV viewers could have a self-satisfaction and superiority to do something for pitiful "others" as "Korean" and it played a role to conceal or deny the reality of discrimination and system in Korean society. "Blanka" which more or less had calmed down the popularity recently also kept silent for the reality itself, rather a migrant worker just appeared as a comic character to reflect Korean people by themselves.
Moreover, the government and 3 major TV networks have persisted in calling migrant worker as "Woi-guk-in Geun-ro-ja (foreign worker)". Especially, the undocumented are often called "Bul-Beob(illegal)" instead of undocumented workers. Therefore, undocumented migrant worker are announced as "Bul-Beob Woi-guk-in Geun-ro-ja(illegal foreign worker)" by the major mass media. First, the term "Geun-ro-ja" stems from the regime of the president Park Jung Hee in 1970s, which has a purpose to deprive the labourness(rights of worker) and to charge only responsibilities as working people. Second, "foreigner" is a highly negative and exclusive term which means "you are not a Korean" On the contrary, "migrant" is the term emphasizing on "migration" itself. "Migrant" includes people who moved from one place to another place within Korea as well as people from the other countries to Korea in the narrow scope. That is, most Seoul citizens who had moved from the provinces to earn money in the past can be included "migrant" in the wide sense. Lastly, the most problematic term is "illegal". In general, illegality or legality is used to distinguish an action according to the law. However, since "Bul-Beob(illegal)" in "Bul-Beob Woi-guk-in Geun-ro-ja(illegal foreign worker)" defines human beings as illegal or legal, we should use the word "undocumented". We don't call "illegal person" for the people who violate the law. We don't call "illegal baby" for the baby who is born without the legal marriage. Besides, the problem of the word "Bul-Beob(illegal)" is not only with regard to the term. This word is working for ignoring and violating the human rights of migrant workers when the immigration bureau crack down, detain and deport migrant workers like the criminals.
According to the EPS(Employ Permit System) having been in effect since last year, migrant worker can stay maximum for three years in Korea as "legal person" not "illegal person" only if the employer renews the contract per year. Also, since there is no freedom for migrant workers to move the factory, they cannot change the work place even if they want to do because of unpaid salaries or bad working conditions. Under the EPS which just includes employers' benefit, the percentage of staying as "legal person" for three years seems very slim for migrant workers. Moreover, although there is the denizenship system for the people having stayed with legal status in Korea for more than five years, that is just pie in the sky for migrant workers who are allowed to stay for only three years by the EPS.
Then, why does the government want to keep this system making migrant worker "illegal person"? That is the strategy to use workers with cheap price and throw them away in the end. That is the policy which makes a slave of them with cheap price by using their weakness of "illegality", keeps the low salary by rotating new workers regularly and oppresses the unity of migrant workers and their communities. There is a topic that I have often heard. "Migrant workers can earn big money after working for three years. What greed makes them to continue working in Korea after then in spite of the severe discrimination?" Most migrant workers including me came to Korea through brokers and it takes more than two years to earn money as much as fees having been spent for the broker. In this reality, it is not easy to leave Korea just after getting out of debt. The government announced that illegal brokers would be disappeared and everything would be administrated fairly and clearly by the EPS. But, considering the reality that official agencies in each countries as well as illegal brokers get a lot of money from migrant workers and send them to Korea, the announcement of the government is a mere deception.
Lastly, major mass media in Korea are keeping silent about or support the crackdown on undocumented migrant workers with the reason that migrant workers threaten job opportunities of Korean workers. But factories where they work are in the 3D industry which Korean people tend to avoid. If there had not been migrant workers in Korea, those small factories might have been closed. But we have worked all the while. Nowadays, migrant workers are employed in the agricultural areas as well as industrial areas because of the shortage of labour. Without the labour force from migrant workers positioned in the bottom of Korean economy, could it have been maintained? In the result, that migrant workers are stealing the job opportunities of Korean workers is the rootless lies by the major mass media, which has a purpose to discriminate them and deprive of their rights and voice. ###
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