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