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. ###