Facility Offers Aid to Migrant Workers in Korea
The Korea Times(22-11-01)
Heo Yun-seon
Staff Reporter
Tun Tun, who came to South Korea from Myanmar in 1993, didn't want to talk about his missing finger. He had lost it in an accident at a cardboard box- manufacturing factory in Yongin, Kyonggi Province several years ago.
``Now that we all work like brothers, I don't want to bring it up,'' he said, refusing to give details about how his finger was cut off. Tun Tun, 42, said the company provided him money to get medical treatment.
For a migrant worker here, he is lucky. ``I am happy because my son and daughter completed their college educations with the money I sent to them from here,'' he told The Korea Times. Formerly a company worker back home, where his salary was about 10, 000 won ($8) per month, he now earns 80 to 90 times more.He has been working here to support his wife and three children in Myanmar, whomhe has not met since he left.
``If I go home now, there would be no job, and I would not be able to support my family.'' His first few months in Korea were not easy. But when he had problems, Tun Tun, like many other migrant workers here, came to the Migrant Workers' House in Songnam, Kyonggi Province, to consult with Lee Sang-rin, education director of the house.
Since 1994, Lee, as a volunteer worker, has been assisting migrant workers in finding jobs, getting back pay, receiving medical treatment and so on.The facility now is also home for about 80 workers from Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Morocco and China. There are similar houses for migrant workers in Kuri, southwestern Seoul, and in Ansan, Kyonggi Province.
``Although we have no means to promote our services, we receive about 70 phone calls and 10 to 50 visits by foreign workers who seek help or consultation each day,'' Lee said. He is assisting some 300 migrant workers to find new or better jobs.
Tun Tun is one of about 480,000 migrant workers in South Korea, who are mostly from developing countries such as China, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Vietnam, Indonesia and the Philippines. Around 200,000 of them are overstaying their visas, according to a government tally. For such workers coming from different cultures, there are ``almost always'' some problems, most of which start with communication barriers.
``Because they cannot communicate effectively with the locals, among other things, they usually have a hard time finding jobs,'' Lee said. ``Even after they find places to work, they are often unpaid for months, while unprotected from industrial accidents,'' he said. Lee said he is trying to investigate and help settle problems the immigrant workers have.
Poor communication sometimes develops into frustration and even violence, because ``migrant workers don't understand what their employers want them to do, for example, meeting a product deadline or doing some extra work,'' Lee said.
Tun Tun said when he arrived here, he knew nobody and didn't speak the language,``so the first few months were really difficult.'' But he now speaks Korean fluently enough to give the interview in Korean and understands even better how Koreans speak badly to him in their own language.
``When I didn't understand the language, I was okay with being yelled at, because I didn't know what it was about,'' he said. ``But now that I know what they are talking about, it sometimes hurts my feelings,'' he said.
Shahmaz, 29, who came from Pakistan in 1999, agreed. ``Some Korean men behave very badly towards foreign workers,'' said Shahmaz, who is doing woodwork. He came here after studying commerce at a college back home. ``Even though I have a proper working visa and often work overtime, I get paid half the amount my Korean colleagues receive,'' he said, admitting the amount is still about five times larger than the wage that a college graduate would receive in his country.
Despite all these difficulties, some of them, like Chung Bong-yol from China, can't simply go back home, as they came here after spending about 5 million to 15 million won for brokerage commissions, a huge sum of money that they had to borrow from others. Chung, an ethnic Korean, came here in 1997 and got a ligament sprain in his right knee while working for a textile factory. From 1998, he spent two years trying to get medical treatments, after which he was left jobless and his visa expired. Although he now wants to return home, Chung said that he isn't able to do that. ``Before I earn enough money to get out of debt and make some more to support my parents at home, I wouldn't go back.''
Chung seemed determined in saying that he would dissuade anyone from home who wants to come work here. ``People here kind of look down upon us from China, although we share the same ethnicity,'' he said. ``They often call us names, saying, 'You're from China and you're an illegal resident here.' There is no point in incurring a huge debt to leave home, just to be treated that way.''
Because of those few Koreans behaving badly towards foreign workers, the image of Koreans worsens, Chung said, adding, ``I hope people here won't discriminate against foreign workers any more.''
Lee of the Songnam Migrant Workers' House said he hoped the government would pay more attention to the problems faced by the foreign workers. ``Just as the migrant workers come here to make money, Korea needs them to work in sectors that Koreans shun,'' he said. ``That's why we need to treat them with warm heart,'' Lee added.