Social enterprise and work integration of North Korean migrants in South Korea

For 40 years, the labor force integration of North Koreans living in the South did not present a significant challenge for several reasons: the annual number of defections was very low (until the late 1980s, only a few North... [ view full abstract ]

For 40 years, the labor force integration of North Koreans living in the South did not present a significant challenge for several reasons: the annual number of defections was very low (until the late 1980s, only a few North Koreans entered South Korea each year and the entire population of defectors consisted of less than 600 individuals in 1988), most defectors were skilled workers from privileged social groups (diplomacy, business or the army) and their reasons for defecting were generally ideological rather than economic. This modest movement of persons from North Korea gradually changed from the early 1990s and the aggregate number of North Korean migrants living in South Korea crossed the threshold of 10,000 individuals in February 2007 and, by 2010, their numbers had once again doubled to be estimated now around 28,000.
Although they remain imprecise and often uncompleted, available data show that the work integration of these migrants is very problematic because they lack both adequate social and human forms of capital. North Korean migrants cannot rely upon well-organized and efficient ethnic networks because of the recent date of many migrants’ arrival in South Korea (less than 3 years ago) and the fact that earlier generations of defectors – warmly welcomed and generously assisted by the South Korean government – did not feel a need to create networks of their own. At the same time, the migrants find themselves excluded from indigenous networks because they are frequently victims of an array of prejudices about Northerners that developed during the decades when both sides demonized each other. Human capital is another serious challenge to the workforce integration of many North Korean migrants. Very often, their skills and expectations fail to match the needs of South Korean employers. Most of them are in a situation of conflict between what van Tubergen (2005) terms “origin-specific human capital” and the “destination-specific human capital”. Classical paths for integration that can be set up and work in other contexts are for these reasons especially inefficient to deal with the work integration of North Korean migrants in South Korea.
An interesting new path has been experimented for a few years: the one proposed by the public scheme for the promotion of social enterprise. This general scheme was set up in 2006 with the enactment of the Law for the Promotion of Social Enterprise which includes a specific chapter devoted to the work integration and/or provision of social services of/to North Korean migrants. For a community which lacks entrepreneurial spirit, self-confidence and social recognition, such a new approach can contribute to build up a more appropriate supportive ecosystem through specific financial and educational tools. This contribution aims at presenting the general issue of the work integration of North Korean migrants, the main characteristics of the social enterprise scheme set up in South Korea, and a few examples of social enterprises engaged in North Koreans migrants’ work integration and discuss how this approach of the North Korean work integration issue takes place in a broader perspective of workfare where are encouraged active employment policies and new private/public partnerships contributing to the emergence of a new welfare mix where social economy play a growing role. Regarding the North Korean migrants, it is in accordance with a growing tendency to insert this issue as a part of general policies towards underprivileged groups rather than to deal with it through specific schemes as South Korea used to for long. Methodology is based upon data produced by general surveys on NK migrants, a regular watch and analysis of the numerous schemes linked to social enterprise in SK, and field visits of social enterprises and interviews of the main actors in the field.

Selected Bibliography
Bidet E. 2012. “Overcoming Labor Market Problems and Providing Social Services: Government and Civil Society Collaboration in South Korea”, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, 41:6, 1216-1231
Bidet E. 2009. “Social Capital and Work Integration of Migrants: The Case of North Korean Defectors living in South Korea”, Asian Perspective, 33:2, Kyungnam University and Portland State University, 151-180
Bidet E. and Eum, H.S, 2011, Social enterprise in South Korea: History and diversity, Social Enterprise Journal vol. 7, 1, 69-85