This contribution aims to present the general issue of integrating North Korean migrants living in South Korea into jobs and society, and to address more precisely the question of the contribution by the social enterprise model to their work integration. The purpose of our contribution is therefore to discuss more precisely whether the social enterprise model can be considered as an effective system or an appropriate approach for North Korean migrants’ work integration in South Korea and even if it can be considered as a model that can have an original contribution compared to other supportive schemes.
After presenting the main characteristics of the rising issue of North Korean migrants’ work integration and the transformation of governmental policies targeting them, this study analyzes the characteristics of social enterprise in South Korea and its specific declination in relation with the North Korean migrants’ work integration issue. Such an approach leads to apprehend this question, not in the traditional framework of policies specific to North Korean migrants, but in a broader framework to address a more comprehensive issue of the integration of vulnerable populations. According to our survey, it appears however that North Korean migrants have their own features and therefore may need specific schemes inside more general policies towards vulnerable categories.
In order to answer our research question, we collected a primary data by conducting interviews in 2014 and 2016 with leaders and managers of social enterprises hiring North Korean migrants. These interviews aimed at obtaining a concrete understanding of respective social enterprises’ motivations, origins and business models as their key features. In order to provide a comprehensive picture of the North Korean migrant issue from the South Korean societal and historical contexts, we also mobilized different types of secondary data sources: (1) the macro quantitative data provided by large surveys of North Korean migrants; (2) the main academic papers and studies resulted from the growing political and scholarly interest in North Koreans living in the South that shed light on the phenomena of workforce integration and, more generally, assimilation; (3) qualitative data that we obtained through interviews with a few North Koreans living in the South, relevant NGOs, government officials and academic researchers; and (4) the abundant material dealing with the social enterprise phenomenon in South Korea, i.e. legal documents and case studies, as well as academic surveys on this topic.
The main question addressed in this article is whether the social enterprise model can bring an effective answer to North Korean migrants’ work integration in South Korea and even whether it can be considered as a more effective system than the traditional supportive schemes specific to the migrants and especially to North Korean migrants. Although the social enterprise may appear so far as a very partial answer to the issue of North Korean migrants’ work integration, we argue that this model has a strong potential to address this issue. However our analysis leads us to the following two observations or suggestions regarding the current system supporting social enterprises.
1) The first observation is that the three year limit of the public support in the current system seems to be too short for social enterprises targeting North Korean migrants. Given that these social enterprises serve an extremely disadvantaged group cumulating various handicaps, it may be more appropriate to extend the term for an increased adaptation to South Korean society. The interview findings also suggest that the task of work integration should be more comprehensively addressed in the Settlement Support Center (Hanawon).
2) The second observation is moral hazards in the selection process and monitoring system. Our survey noticed free riders’ behaviors among social entrepreneurs. It may be partly due to the under-estimation in evaluating the challenges facing North Korean migrants to adapt to the South Korean professional environment. But it is also partly because of opportunistic behaviors of some of social enterprises when they do not have a strong commitment towards their main target beneficiary group. This kind of behaviors are built upon the idea that social enterprise supportive system is an opportunity for public funding with unsubstantial commitment to proclaimed social missions. The cost of deadweight loss is present in any public supportive scheme. We argue that this cost could be reduced through a participative governance model. The social cooperative model could offer an insight in respect of institutionalizing a governance involving main stakeholders.
Main references
E.Bidet. 2009. “Social Capital and Work Integration of Migrants: The Case of North Korean Defectors living in South Korea”, Asian Perspective, 33:2, 151-180
E.Bidet. 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
E.Bidet and B.Jeong. 2016. “Social Enterprise and Work Integration of North Korean Migrants in South Korea”, Contemporary Politics, 22:4, 395-411
10. Gender and diversity issues
