| Since the 1980s, Korea has seen an influx of migrant workers who would potentially replace native workers. In 1997, when economic difficulties besieged Korea, a turning point{09}occurred after which the number of migrant workers decreased. Recently, however, the number has begun to increase again. They come mostly from the economically underdeveloped countries of Southeast Asia or the former USSR, as well as China. They enter Korea to get higher wages.; This sudden influx of migrant workers has caused many problems because it happened not as a result of any planned policy but as a natural by-product of globalization. Since the Korean government did not show much concern in establishing laws to deal with the migrant workers, most of them are working with an illegal status. Unfortunately, many employers take advantage of the governmental negligence and the illegal status of migrant workers. The latter are repeatedly abused and oppressed in visible or invisible ways.; Currently, the researcher is serving a church as a pastor in a community overrun with small factories employing manual labor. We can feel firsthand the pain of the migrant worker. My pastoral care of migrant workers has revealed two things to me. First, most of the migrant workers are from non-Christian countries. Second, we can reap a bountiful harvest through pastoral care toward them.; It takes a paradigm shift among both clergy and laity to bring forth meaningful mission results. The migrant workers are not gentiles greedy for more money, but neighbors Jesus commanded us to love. They are the target people we have to seek with missionary attention and love.; Korean churches experienced surprising growth in the 1970s. Now it is time to expand into global mission based on our experience. The mission field is not only in faraway places but also around us and nearby.; When we, with attention and love, reach out to migrant workers in our own communities, they will remember how the Korean churches regarded them, not as foreigners, but as neighbors in Christ. |
