A Comparative Study On The Admission Policies Of Low-skilled Workers In Japan And South Korea

Historically,Japan and South Korea are not countries of immigration.But unlike previous trends,Japan and South Korea have become the most important immigrant countries in East Asia in the 21st century.In the past three decades,Japan and South Korea have experienced the rapid influx of foreign workers into their homogeneous society.In order to determine and explain which factors will affect the formulation of migrant worker policies,this study traces and discusses the development of low-skilled worker policies in Japan and South Korea since the early 1990s.I challenge a well-established hypothesis that supports policy convergence based on the experiences of strict immigration control policies.I argue that significant policy divergence has occurred between Korea and Japan especially when it comes to low-skilled foreign workers.This article focuses on two main types of policies for low-skilled workers in Japan and South Korea:co-ethnic workers and different ethnic workers from neighboring countries.In the former type of workers,one notable pattern found in the Japanese government's immigration policy is the de-ethnicization trend.A series of admission policies of the Japan's government tend more to Asian guest workers over co-ethnic return migrants.However South Korea's low-skilled migrant worker policy has become more ethicized with overtly preferring ethnic Koreans over other low-skilled foreign workers.In the latter program,Japan and South Korea also choose different policy paths.Although both countries do concern a lot on importing low-skilled foreign workers,since the launch of the 'Employment Permit System'(EPS)for foreigners in 2004,the government of South Korea decided to open doors to admit low-skilled foreign workers on a large scale.However,the Japanese government still follows the principle of denning unskilled workers in the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition of 1990 and the policy position is constant until 2018.The theoretical part of this paper explores the factors that shape the policies of low-skilled foreign workers in the two countries.By utilizing the theoretical framework of Hollifield's Migration State and Liberal Paradox,the author explains the reasons that affect the evolution of the two countries' low-skilled workers policies from four aspects:labor market,national identities and founding myths,international norms and the role of NOGs,and domestic political coalitions.First,the structural demand for foreign workers in the domestic labor markets of the two countries has prompted them to continuously expand the acceptance of foreign workers in different ways.Secondly,the policies of foreign workers in Japan and South Korea have always been affected by the factors of national identification The preference of the two countries for maintaining ethnic and cultural homogeneity has always been an important consideration in their policy formulation.Third,the sensitivity of the two countries' policies to international norms is influenced by the strength of domestic civil society and NGOs.At the same time,the competition and interaction between government agencies make Japan maintain its conservative political goals.South Korea's immigrant liberals seized the opportunity to reform conservative immigration policies after the roh moo-hyun administration came to power in 2003.