A Study of the Development of a New Welfare State for Coping with Social Exclusion - On Immigrant Workers

Abstract

Foreigners accounted for 3.3% of the total population, with 51.8 million of the total population of Korea in 2020. Among these foreigners, the economically active population is 914,000. Among them, based on the status of residence, the number of non-professional(E9) migrant workers who entered Korea through the employment permit system is 261,000. In addition, the number of working visit workers(H2) or permanent residents(F4) exceeds 158,000 and 195,000, respectively. This study focused on the issue of guaranteeing social rights for them. First, 1,000 Koreans were asked about their perception of the issue of securing social rights for migrant workers. This report also contains the results of a survey of 1,427 migrant workers. Based on the analysis of the two surveys and additional research on the immigrant workers’ social right, this report gives policy recommendations focusing on the 4 major social insurances and 4 exclusive insurances for migrant workers.