Employment assistance measures for female marriage immigrants: Focused on language and cultural resources
It has been reported that as of January 2010, over 180,000 marriage immigrants are living in Korea, and it is expected that this number will continuously increase in the future. The Korean government, which in the past has pursued a policy focused on the adaptation of marriage immigrants to Korean society, has recently started to give strong attention to support their employment, and has revised the direction of its policy with the specific aim of helping female marriage immigrants with different language and cultural backgrounds to show their abilities in social and economic areas.
This report identified those programs related to education, training, and employment assistance that have attempted to utilize the language and cultural resources of the female marriage immigrants. In addition, this report suggested measures that could enhance the employment assistance provided by making use of the language and cultural resources of immigrant women based on an analysis of examples of comparable efforts in other countries where employment assistance activities have been actively promoted.
To achieve the goals described above, the biographical features and employment status of female marriage immigrants were first examined. Secondly, existing policies to utilize the language and cultural resources of immigrant women were reviewed, as well as projects related to employment support. Thirdly, employment assistance services conducted in the field of language and culture, and the difficulties marriage immigrants face, were investigated through the interview with marriage immigrants and persons in a related authority which supports their employment. Finally, implications were drawn through case studies of Taiwan, Japan, Canada and New Zealand.
Through this review, we derived some factors to be improved in relation to future employment assistance services utilizing the language and cultural resources of immigrant women, which areas follows. First, it is critical to provide additional education and training opportunities for marriage immigrants in Korea due to their insufficient education. Second, the central government needs to plan a guideline on the appropriate selection of training subjects, a variety of support programs to address the difficulties with training completion, job placement after education and training depending on the level of human resources, follow-up services, and additional education and training. Third, when the government provides education and training or supports job placement for marriage immigrants, linkage between the related organizations is required. Fourth, female marriage immigrants should be supported in their efforts to become bilingual and to develop into dual cultural resources that fully understand the Korean language and culture as well as their own mother tongue. Fifth, a variety of jobs, by language, need to be developed so that marriage immigrants can have job opportunities, as the Korean labor market has a different demand for each language. Sixth, programs are required that can improve the employment awareness of immigrant women, as well as active counseling services and guides for Korean labor market. Seventh, the government needs to prepare measures and procedures to acknowledge the existing educational background and work experiences of marriage immigrants. Eighth, the government is required to form a labor pool by job and connect Korean female mentors who have already been employed in a favorable workplace to female immigrant mentees.
|