KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

Abstract

 

Migrant Women’s Diversity and Policy

Approach

Yi-Seon Kim

Yunjeong Choi

Sujin Kim

SaeYeon Oh

HyeYoung Choi

 

As the feminization of migration has proceeded, various groups

within migrant women with different characteristics have remarked.

Accordingly, changes in perspective has required from considering

migrant women as a homogeneous group to comprehend them

focusing on their diverse traits such as individual’s institutional

entitlement, socioeconomic status, and levels of freedom they

possess.

 

In Korea, the number of various migrant women has increased

significantly including marriage migrants, international students,

migrant workers in the agriculture industry, and 'overseas Korean',

etc. which are demarcated by their migration purpose, institutional

status, and social background. Among these groups, the Korean

government has focused on female marriage migrants. Thus, social

attentions and policy approaches for other groups of migrant

women are greatly limited. And studies on migrant women such as

female international students and female migrant workers in the

agriculture industry have not accumulated enough.

 

Therefore, this report aims to grasp agendas regarding migrant

women and to suggest policy direction by highlighting the diversity

among them in the trend of international female migration.

Another purpose of this study is that identifies the reality and

specifies the tasks requiring the public policy approach through

reviewing actual conditions that migrant women located and their

needs. Thus, this study analyzes the international female migration

trend in Korea and examines their demographic characteristics,

employment and welfare status. Among various migrant women

categories, this study focuses on women migrant workers in the

agricultural sector and female international students, which has not

only increased prominently but also estimated to grow constantly in

the future. In particular, this project captures the modality of the

discrimination and human right violation that occur at the

intersection of identities as 'foreigner', 'worker', 'overseas student',

and 'women', and seize possible countermeasures to solve this

problem and obstacles to correspond it.

 

In addition, this report contains the issues of migrant women,

recent policy trends, and NGOs’ activities in Japan and Hong Kong,

the main countries of the East Asian female migration network.

Like as female migrant workers in Korea, Japanese female trainees

and Hong Kong's foreign domestic helpers are representative

examples reflecting low-skilled female migrant workers classified as

most marginalized group. In this vein, this study encloses the case

studies of NGO activities in response to human rights violations

against migrant women in Hong Kong and Japan. In addition, this

study focuses on the possibility of the emergence of a new migrant

women group with different traits from the low-skilled female

migrant workers. For instance, in Japan, it is worth noting that the

emergence of migrant women group in the elderly care sector,

which are in better condition than a trainee, could lead to a new

direction in the migrant women agenda.

 

Finally, this report critically examines the relationship between

major migrant women groups and existing policies and seeks a

policy approach considering the diversity of migrant women

beyond the limits of existing policies centered on marriage migrant

women and multicultural families.

 

 

Keyword: migrant women’s diversity, female migrant workers in

agriculture, female international students, female

trainees(Japan), foreign domestic helpers(Hong Kong)