Promoting Migrants' Rights in South Korea: NGOs and the Enactment of the Employment Permit System

Abstract

Scholarship dealing with the promotion of migrants' rights has developed largely against the backdrop of experiences in Western liberal democratic countries. As a consequence, the roles of the state and global human rights regime have been emphasized to explain the expansion of migrants' rights. Looking at the enactment process of the Employment Permit System in South Korea, this paper argues that local pro-immigrant NGOs played a more crucial role in the promotion of migrants' rights than the state or international human rights norms. Findings of the study also point to the possible implications of the Korean experience for new immigration countries in Asia, most of which have a history of a strong state with little recognition of human rights and an immigration policy that is generally restrictive.