This article about workplace discrimination faced by migrant women in terms of pay, promotions and job security caught my eye today. https://news.v.daum.net/v/20201224043055382

First of all, its a bit rich to see the Korean media and Daum carry this stuff like they wouldn’t print articles if the opposite were true, with headlines like “중국인 수백명 공공기관 정규직…내국인 역차별?”

I've always been curious about the limits of the job market for people who are visibly not Korean, because I think it's a safe assumption that the set of jobs available to you is limited heavily by your foreignness.

Okay, so maybe you should need to have citizenship in order to get permanent status at a government employer, but that same government employer has made it that much harder to get citizenship in the first place.

And really, it's not like citizenship would change anything in the first place. Then the bar would shift to issues like ‘cultural fit’ or military service or the school you went to or perceived language ability, or whatever else you can dig up to try and exclude people.

Remember the guy on here who defended Korea’s re-entry ban in June and told people who didn’t like it to just go get citizenship? Do you think people like him would just stop because you now have a 주민등록증 with your Chinese face on it? Unlikely.

This article has almost 2,000 comments and I scrolled through the top 20 or so. They alternated between "go back to where you came from" to "it's also hard for Koreans".

I know comments in general are useless, but in this case it's instructive. This is Korea's small town Ohio diner or, in other words, these are the racist assholes whose 눈치 the government, whether conservative or liberal, looks at before deciding to do nothing for migrants.

I think we can safely assume a general lack of empathy from a Korean public that was opposed to letting in 500 Yemeni migrants fleeing Korean-manufactured weapons (K-Munitions?).

Of course it's hard for Korean workers, no one's disputing that, but it's harder for migrants overall, just as it's harder for disabled Korean workers, those over 50, without a university degree or workers raising children on their own.

Sure, there is the odd here and there where migrants have an advantage, like jobs teaching English (now literally at the minimum wage level) or the odd jobs that specifically hire foreigners.

But looking broadly at the 2 million population of migrants, do they have access to the same jobs, raises, promotions and job security even when accounting for language and visa issues?

I can't imagine that answer is yes and that's why change is needed.

And to wrap up, as always, if you don't like this thread, go back to whichever thread, app or country you came from. Thanks!