THE GLOBAL CONVERGENCE HYPOTHESIS: Is Immigration Policy In South Korea Converging Or Diverging With That Of The West?

Recently, scholars have noted the increasing similarities of immigration policies in industrialized Western democracies but until lately, the scope of analysis has typically excluded South Korea. With its late development, image of ethnic and cultural homogeneity, history of isolation, very low number of foreign residents, and resistance to immigration, there were few indications that South Korea would be a migrant destination country. By the mid-1990s however, its economic rise was accompanied by a rapid increase in the number of both short and long-term migrants and in a span of only two decades, it has become a migrant receiving country. This gave rise to various economic, political, and socio-cultural issues and compelled the government to adopt various policies to control and manage immigration. For a time, it has borrowed similar labor importation policies as neighboring Japan but in the last decade, has increasingly adopted policies that are both similar and different to those adopted in classical countries of immigration in North America and Europe. This paper surveys immigration trends and policies in South Korea and assesses in what ways they are converging and/or diverging with those of immigrant receiving industrialized Western democracies and why.