Iirregularization Pattern Analysis from the Perspective of Return Migration

Korea has accepted labor migrant on the immigration policy principles of temporary circulation, on which immigrant workers can stay only for three to five years and then have to leave to their home country. However, the number of irregular residents who stay over their allowed length of stay has been increased in recent years. The main purposes of this study are to examine irregularization patterns, and return migration pattern of existing irregular migrants in Korea. In the study, the irregularization is defined as a case of an immigrant overstaying in Korea, not returning to his/her origin. For the purposes this study employs individual departure and irregular migrant data from Ministry of Justice in Korea using multilevel analysis in order to examine the effects at country level. The previous findings of return migration studies provides useful analysis frame for this study. This study has implication to extend the concept of return migration to board control issues.