Social Protection for Migrant Workers in the Developmental Welfare State: The Case of Low Skilled Workers in Korea

Migrant workers increasingly play a significant role in the labour market in East Asian countries. Due to the demographic shift to an ageing society with decreasing working populations and higher labour costs in East Asia, countries in the region, such as Korea, host more and more migrant labour. Because of the legal barriers related to immigration and labour market regulations, migrant workers are exposed to various social risks while working in foreign countries. This paper will try to analyse the social protection of migrants in Korea from a perspective combining the migration and welfare regimes. In particular, this paper will examine how entry status and eligibility of social policies affected social protection of low skilled migrant workers and further stratified them in the migration regime. This paper will seek to elicit policy implications for policy reform to meet the social protection needs of migrant workers in the future.