| Kim Young-il |
O Korea! How I adore thee. Are there places on this Earth that offer the same variety of delicious foods as thou? Are there any countries safer than thee? Places, where one can leave one's laptop unattended in a cafe without worrying whether it will be stolen? Are the conveniences thou offers to be found elsewhere to the same degree? Places, where shops and restaurants are open for 24 hours are found in abundance? O Korea! I dare say such places are few in number, and thou truly art a wonderful place to live.
Given this declaration of love, it may come as a surprise that I am neither thinking nor even considering moving to Korea. Why is this? Why would a person which a love for the country, with familial ties to it (I am half-Korean), with some familiarity of the language, who, in short, lacks neither desire nor opportunity, not consider making a life for himself there?
If there are some factors standing in the way of such a person moving to Korea, surely these factors stand in the way of others lacking these strong connections to the country too. Identifying this deterrent will provide valuable insights into what policy may be beneficial for attracting more foreign professionals to the country.
So what terrible obstacle prevents me from looking to find happiness in Korea?
It is nothing but the perception, formed through interactions with friends and family, that whilst Korea is a great place to be and a great place to live, it is not a great place to work. It is this perception and only this perception that keeps me from moving to Korea.
Now, whilst one may question the rationality of this, I am behaving exactly as predicted by Thomas Theorem, which states that if men define situations as real, they are real in their consequences. Applied to my situation explicitly: the perception of the working conditions in Korea not being good, irrespective of this objectively being so, determines my actions of not seeking employment in Korea.
From Thomas Theorem it follows that it is not so much the objective working conditions that are important in attracting foreign professionals to the country, but rather the perceptions these professionals have about the working conditions. These perceptions determine how they, and so the focus of policy should be on ensuring their perceptions are good and positive.
Of course, the perceptions people have about a situation are not completely decoupled from the reality of that situation. Thus we cannot completely ignore that foreign professionals do face real obstacles when seeking employment in Korea, for instance, quotas set by the Foreign Workforce Policy Committee that limit both the number of foreign professionals and the industries in which they can be employed.
Similarly, research findings showing foreign professionals to be dissatisfied with work and life conditions, long working hours, poor communication, strict hierarchies, and difficulties in integrating into traditionally managed Korean firms, cannot just be ignored. These objective problems give rise to negative perceptions in the first place and successful policy must address them.
Now, some of the aforementioned problems cannot easily or effectively be addressed through policy but must be solved by firms, for instance, problems regarding poor communication. Other problems have obvious solutions: quotas can be expanded, maximum working hours can be set by law, et cetera.
Addressing these foreigner-specific problems is both necessary and important, but merely doing so would fail to get to the heart of the matter completely, for merely attending to these problems ignores our earlier observation that it is perceptions regarding the working conditions that are of foremost importance. These perceptions depend not only on the working conditions of foreigners in Korea but also on the working conditions of Korean natives.
To support this claim consider the following: globalization has provided foreigners ample opportunity to meet Koreans.
Most likely, foreigners talking with Koreans about Korean working conditions, value the information they obtain from this highly as testimonies of locals are usually regarded as providing deeper and more informative insights than those of non-locals, and because the human psyche is such that it assigns great weight to first-hand word-of-mouth testimonies.
Furthermore, before coming to Korea foreign professionals presumably do at least some research into Korean working conditions, and at least some information they will find will concern the working conditions of native Koreans, as a simple internet search confirms.
But then perceptions regarding working be based on (1) experiences of other foreigners; (2) the objective working conditions for foreign professionals in Korea; (3) experiences of Koreans; and (4) the objective working conditions of Koreans in Korea.
Improving perceptions about the working conditions in Korea must address all these four factors.
In conclusion, to be truly effective, policy meant to attracting more foreign professionals to the country must be directed towards improving the working conditions of foreign workers and Korean workers alike.
Only this will maximally improve the perceptions foreign professionals have of the working conditions in Korea, and only such policy will be maximally effecting in attracting foreign professionals to the country.
Kim Young-il is a student at Utrecht University.