Social enterprises in evolution of South Korean public policies targeting North Korean migrants

• In Event: Responses to migration crises by local third sector organizations: examples from three continents

Abstract

This study examines how South Korean government policies were initially created and evolved targeting North Korean migrants. In order to deal with the work integration of North Korean migrants, a new orientation was given from the mid-2000s to support North Korean migrants. Several public policy approaches were successively introduced aiming at providing NK migrants with better professional skills and eventually allowing them to get a stable job. These policy frameworks offer different kinds of benefits to the migrants themselves and to the South Korean employers that may enroll them. Simultaneously, under the driving force of social movements engaged in the fight against unemployment, South Korea has emphasized social enterprises as a tool to increase employment and promote social services in favor of low-income population for the last fifteen years.

Since 2010, the North Korean Refugee Foundation has also been managing “the social enterprise support program for North Korean refugees,” which is a preliminary certification program for social enterprises placed under the competence of the Ministry of Unification like other similar programs supervised by other ministries. Like in the Social Enterprise Promotion Act, this program recognizes enterprises employing North Korean migrants and social enterprises providing social services to North Korean migrants. After preliminary certification, enterprises may get the full certification as social enterprises delivered by the Ministry of Labor under the SEPA. NK migrants are then considered in the SEPA-related program as one specific group of “vulnerable persons”.

With changes in administration in the government, the category of benefiting North Korean refugees was integrated to the general social services category in the 2020s. This also brought restructuring and reorganizing in the supporting agencies targeting North Korean migrants. This study reviews the changes made in South Korean public policies. This study will provide insights on how governments embrace vulnerable populations in a geo-politically crucial region.

Authors

• Bok Jeong, Kean University

• Eric Bidet, Le Mans University/ADDES