Reducing Worker Exploitation in Time-Limited, Low-Wage Visa Schemes: Lessons from South Korea and Thailand

Arwen Joyce

Industrial Law Journal, 2024, vol. 53, issue 1, 34-62

Abstract: South Korea and Thailand are two of the seven biggest destination countries for low-wage migrant labour in East and Southeast Asia. They face similar demographic patterns and labour market dynamics but are very different when it comes to their economic, political and geographical contexts. Despite these differences, they have pursued a similar approach to the regulation of low-wage labour migration by taking a more active role in managing the recruitment and stay of migrant workers. As a result, outcomes for low-wage migrant workers in both countries are better than those experienced by their counterparts elsewhere in Asia. This analysis of the low-wage visa schemes in South Korea and Thailand contributes to a more robust understanding of how these restrictive labour migration regimes can be structured to improve outcomes for workers. The paper argues that lessons learned from the regulatory approaches pursued in South Korea and Thailand should be applied in other destination countries in Asia and beyond.

Date: 2024
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1093/indlaw/dwad035 (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:oup:indlaw:v:53:y:2024:i:1:p:34-62.

Access Statistics for this article

Industrial Law Journal is currently edited by Professor Simon Deakin

More articles in Industrial Law Journal from Industrial Law Society
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Oxford University Press ().