18 WEDNESDAY
JANUARY 23, 2008
Expat living is a page dedicated
to the issues that affect foreigners'
daily lives. It is your page,
where you can share stories about
your life in Korea. Send story
ideas to Matthew Lamers
at mattlamers@heraldm.com
The indentured foreigner
The law draws remarkably little
distinction between expatriate and
migrant. All foreigners are neatly di-
vided into those who need visas to
live and work in their host country
and those who do not. Expatriates
and migrants invariably fall under
the first category. Legally, there’s no
difference. Socially, there’s all the
difference in the world.
This brings us to this funny old
place, South Korea, which has
rather a lot of foreigners living and
working long term. Some are mar-
ried to Koreans, still more are guest
workers on fixed-term one-year re-
newable contracts, filling gaps in the
labor market or at the behest of for-
eign corporations investing directly
in the Korean economy.
The English field as a whole em-
ploys about 30,000, who are engaged
in ELT and related fields. In fact, we
could probably better describe your
average EFL instructor as a white-
collar migrant worker. Certainly,
their experiences here more closely
resemble other migrant groups than
they do those of the well-heeled cor-
porate expat: they are subjected to
dodgy recruiters and unscrupulous
employers; counterproductive gov-
ernment officials and a biased or un-
caring media; they experience abuse,
non- or late-payment of wages and
unreasonable dismissals.
The difference between white-col-
lar migrants and blue-collar mi-
grants is mostly seen in terms of
wages. White-collar migrants feel —
possibly by virtue of the fact that
they hail from developed countries
and therefore have much less to lose
if their foray in Korea doesn’t work
out — more comfortable about com-
plaining openly or seeking redress.
Perhaps some of the exasperation
felt by corporate expats towards the
ubiquitous “moaning English
teacher” is down to a failure to un-
derstand that migrant workers get a
different deal when working in for-
eign countries. Unfortunately, Korea
probably has one of the worst records
for the treatment of migrant workers
in the developed world.
Why is the experience of legal mi-
grant workers so negative in Korea?
A number of solutions to the prob-
lems of white-collar migrants have
been touted recently in the Korean
English-language press implying
that it is the foreigner’s lack of cross-
Analyzing the long and short term costs of living in Korea
“Happiness is a positive cash flow,”
wrote Fred Adler. While money is not
everything, expatriates generally
think about living and working in
Korea through comparing their in-
come at home and abroad. This long-
term view is extremely important
when considering potential maximum
income.
Through increasing your capital in-
flows, you can realize your desire to
spend — which is, after all, a happy
side effect of being an expatriate. Let’s
face it, most of us are here because the
money is good. Improving your cash
flow or income is all about adjusting
and focusing time-related goals.
Controlling your monthly cash flow
may often appear difficult, but formu-
lating and maintaining a budget will
help you realize where it is all going.
Lucy Johnson on Law
cultural management skills that
lead them into trouble with Korean
employers. One person, thinking of
the teaching profession only, called
for compulsory cultural training of
incoming English teachers.
He was thinking like an expat, not
a migrant worker. Had he considered
himself lumped in with the plant
workers from Indonesia, Thailand,
and the Philippines, perhaps he
would have arrived at a different set
of suggestions. While undoubtedly
important, qualified instructors
teach in nearly every country in the
world, yet only in Korea is so much
made of their “poor” culture skills.
Cultural awareness is without
doubt important. Far more impor-
tant though, are having effective ad-
ministrative and legal frameworks
for managing guest workers, a
strong enforcement of civil law, clear
contracts, and most importantly, the
employer should never have too
much power over the individual.
Employers are interested primarily
in profit margins, not in the human
rights of those they employ. One func-
tion of employment law in most
Anglophone countries is to keep in-
dustry standards high by making it fi-
nancially viable for employers to treat
their employees well (or financially
suicidal if they don’t). This concept re-
mains underdeveloped in Korea.
In 2006 Amnesty International re-
ported many of the abuses that mi-
grants complain about here, squared
or cubed in severity for those foreign
workers who, employed legally, experi-
ence appalling treatment at the hands
of employers and recruiters in Korea.
They mention one case where three
months of non-payment of wages was
deemed insufficient to allow a Chinese
migrant worker to leave her job and
seek employment elsewhere on the
peninsula. Unable to return home,
and unable to leave her abusive em-
ployer, and abandoned by the Korean
justice system, she committed suicide
by throwing herself under a train.
The experience of being unable to
leave your abusive, unethical em-
ployer and having to fight for your
wages is a nigh-universal one here.
The difference between migrants
from rich countries and migrants
from poor ones is that the latter have
Daniel Costello on Finance
There are several useful budget
calculators, spreadsheets and free-
ware programs available online that
you can use to give you a better un-
derstanding of where you can realize
increased cash flows. Try the
Consumer Credit Counseling
Service’s online budget calculator at
www.cccsatl.org
It would also be a tasty tidbit of self-
realization to assess your comparative
budgeting requirements at home and
in Korea. If you were working in the
same field at home, how would your
costs and income in Korea compare
with the same situation at home?
One source of comparative salary
improvements is in the housing bene-
COMMUNITY
everything to lose if their sojourn
here doesn’t work out.
Korean immigration law binds the
migrant worker — regardless of na-
tionality — to a single employer, and
in doing so gives that employer enor-
mous power over the individual.
For the well-heeled corporate expat
in Korea there is no problem. Her con-
tract is robust, signed in her home ju-
risdiction, is drafted to global indus-
try standards and subject to more rig-
orous employment laws of her coun-
try of origin — and her superiors are
foreign. She works with — rather
than for — indigenous companies.
Where disputes arise, they are dealt
with in the country of origin. (I cannot
imagine, even for a second, a foreign
corporate manager seeking redress
for non-payment of wages at the local
labor board). Not so for the migrant
worker, who must often deal with em-
ployers who do not have strong ethics,
poorly drafted, unconscionable con-
tracts, and poor working conditions.
Korean civil law is notoriously weak,
leaving little room for redress through
the courts for contractual breaches.
International Treaties do exist to
promote good labor practices, espe-
cially as the global workforce be-
comes ever more mobile. Korea is
signatory to several International
Labor Organization Treaties, and
also the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and other instru-
ments which could, in theory, protect
the fundamental rights and free-
doms of everyone on the peninsula,
Korean and foreign.
One could question, however,
whether Korea is truly taking its re-
sponsibilities under international
law seriously, even as a Korean has
ascended to the lofty position of U.N.
secretary-general, or intended for
foreigners to enjoy the same protec-
tion of their fundamental rights as
Korean citizens do.
The fundamental rights of free-
dom of movement (if foreigners leave
their jobs, they lose their visa status,
and are thus illegal workers) and as-
sociation seem to be reserved for
Korean nationals, and there was no
intention of extending these rights to
guest workers.
Migrant workers — pointedly —
cannot form trade unions to negoti-
ate collectively. Even after a Seoul
court did rule that they do have the
legal right to form a union, the Labor
fits offered in some employment con-
tracts, or the quarter or annual per-
formance-based bonuses in others.
In addition, some child-care bene-
fits such as full or partial educational
allotments may be available, depen-
dent upon your employer, to further
sweeten your financial standing.
Health and medical costs for insur-
ance are often comparatively less ex-
pensive here than in other developed
countries.
Extensive subsidized public trans-
portation makes vehicle ownership
much more of a luxury than a re-
quirement, while entertainment and
recreation options are often of mini-
mal cost.
Cost of living indices such as those
available at the OECD suggest
Korea’s consumer price index gains,
Ministry refused to recognize the
ruling, which is pending appeal. In
fact, the entire executive of the
Migrant Trade Union was arrested
and deported late last year.
Fundamental rights, though, are
recognized under international law
to apply to everyone. Though not
commonly acknowledged, making
visas dependent on the employer is
arguably a form of indentured, bond-
ed labor, widely recognized as a hu-
man rights abuse and certainly
something which Korean nationals
are not subjected to when they seek
employment in the U.K., United
States, or other developed nations.
Without knowing, when a Korean
enterprise employs a foreigner they
are engaging in an international busi-
ness activity, and that foreigner will
judge Korea on the basis of their expe-
riences with Korean companies.
Every unethical act committed by a
Korean employer against a foreign
worker influences the international
image of the country, and for this rea-
son alone, the state should seriously
reconsider the visa issuance practices.
Making a migrant’s visa country-
wide, as it is in neighboring Japan,
and permitting foreigners mobility is
a relatively cheap and simple move
which will effect sweeping, positive
changes over the long term, as it
means that migrant workers can
leave bad employers and invest their
skills with good ones. Among other
things, it will have the effect of en-
couraging employers to clean up
their acts, and reward ethical busi-
ness practices.
Aside from serving business inter-
ests in the long run, freedom of
movement and association are fun-
damental rights which are upheld in
most liberal democracies can only re-
flect well on Korea as it moves to-
wards a service-driven, globally fo-
cused economy, and increases its
stake in the international arena.
Until then, we are all indentured.
The difference is the length of the
chain that binds us.
Lucy Johnson has an MA in inter-
national law from Handong Inter-
national Law School in Pohang.
Nothing in this column should be in-
terpreted as legal advice. The opin-
ions expressed here are her own. —
Ed.
at 3.99 percent, are only slightly
above the overall average at 3.76 per-
cent, which fares well for any long-
term plan of retaining work here.
From a financial view, the first year
of employment in Korea can often ap-
pear to be a neutral or even negative
cash flow proposition, especially dis-
heartening for new graduates. But
that, of course, probably isn’t the case
if your stay in Korea involves working
for a multinational corporation.
Too often, it seems a short-term
commitment to work in Korea is made
on the basis of one’s first employment
experience here, which is often tenu-
ous, but which acts as a proving
ground for whether or not you want to
extend your stay here, move on else-
where, or head back to your country.
It is of course important to view op-
PHOTO CHALLENGE — This September 2007 photo was taken during one of
the daily performances of 24 marital arts in Suwon.The performances run from
March until December. The styles involve the use of spears, swords, unarmed
combat, and horseback archery. Derek Winchester/ www.flickr.com/photos/Derekwin
Photographers’
great dilemma –
bright sunlight
By David Smeaton
I always have trouble shooting in
direct sunlight. My shots are too
bright and overexposed. What can I do
to correct this problem and improve
my photos? — Jason, Busan
It’s ironic that a photographer’s best
friend is light, but our worst enemy is
direct sunlight. It’s easy to overexpose
photographs. However there are a
number of useful tricks to avoid ugly
photos caused by harsh light.
The best way is to shoot in the
morning or afternoon. Avoiding the
midday sun is a common photograph-
ic philosophy. Cloudy days are great
for general shooting, as long as you
aren’t photographing landscapes.
Alternatively, shoot in places away
from glare. Water, glass, shiny metal
and bright clothes will all create an-
noying reflections.
Generally, the best way to control
light is through shutter speed and aper-
ture. Keep your shutter speed high and
your aperture low to reduce the amount
of light coming into the camera. If you
have to shoot in bright conditions, try
lowering your ISO to make your sensor
less sensitive to light.
You can also use a circular polarizer
on your lens, which will reduce the
amount of light and glare by two or
three stops. Polarizers are very handy
to keep in your kit. They can make
your colors more vibrant, as well as
cut straight through water to photo-
graph what’s beneath the surface. A
lens hood is another useful accessory,
which can help reduce the amount of
light hitting the lens and remove un-
wanted lens flares.
In Regina Walton’s interview with Dorothy Nam published last Thursday, a
copy editing error resulted in a spelling mistake. The correct spelling should
have been Berklee School of Music. The Korea Herald regrets the error. — Ed.
portunities in Korea as an investment
of time, but it is just as important to
envision a long-term financial future
independent of short-term imposi-
tions, challenges or difficulties. The
better you are at seeing the light at
the end the tunnel, the greater the po-
tential of positive cash flows, despite
serious impediments such as the dai-
ly challenges of living and working in
a foreign country — where the culture
of working and doing business is com-
paratively, if not entirely unknown to
you.
Unfailing optimism will improve
your chances of success in moving
from a short-term to a long-term fi-
nancial perspective, whatever your
situation.
Tending to the maintenance of posi-
tive cash flows often leads to a desire
A useful tip, where possible, is to
move into the shade. That will help
you control the amount of direct sun-
light. But be careful: If it’s really
bright, you might need to use fill
flash to prevent your subject from be-
ing hidden in shadow. If you don’t
want to use a flash, then a small light
reflector would serve the same pur-
pose.
The hardest part of shooting in
sunlight can be metering your shot.
Spot metering is a good method be-
cause you can meter directly off your
subject. Or, pick an area in your shot
with mid-tones so that you can ex-
pose everything evenly. Be careful
not to meter off dark or bright sur-
faces, which will drastically overex-
pose or underexpose your photos.
Take multiple shots and check your
metering and exposure. You can also
try a technique called bracketing —
taking a series of shots at different
apertures.
If you want to have some fun, take
advantage of the bright conditions
and shoot silhouettes. Put your sub-
ject between yourself and the light
source, keep your shutterspeed high,
and enjoy the dramatic silhouettes
and negative space that can be creat-
ed.
Happy shooting.
Send David a message at
davidsmeaton@gmail.com or visit his
website at www.davidsmeaton.com. If
you want to be a part of the weekly
Photo Challenge, join the “Seoul Photo
Club” group at flickr
(flickr.com/groups/seoulphotoclub).
— Ed.
to increase them through finding
more lucrative positions, attaining
more education and making a greater
personal investment to your own fi-
nancial future regardless of your
starting point.
Moving from a short to a long-term
view on your working life in Korea
may be exactly what it takes to move
you along your expatriate evolution
from spender to cash flow manager.
AceMoney Lite 3.10 is a well-regard-
ed and reviewed software available
at www.download.com/AceMoney-
Lite/3000-2057_4-10747170.html?tag=
lst-5
To contact Daniel, visit his website at
crossculturalreviews.blogspot.com —
Ed.