The Migration and Human Rights Team of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) held a forum on German immigration policy and Korean migration to Germany in the Baeumteo Hall of the NHRCK headquarters in Seoul on November 6, 2007. Forum invitees included German migration experts and Koreans living in Germany, including those who had traveled as miners and nurses mainly in the 1960s and 1970s.
As South Korea has become a country with migrant workers, the forum was arranged to discuss German migration policy, the history of migration in Germany and to learn from this model to as a means to help set a direction for a more accepting migration policy in Korea.
During the forum, many expressed opinions that Korean nationals must first overcome nationalistic sentiments and develop a more humble identity as a nation-state. With developing this more humble identity, many expressed that a paradigm shift is needed in thinking about migrant workers, as society in general tends to value migrant workers only for their labor. Rather, we should view these persons as individuals with a right to ownership of their own lives. Also emphasized at the forum were ideas expressing that migrant workers are no longer passive beneficiaries, but independent human beings with individual identities.
Many of the Koreans that had relocated to Germany as miners and nurses in the 1960s and 1970s and participated in this forum gave vivid accounts of their experiences as migrants in German society.
In particular, Mr. Jo Gi-sang, a member of Solidarity of Korean People in Europe, described the migrant movement among Korean miners in Germany; Ms. Kim Jin-hyang, also a member of Solidarity of Korean People in Europe, explained the migrant movement launched by Korean nurses in Germany; and Ms. Seo In-yeong, a student in the department of media at Philipps-Universitaet Marburg in Germany, delivered a presentation about the education and culture of second-generation Korean migrants in Germany.
Participants welcomed the forum as an opportunity to gain valuable insight from the experiences of Korean migrants abroad, and it also provided much to take into consideration for the future of migration policy in Korea.
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea was established in 2001, offering investigation and remedy services for Korean citizens and foreigners residing in Korea against human rights violations and discrimination. The Commission provides policy recommendations and remedial action against human rights infringements, collaborates with international human rights organizations and implements educational programs to improve the human rights culture.
