With the number of migrant workers in South Korea surpassing 1.1 million, experts are urging the government to establish integrated management of its foreign workforce policies. At a forum titled "The Future of Migrant Labor Policy: Integrated Policy Support Measures" hosted by the Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) on Tuesday, participants pointed out that "policies related to migrant workers are currently managed by different ministries depending on visa type, and integrated management from a labor market perspective — covering recruitment, job transfers, skills development, and labor condition protections — remains inadequate." Participants also recommended that Korea integrate its visa system and labor market policies to protect all working foreign nationals, noting that the current approach is overly focused on visa issuance alone.
Including undocumented residents, the total number of migrant workers in Korea is estimated to reach 1.5 million. Foreign workers already account for more than 20% of the construction workforce, and they have become core labor in the industrial, agricultural, and service sectors. Migrant workers are no longer supplementary labor — they have evolved into a "structural pillar" sustaining the Korean economy. Yet foreign workforce policies remain stuck in the past, fragmented across the Ministry of Justice, MOEL, the Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, and other agencies by visa type. This fragmentation reveals clear limits to policy efficiency. The divided structure only widens the gap between the two pillars of foreign workforce policy: visa and residency management on one hand, and labor market policy on the other.
A unified system encompassing entry, employment, skills formation, and settlement for migrant workers is essential to maximize policy effectiveness. This is why experts unanimously stress the need for an integrated control tower. It is also problematic that foreign workforce policy shifts with changes in the political landscape. Discussions on establishing an Immigration and Border Control Agency, pursued under the previous administration, have been losing momentum since the change of government. With migrant workers exceeding 1.1 million and the total foreign resident population approaching 3 million, the government needs more proactive and effective policymaking and execution. As Korea enters a super-aged society, embracing multiculturalism and utilizing foreign labor are essential for maintaining competitiveness. This is not a matter of progressive versus conservative politics. The government must now tear down inter-ministry walls, exercise policy inclusiveness, and move to build a strong control tower for foreign workforce policy.