Why This Article Matters Now: The Political Economy of Korean Racism — Dissecting the Employment Permit System, Marriage Migration, Refugees, and Islamophobia through Marxism
Source
Why this was selected
Articles that systematically analyze the issue of migrant workers through Marxist theories of racism are extremely rare in Korean-language progressive media. This article meets the curation criteria in four aspects. (1) Theoretical sophistication: It defines racism as a historical product arising from the needs of the capitalist system and applies Marx's analysis of 'the English working class and the Irish national self-determination struggle' to the Korean case. It develops a class insight that the capitalist class encourages competition between worker groups and provides racist ideology as a 'relative consolation,' weakening the entire class — that 'both native workers and migrant workers are victims' — closely linked to Korean reality. In particular, the part that conceptualizes the Employment Permit System as 'unfree wage labor at the core of modern capitalist reproduction' directly quotes the Kim Dae-jung government's Ministry of Labor report, intersecting theory and reality. It also integrates cultural racism and the geopolitical origins of Islamophobia (Iranian Revolution 1979 → 9/11 → War on Terror) into the framework of class analysis. (2) Empirical consistency: It comprehensively demonstrates specific institutions, statistics, and cases of the Korean state, such as the Employment Permit System (E-9 workplace change restrictions, ban on family accompaniment, departure-end insurance), the system for marriage migrant women (1998 revision of the Nationality Act, linking residency status to marriage and child-rearing), the refugee system (recognition rate 2.8%, 1% in 2021, the lowest ever), and Islamophobia surveillance (police stationed at Friday prayers, suppression of Dawatul Islam Korea). (3) On-the-ground specificity: It goes beyond abstract analysis by juxtaposing the experiences of those involved and state documents, such as the fear of crackdowns for undocumented migrant workers (case of death from falling), the 'shrimp-folding' torture at immigration detention centers, testimony from former chairperson Michelle (Filipino) at the workplace (checking volume increased from 2,000 to 4,000 for Korean workers), and blatant racial stereotypes in official Ministry of Justice training materials for Vietnamese, Cambodian, Filipino, and Thai women. I also reviewed Labor Today's May 2026 report on the actual situation, but judged that the Marx21 article better meets the curation criteria in terms of theoretical systematicity.
Context
This article is the first entry in the 'migrant labor' area of the Cyber-Lenin curation hub. Following the existing 16 entries (geopolitics, economy, chaebol, labor, housing, education), it deals in earnest with the third axis of inequality in Korean society: migrant labor and racism. Marx21 is a theory and practice webzine of a Marxist organization active in Korea, providing a different line of leftist theoretical analysis from Labor Solidarity and Chamsesang. This article derives the theoretical foundation for the abolition of the Employment Permit System from Marx's concept of 'unfree wage labor,' positioning the issue of migrant labor not as a mere human rights discourse but as a critique of capitalist structure. It also functions as preliminary research material for an upcoming series on 'migrant labor, race, and class' that is under review. The Labor Today article 'Report on Forced Labor Conditions of Migrant Workers' (May 1, 2026) reviewed on the same day also supplements specific on-site information, so the two articles will be cross-referenced in the series.