ON THE MORNING OF JUNE 24, A FIRE BROKE OUT AT AN ARICELL BATTERY FACTORY IN HWASEONGSEONG, GYEONGGI PROVINCE, SOUTH KOREA, KILLING 22 PEOPLE, INCLUDING 19 CHINESE CITIZENS.
According to the Beijing News, there are more than 100 workers at the factory, mostly ethnic Korean women from northeastern China, mostly in their 30s and 40s. Most of the victims came from the three buildings and two floors of the battery factory, mainly in the workshop for packaging and welding batteries.
▲According to the disaster situation map and factory floor plan prepared by the Korean Central Accident and Emergency Response Headquarters, there is only one entrance and exit on the second floor of the company's No. 3 building.
In the past, we knew that working in the African engineering team was a hot topic, but now there are so many Chinese to work in South Korea.Chinese
At the end of last year, South Korea announced a plan to bring in foreign workers on a large scale, and it is expected to bring in 165,000 foreign workers from abroad by 2024, according to official South Korean data, the number of foreign workers employed in South Korea has exceeded 800,000 for 10 consecutive years.
Why do you want to give your money to foreigners?
The main reason is because of the lack of personnel. In recent years, South Korea's marriage rate and fertility rate have continued to decline in recent years, and the number of newborns has become smaller and smaller, according to the birth rate statistics of global countries in 2023, South Korea's birth rate is directly at the bottom of the world, with a birth rate of only 1.11.
Coupled with the increasing number of elderly people, the society is accelerating into aging, which has led to the extension of the retirement period in South Korea and the shortage of working-age population.
If South Korea's economy wants to develop, it is far from enough to have national policies, and the key lies in people. In Korea, there are types of jobs called "3D jobs", which are "dirty, difficult, and dangerous", such as welding, construction, wood, painting, etc.
These jobs cannot be mechanized, automated, let alone replaced by smart devices, so a large number of labor is needed, but young Koreans are reluctant to engage in manual labor, preferring to work as white-collar workers in large companies or in government departments, otherwise they would rather be idle at home.
Although South Korea is also increasing the number of jobs, 58% of the new jobs are 60 years old and over, and 33.1% of those between the ages of 70 and 74 are still working.
Therefore, in order to solve the problem of labor-age labor shortage, South Korea must relax the restrictions on overseas people entering the country to work and vigorously bring in foreign workers.
In South Korea, the minimum hourly wage is 51.6 yuan, and Monday to Friday at 8 a.m., 5 p.m., overtime is twice the money, some Chinese working in South Korea said that a month after counting night shift pay and overtime pay can earn 3 million won, equivalent to nearly 16,000 yuan.
Like the average annual salary of the regular employees of the battery factory involved can reach 52.7 million won (Sina financial news), equivalent to 276,000 yuan, although South Korea's consumption level is high, and most of the Chinese workers are temporary workers, and the wages are lower than those of regular employees, but if you save a little money, you can still save 10,000 yuan a month, which is more than making money in China, so the temptation is still very big.
And Northeast China is relatively close to South Korea, such as Harbin is less than 1,000 kilometers away from South Korea, about half of Shanghai, so for many Northeast people, working in South Korea is much closer than going to the Yangtze River Delta and the Pearl River Delta.
In addition, there are many Koreans in Northeast China, and there is no language barrier to work in South Korea, and there is no need for language training like Cambodian, Bangladeshi and other laborers, and their eating habits are similar.
Coupled with the fact that the Chinese are hardworking, kind and obedient, South Korean intermediaries are willing to recruit Korean female workers in Northeast China, and the age can be relaxed to 50 years old.
South Korea is short of people, and Chinese workers are willing to go to South Korea, so how do Korean companies treat Chinese workers?
First of all, from an economic point of view, Korean companies are certainly very welcoming to Chinese workers. Because Chinese workers are hard-working and willing to work, they can also save costs.
In the factory, the wages of Chinese workers are the same as those of Korean workers, but Koreans need to have insurance in the factory, while most of the Chinese workers are temporary workers and do not need insurance, which saves a lot of money for the factory.
The reason why Chinese workers don't want insurance is because they are going to do odd jobs, and they don't plan to settle in South Korea for a long time, and they have no need for pension and medical care.
In addition, Korean companies generally recruit Chinese workers on a temporary basis, and if they want to be dismissed, they can directly terminate the labor contract, saving the need to go through the process and not incurring any additional expenses, which is low-cost.
In addition, Chinese workers are hard-working and hard-working, generally looking at the much higher wages and benefits in China, there are basically no complaints and additional requirements, so "obedient" employees are naturally very favored by Korean companies.
However, it is one thing for Chinese workers to be welcomed by South Korean companies, and the life and work of Chinese workers in South Korea is another, if Chinese mainland people go shopping and consumption as tourists, they will naturally greet each other with a smile, but they are another face when they go there to make money and work, and South Korea does not regard these Korean workers as their own "people", but as "slaves".
And in fact, from the Korean people to the government, there is deep-rooted prejudice and discrimination against Chinese, especially those from Chinese mainland, and they even give Chinese who go to South Korea to work discriminatorily "Yanbian".
As a former vassal state of China, the South Koreans' mentality towards the Chinese is more complicated, and they obviously do not want South Korea to be controlled by the Chinese like Southeast Asian countries, and they are economically dependent on China, so they have long suppressed the Chinese in the country.
For example, according to South Korean law, Chinese cannot buy real estate, and naturalization is restricted, and it was not until 2006 that Korean Chinese had votes, but they still could not elect members of the National Assembly.
Chinese who go to South Korea to work are often pitted by illegal South Korean intermediaries, who usually publish false recruitment information on the Internet, claiming to be able to provide high-paying jobs, and even allow migrant workers to easily earn tens of thousands of yuan, which will make some people who want to work abroad to make money.
But when these Chinese are deceived into South Korea, they will find that not only can they not get high-paying jobs, but they are also forced to pay various high fees such as "visa fees", "accommodation fees", "intermediary fees", etc., often before the salary is paid, and they first owe a debt to the intermediary.
What is even more hateful is that when these Chinese pay these fees, they are threatened and intimidated by intermediaries, claiming that if they do not pay more fees or do not work according to their requirements, they will be arrested and sent to prison or deported.
▲ Chinese smugglers arrested by the South Korean Coast Guard
Forced by the coercion of intermediaries, no matter how bullied and oppressed by others, these Chinese laborers could only swallow their anger, and did not even dare to go to the hospital when they were sick, for fear that someone would find out that they were "black workers".
In order to survive, many people who have been smuggled in the past will engage in illegal and criminal activities such as drugs, sex trafficking, and smuggling, and gradually form an underworld organization, which has caused a huge psychological shadow on ordinary people.
Like in the 2017 movie "Crime City", there is this kind of mapping, Zhang Qian, a double-flowered red stick from Harbin, ran to South Korea to ask for an account, asked the person who owed money to call his boss, killed the boss with a few disagreements, and annexed the Viper Gang, and then encroached on the local gang forces step by step, if Ma Dongxi was not more violent, the trio led by Zhang Qian could simply dominate the local underworld.
Generally speaking, due to the close distance between the two strips of water and the fact that they belong to the same East Asian cultural circle, there are certain advantages to working in South Korea compared to going to other countries, but with the development of China, this situation of half sea and half fire may change completely.