What Drives Unskilled Bilateral Migration to Korea? Results from a Panel Approach

Since the 1990s Korea has emerged as one of the major destinations for unskilled migrants in Asia. This paper identifies the determinants of unskilled bilateral labor migration to Korea by country of origin between 1993 and 2011. After describing the trends and characteristics of labor migration to Korea, it empirically investigates economic, demographic and policy variables that may affect the number of unskilled migrants from individual countries. The results suggest that wage gaps between the source country and Korea, demographic factors in the source country, the macroeconomic conditions in Korea, and its migration policy are important variables in explaining the trends of unskilled migration. The findings are largely consistent with the existing literature on international migration.