Work, Welfare Access and Social Exclusion for Immigrants in South Korea: New Empirical Evidence Focused on Seoul and Gyeong-gi Area

South Korea has become a country of new immigration from the 1990s, due to internal demand driven by structural shortages of labour and brides. Although migratory flows are indeed driven by the guest country’s demand (the so called ‘pull’ factors), immigrants have different histories and motivations for residing and working in a given country, a ‘push’ perspective that tends to be underrepresented in literature. In response to a glaring lack of empirical data on immigrants, this study presents new data evidence based on a purposive quota sample collected in Seoul and Gyeong-gi area between 2015 and 2016. Data findings on living, working and welfare access for immigrants in South Korea, differentiated by country of origin (China, Vietnam, Nepal, North Korea), highlight an overall reality of outsiderness, both in society and in the labour market, and limited welfare access, when compared to South Koreans’ averages. Descriptive statistics and ANOVA analyses reveal that social exclusion and welfare coverage do differ depending on immigrants’ countries of birth and visa type.