Foreign Workers with Domestic Degrees Face Job Search Challenges... Half Prefer Short-Term Stay

Foreign students attending a university in Seoul are enjoying the festival. This is unrelated to the article content.

A recent survey has found that foreign workers who graduated from domestic universities are more hesitant to settle long-term in South Korea compared to those with overseas degrees.

On the 26th, the Korea Immigration Policy Institute released a statistical brief analyzing the characteristics of foreign workers in small and medium-sized manufacturing companies, based on whether they hold a domestic degree.

This analysis utilized data from the "Survey on the Employment Status of Foreign Workers in Domestic Companies" conducted by the institute in 2024. Foreign workers were divided into two groups-those with domestic degrees and those with overseas degrees-according to where they obtained their highest degree, and a comparative analysis was conducted.

Holders of domestic degrees often began their lives in Korea as international students (D-2 visa) and then transitioned to institutionalized pathways such as the Regional Talent (F-2-R) visa.

Despite having completed higher education in Korea, domestic degree holders cited "lack of Korean language proficiency" (32.9%) as the biggest challenge when seeking employment. Among them, 46.5% reported performing "simple repetitive tasks," a higher proportion than among overseas degree holders (31.8%).

The two groups showed differences in their desire for long-term residence or permanent settlement over the next five years. While 76.4% of overseas degree holders hoped to stay long-term, only 46.5% of domestic degree holders expressed the same, which is about half the rate. In contrast, a majority (53.5%) of domestic degree holders preferred short-term stays of less than five years.

The institute stated, "This suggests that foreign workers educated in Korea are more likely to view their current jobs in small and medium-sized manufacturing companies not as a long-term career path, but as a transitional step before moving to their home country or a third country."

The institute added, "These findings clearly show a gap between the government's policy expectations of utilizing international students as skilled labor and the actual realities of the labor market." They recommended that the matching platforms between small and medium-sized enterprises and international students should go beyond simply providing job postings and actively identify companies that are related to the majors of foreign workers. They also emphasized the need to lower the barriers for domestic graduates to participate in job training programs, which are currently focused on Korean youth, and to ensure practical opportunities for domestic university graduates to supplement their job skills in line with the demands of the industry."