이주노동과 불법의 사회적 실재: 한국의 이주노동자를 둘러싼 불법성 문제 검토

This article argues that the gap between the migration regime and social reality, which arises from the increasing number of migrant workers crossing borders in search of work, is expressed as 'illegality'. To understand illegality, this article argues that we should focus on the social fabric of illegality, which is constituted by a variety of practices and social relations and is increasingly complex, rather than on legal violations or controls on migrant workers. Treating illegal migrant workers as 'undesirables' or 'surplus' or as a category to be deported distorts or denies the real reasons for their illegality-their economic necessity and social reality. It prevents us from seeing that illegality comes with the flexibility of labor, the fragmentation of global labor markets, and is directed by national policies and legal systems. Illegality is actually constituted by the interrelationships that Korean employers, brokers, local merchants, landlords, and migrant workers have formed with each other. In particular, the interdependence among migrant workers, and Korean workers and employers in the workplace exposes the fiction of dividing migrants into strictly illegal and legal categories, or that illegal migrants are "bad" migrants.