Costs of Low Skilled Migrants in South Korea: The Case of Sri Lanka

South Korea has recently emerged as a popular destination for low skilled migrants from Sri Lanka. While pre-departure costs to Korea have been studied, there is not much information regarding migrants’ costs at the destination while being employed. Towards better understanding of migration costs of low skilled workers in Korea, this brief identifies what these costs are and recommend policies towards reducing them in order to maximize savings/remittances to Sri Lanka, using key informant interviews and secondary information. The brief finds that there are various financial costs that a low skilled migrant from Sri Lanka incurs during his stay in Korea – costs relating to accommodation, food, insurance schemes, pension, miscellaneous items – and the scope for reducing expenditure may be limited. However, better integration of financial education classes into training in Sri Lanka and Korea provide a means to reducing living costs while increasing migrant’s savings behavior. Also opening voluntary savings schemes and rationalization of various social schemes for which the migrants have to pay could potentially reduce their costs in Korea.