Korean firms struggle to dispatch workers overseas

Some South Korean conglomerates are struggling to recruit workers for dispatch to overseas branches as more workers are avoiding expatriate assignment, according to sources on Wednesday.  

Korean companies have set up 86,773 overseas offices and incorporations from 1980 to the second quarter of this year, according to the Export-Import Bank of Korea (KEXIM). Expatriate employment assignments from Korea are in growing demand alongside an increasing number of global branches.

International assignments from Korean conglomerates were popular for about two decades from the 1980s. It was because expat packages normally included generous allowances and education expenses for the workers’ children.

Many Korean general trading companies selected elite employees and sent them to branches in the US and Europe in the 1980s and 1990s, with fierce competition among employees aspiring to work overseas for a fixed term – usually two to five years – and fast promotion after they come back to the Korean headquarters.

HIGHER LIVING EXPENSES, LESS ADVANTAGEOUS FOR EDUCATION 

The popularity of international assignments has dropped since the 2000s as more companies started setting up branches in emerging regions such as China, Southeast Asia, India, the Middle East and Africa.

In order to hire workers for the US and European branches, Korean firms chose to recruit Korean residents in those regions rather than sending employees from the home country.     

“Many Korean employees don’t want international assignments these days, both to developed and emerging countries,” an industry source said. “In emerging countries, they want to send children to international schools that teach in English. But the education there is as expensive as in developed countries these days,” the source said.

“The US and Europe are not preferred choices for Korean workers either as they have been increasingly facing discrimination and violence against Asians since COVID-19,” the source added.

Expat assignments are also losing popularity with the growing number of dual-income couples as one has to quit work or live apart for years if his or her spouse decides to work overseas.

As more younger Koreans tend to marry late, living overseas is becoming less advantageous for their children’s admission to Korean universities.

Many local universities operated special admission systems for those who lived overseas for more than three years, including at least one year at a foreign high school. As more people marry and have their kids later in life, the children are often younger than their late teens during their residence in foreign countries, and thus don't qualify for the special university admissions later.

To boost expat assignments from Korea, some general trading companies are considering more than double salaries with huge incentives for working in some developing regions.

The state-run Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA), which operates 28 trade agencies in 83 countries, deploys workers to different countries with a three-year term on average.

Write to Kyung-Min Kang at kkm1026@hankyung.com
Jihyun Kim edited this article.