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5. Transmitting Knowledges: Institutions, Objects and Practices

Session Name: Marginal Lives Across and Between Borders

Transnational Governmentality and the Production of 'Ideal' Migrant Workers: An Analysis of the Pre-departure Phase of Migration under South Korea's Employment Permit System

Wednesday, July 31, 2024
11:15 – 13:00 (GMT+7)
Paper Abstract: This article examines the transnational mechanisms of governmentality and the subjectification of migrants during the pre-departure phase of labour migration from Nepal to South Korea. Extending Foucault's concept of governmentality to the transnational level, this article argues that the South Korean government, through its Employment Permit System (EPS), intends to make Nepali prospective migrants into governable labour subjects even before migration takes place. It analyses the ways in which this transnational governmentality operates at the multi-layered scales of states, state and non-state institutions in Nepal, and individuals. First, it argues that the partnership approaches based on government-to-government management of labour migration under the EPS enable the Korean state to exercise transnational governmentality beyond its domestic territories. Second, the article examines the two main programmes, EPS-TOPIK and pre-migration education, that all prospective migrants are required to complete under the EPS. The analysis of the textbooks published by the Korean state agency, the learning process in Korean language institutes, and the pre-training at the EPS training centre shows that these government programmes are designed to make prospective migrants adaptable to Korean workplaces and society as labour subjects. Third, it discusses the ways in which middle-class Nepali would-be migrants rationalize their downgraded class position in Korea and internalize self-disciplined behaviors, attitudes, and mindsets through government programs. I argue that neoliberal rationalities are embedded in the complex but also very straightforward ways in which transnational governmentality is practiced to produce 'ideal' migrant workers.

    Presenter(s)

  • SS

    Seonyoung Seo

    Chungbuk National University, Republic of Korea