·Reliance on skilled foreign workers grows, but long-term settlement remains constrained by career, wage discrimination Kim Young-hoon (left) presents a name tag to a Cambodian worker at a farm in Wanju, North Jeolla Province, as part of a campaign encouraging employers to address international workers by their names.
·(Ministry of Employment and Labor) When Nalinda Kumara, a 37-year-old Sri Lankan shipyard worker, was promoted to on-site foreman in 2024, his company described it as the first such appointment of a foreign national in Korea's shipbuilding industry, a sector increasingly reliant on overseas workers.
·Kumara has worked for more than a decade with a subcontractor of HD Hyundai Heavy Industries.
·He now leads a team of 25 Korean and foreign workers, overseeing touch-up painting operations and workplace safety.
·"I feel very proud that I opened a new path for my fellow foreign workers in shipyards," Kumara said.
