Underlying Causes of International Migration Case of Mongolian Migrants in Korea

Abstract

It has been almost 24 years since Mongolia started the transition to a democratic society based on a market economy, with the adoption of the new (1992) Constitution of Mongolia whose critical component of these changes was freedom of movement within the country as well as freedom to travel abroad. However, during the transition period, unemployment increased sharply, salary rating decreased, and the state was not able to regulate employment. Thus, Mongolians chose migrate overseas in search of higher paid jobs and a better quality of life for themselves and their families. This paper will show that there are several economic factors that pushed Mongolians to migrate and also pull them towards South Korea. These factors have also been specified between after the transition and after 2000 when Mongolian had fully transited from a socialist country. To find out Mongolian international migration causes, we have conducted survey whose result proves that economic factor is still major influential factor of Mongolian migration to Korea. This paper therefore seeks to find out the underlying causes of Mongolian international migration to Korea.