한국의 아동노동: 아동노동은 어떻게 이용되고, 규제되고, 금지되었는가? = A History of Child Labor in South Korea : Formation, Development, and transformation

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This academic research is the first attempt to make a general survey and to analyze the historical phenomenon of child labor in South Korea from modern period to the present, which has been prevalent but has not attracted much attention from the academic world. Until now, many social science researchers have noticed both of the emergence of child labor and the processes of restricting or prohibiting of child labor during industrialization of Western countries. On the contrary, child labor in South Korea has not dragged so much interest. Child labor in South Korea, which had already expanded from the period of Japan`s colonial rule over Korea, more and more increased through industrialization course since 1960s. In those days, child laborers had to endure inferior working conditions such as industrial accidents, long working hours, low wages and arbitrary controls plus threats of assault from employers or adult laborers. From mid-1980s, due to factors like advancement of industrial structure, general rise in the schooling entrance rates of children, overall betterment of income levels, tightened regulations on child labor after political democratization and earnest inflow of low-paid immigrant labor forces as substitutes, Child labor in South Korea has considerably decreased. After that, however, because of legal or illegal blind spots such like vocational training education inside high-school curricula, it has never become extinct but been retained. In nowadays, it has been less visible by marginalization or offshoring, so contemporary South Koreans will be hard to experience it intensely. But even in the 21th century, inside South Korea, new forms of precarious employment have been generated among service industries. This situation proves the reality that the problem of economic deficiency-which forces sizeable children to participate in the labor market instead of enjoying leisure- still exists within South Korean society. Therefore in this academic research, we the authors firstly try to describe chronical developmental stages of child labor and legislation of restriction or prohibition against it in South Korea, secondly try to explain the reasons for duration of child labor- regardless of growth in legal norms for restriction or prohibition against it-in South Korea and finally try to demonstrate that the mix of new policies-which mainly based on de-commodifying methods like family allowance or child allowance-should be added.