Recent developments and implications of policies on ethnic return migration in Korea

The Visit and Employment Program (VEP) for ethnic Koreans with foreign citizenship was adopted in 2007 to resolve the 2001 ruling by the Constitutional Court on a provision of the Overseas Koreans Act which calls for differential treatment of overseas ethnic Koreans. Policies specific to ethnic return migration and international migration in general are continuously evolving in Korea. While the policy directives still tend to emphasize economic development, they seem to move toward a point of balance where potentially conflicting goals of promoting human rights, economic development, and a stable civic society can be achieved.