KÉ Interview: 10 Years in the Life of an Unregistered Laborer

He came here to “fulfill his Korean dream,” I was told. But I wasn’t talking to a teenage boy looking to become the next K-Pop star. He is an ordinary, working-class person from Vietnam, coming to South Korea to work long hours in physically gruelling jobs. Despite the prospect of earning only minimum wage, the offer for many is too lucrative to pass up. Spend five years of your life doing manual work far from your home and family. After that, you’ll have saved enough to build your parents a hou