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Ethnic Economy Participation and Income Gaps among Korean Chinese in South Korea: Associations with Visa Status and Industrial Composition

  • The Journal of Multicultural Society
  • 2026, 19(3), pp.343~376
  • DOI : 10.14431/jms.2026.10.19.3.343
  • Publisher : Research Institute of Asian Women
  • Research Area : Social Science > Social Science in general
  • Received : June 10, 2026
  • Accepted : September 28, 2026
  • Published : October 30, 2026

Changwon Lee 1,  Seori Choi 1

1이민정책연구원

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ABSTRACT

Using data on 1,085 employed Korean Chinese from a 2025 survey of Korean Chinese and Koryo-saram residing in Korea, this study classified respondents as ethnic-economy self-employed, ethnic-economy employees, or mainstream-economy employees, and used binary logistic regression to examine factors associated with each of the two ethniceconomy groups relative to mainstream-economy employees and OLS regression to examine monthly income gaps. Visa status and residence in the Seoul metropolitan area were significantly associated with participation type, and self-employment among H-2 visa holders was low, consistent with institutional restrictions. Relative to mainstream-economy employees, the monthly income advantage of the ethnic-economy self-employed was small before industrial composition was considered (weighted 6.1%) but larger within the same industry (weighted 15.9%; unweighted 12.0%). Compared with mainstream-economy employees, ethnic-economy employees earned significantly less only in the weighted estimate before adjusting for industrial composition, and showed no significant difference after controlling for major industry groups, a result that held when occupation was added or industry was disaggregated into detailed categories. However, in the weighted estimates, they appeared to earn monthly income similar to that of mainstream-economy employees by working more days, indicating that monthly income alone is insufficient for assessing working conditions. These results suggest that even if the integration of H-2 into F-4 status reduces legal barriers to self-employment, income gains may be limited as long as self-employment remains concentrated in a few industries.

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