Legal Regulation of the Korean Labor Immigrants by the Russian Imperial Government in World War I

Koreanology. 2024. No. 2(7). P. 40–54.

Z. G. Son

The article analyzes the conditions of labor migration of ethnic Koreans from Manchuria and China to the Urals of the Russian Empire in 1915–1916 and their experience of interaction with the local Russian authorities. The research is based on the archival materials of the State Archive of the Sverdlovsk region (GASO). This article focuses on the legal and social status of the Korean laborers and their living conditions, habitat, and local conflicts. The study draws on theoretical insights from a range of works on immigration, and the political and economic integration of immigrants. With the onset of World War I, conscription into the Russian Imperial Army drained the manpower workers’ reserves, especially in the industries in the Urals. Some industries were under a threat of permanent closure. The local tsarist administration petitioned the Foreign Ministry to employ Chinese and Korean laborers in these regions. The results of the research show that the Imperial government did not have a coherent structural plan for the accommodation of Eastern immigrant workers. The government largely improvised, regulating the process of migration by issuing various decrees aimed at creating a legal basis for the immigrants. The findings also contradict the earlier Soviet historiography hypothesis about the widespread oppression of ethnic minorities in the Russian Empire. Unlike the Chinese workers who eventually left Russia for Manchuria, the Korean workers chose to stay in Russia after their contractual obligations expired and enjoyed the same rights and privileges as local Russian workers. The research reveals evidence of mistreatment of Korean workers: however, the wrongdoers were local Russian Korean merchants who acted as intermediaries between the local administration and the hired Korean immigrant workers.

Keywords: World War I, Manchuria, labor migration, China, The Russian Empire, Korean workers