South Korea is where most Mongolians immigrate to earn a living at salaries much higher than they can expect at home. With the lowest birth-rate in the developed world and an aging population, South Korea needs foreign workers to keep its economy going, but this has caused rifts in the homogeneous state that has yet to decide if it can trust its future to foreigners. Critics say the biggest problem is the central government, which treats migrants as temporary help and has not prepared for the permanent presence of a foreign work force to keep the country competitive. There have been numerous complaints from foreign workers, a scathing report from human rights group Amnesty International about exploitation and government crackdowns on foreign workers, but not on employers who stray from the system.

The biggest winners seem to be the factories who can hire labor at cut-rate wages for what are known as 3-D jobs — short for dangerous, dirty and difficult. “Thousands of migrant workers find themselves at the mercy of employers and the authorities who mistreat them knowing their victims have few legal rights and are unable to access justice or seek compensation for the abuse,” Amnesty International said in a report issued last year.

The migrant workers typically receive salaries that are far better than what they would get paid at home. Their main complaints are less about their wages than about employers taking advantage of their vulnerability and being unable to seek remedies in a system that they say is rigged to favor Korean employers.

South Korea allowed in 34,000 migrant workers last year, with half being ethnic Koreans living abroad and the others from countries with which South Korea has reached agreements on guest labor.

Information provided by the ministry to Korean firms on the various ethnic groups they hire could accentuate racial bias, according to a Reuters report. For example, the ministry tells employers that Mongolians are “very independent, simple and tend to be relaxed”, and “they have a tendency to drink more than other laborers from other regions”.