The liminality of agricultural migrant workers: focusing on the case of Seongju-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do

This study explains the structural characteristics of working conditions and community interactions experienced by agricultural migrant workers through the concept of “liminality”. In a liminal situation within rites of passage, individuals are placed in a state in which the existing social order and suatus are suspended or denied. This study aims to elucidate the structural characteristics of “labor liminality,” where workers’ rights are denied, and “inhabitant liminality,” where workers are not recognized as members of the community, through the empirical cases of agricultural migrant workers in Seongju-gun. To this end, in-depth interviews and fieldwork were conducted with six undocumented Thai migrant workers and two farm owners in Seongju-gun. The results revealed that even after the pandemic, working conditions have not improved, and labor liminality, characterized by poor working conditions, unfair wages, and unilateral labor control, continues. At the local level, migrant workers are perceived as “necessary but feared,” creating a inhabitant liminality that prevents them from progressing to the next stage of becoming residents. Within this social structure characterized by the denial of labor rights and the ambivalent perceptions of local residents, migrant workers are not helpless victims, but rather active agents who utilize methods such as leaving the workplace and online networks to seek rational choices to maintain economic benefits and improve their working environment.