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This chapter looks at the economic situations of the immigrants. They have uprooted themselves in the search for better economic prospects, but profound changes in the economic structures of the rich societies of the West in recent years raise serious doubts about whether their aspirations will be fulfilled and therefore about the starting point for the next generation. The chapter then explores the implications of growing labor market inequality and precarious work for the economic incorporation of immigrants, including rates of labor force participation, unemployment, and risks of poverty. The emphasis is on how immigrants are doing compared to natives in the countries where they live, with the emphasis on low-status immigrants.

This chapter analyzes how the small proportion of the workforce covered by employment protection—as well as decentralized industrial relations based on large chaebŏl unions—have shaped the political dynamics of Korea's labor market reform over the past two decades. Under the conditions of less institutional practices of employment protection covering a small segment of the workforce, Korea's employers and policy makers promoted comprehensive labor market reform for all workers in times of economic crisis—contrary to their Japanese counterparts. Meanwhile, insiders endeavored to secure their high level of employment protection in the face of labor market reform, but with no political allies to support them. This comprehensive labor market reform resulted in the reinforcement of inequality and dualism between insiders.

This chapter focuses on the institutional arrangements of the labor market to explain the political process and outcome of labor market reform. Under the institutionalized practices of employment protection covering a large proportion of the workforce, insiders, employers, and policy makers are more likely to form a political coalition in order to promote reform for outsiders, while privileging the interests of insiders and minimizing the political and economic costs of reform on these workers. In contrast, if employment protection systems have been less institutionalized with the coverage of the very small segment of the workforce, employers and policy makers are more likely to advance labor market reform for greater flexibility across the board. Decentralized industrial relations based on large enterprise unions are more likely to reinforce labor market inequality and dualism because such institutional configurations incentivize employers and insiders to opt for “segmentalist” approaches to the labor market and social protections.

This chapter examines the political processes and outcomes of Japan's labor market reform over the past two decades. During this time, Japan has adopted more market-oriented principles in the labor market than before, such as the increase of labor market flexibility and the diversification of employment and working conditions. However, it did not conform to the neoliberal model of the labor market, represented by easy hiring and firing practices in response to the fluctuations of the business cycle. The institutional arrangements of employment protection systems and decentralized industrial relations affected the trajectory of Japan's reform by shaping the incentives and strategies of employers, workers, and policy makers; and leading to the formation of a political coalition in support of reform for outsiders, while retaining insider-favored social protections. Such institutional configurations transferred the costs of labor adjustments to an increasing number of outsiders, exacerbating inequality and dualism in the Japanese labor market.

This chapter details three key institutional aspects of the labor market and social protection—employment protection, industrial relations and wage bargaining, and social protection programs—in Japan and Korea in comparative context. Well known for the institutional similarities of their national political economies, these two countries developed similar labor market arrangements. However, Japan and Korea presented different trajectories of labor market reform. Japan adopted labor market liberalization for outsiders, while retaining a high level of employment protection for insiders, which led to the strengthening of labor market inequality and dualism between insiders and outsiders. In contrast, Korea promoted labor market liberalization for all workers, targeting regular workers in the large chaebŏl sector, in exchange for the improvement of workers' basic rights to unions as well as protections for non-regular workers.

This chapter discusses the origins and development of the labor market and social protections in Japan and Korea during the industrialization period. In the case of Japan, permanent employment practices consolidated a high level of employment protection at the firm and national levels in the postwar period. While shuntō, led by leading export-oriented private firms, played an important role in coordinating wage bargaining over the Japanese economy, its decentralized industrial relations formed a dualistic labor market along the lines of firm size and employment status. Nonetheless, its sustainable economic growth, lasting until the late 1980s, did not aggravate the serious problems of inequality and dualism in the Japanese labor market. Likewise, Korea's large firm-centered industrial policies as well as a small welfare state structured the dualistic labor market and social protection system. Nevertheless, the authoritarian state artificially preempted the rise of inequality and dualism through interventionist policies in the Korean labor market.

This chapter considers gender as an inherent and intersecting dimension of advantage and disadvantage. It examines the processes by which gender relations are implicated in the construction of (dis)advantage by adopting a multidimensional approach where gender intersects with other social dimensions. The first section addresses the reciprocal inequalities which arise from the gendered division of work and gender gaps in a series of social spheres worldwide. The following section goes beyond the gendered division of labour to consider issues of culture and agency. The concluding section considers new manifestations of gender disadvantage deeply entrenched within processes of global social inequality.

This chapter looks at some leading proposals for dealing with the fact that the labor market confers rewards unequally. Over the years, governments have made various attempts to correct for this by regulating or intervening with the labor market, such as the minimum wage and the welfare state. After discussing these familiar solutions, the chapter examines some proposals that have not (yet) been widely implemented through labor market legislation, such as universal basic income. These proposals have interesting philosophical arguments behind them and which seek to improve on what governments currently do. They also raise a number of interesting questions about the nature of work and ideas of meritocracy in the workplace.