Foreign seasonal workers laboring through South Korea's scorching summer found a moment of belonging in Samcheok, where a traditional Korean cultural experience helped them feel at home in a country that once felt unfamiliar.
Samcheok city and the Samcheok Community Comprehensive Support Center recently held a "Foreign Seasonal Workers' Korean Traditional Culture Experience" event at the Baekdudaegan Clean Forest Products Complex Experience Center in Hajang-myeon, wrapping up the program in a festive atmosphere.
The event was held as part of the 2026 general rural development municipal capacity-building project. The morale of foreign seasonal workers is itself considered part of rural community capacity — when they thrive, so does the community.
Participants took part in a range of cultural and recreational programs open to all ages, including traditional Korean games, face painting, printed photo keepsakes, roulette games and a K-pop performance.
Away from the grueling pace of the busy farming season, the workers mingled naturally with local residents and created lasting memories together.
A total of 234 foreign seasonal workers, including family members of marriage migrants, entered Samcheok this year and helped ease a labor shortage at farms during the peak growing season. The city plans to continue expanding exchanges and cooperation with overseas local governments to build a stable pipeline for bringing in foreign seasonal workers, so that farmers can focus on their work without worrying about labor shortages.
The event brought together about 170 foreign seasonal workers — mainly from the Philippines and Vietnam — who came to Samcheok to supply stable agricultural labor to local farms, along with area residents. It was designed to deepen mutual understanding and foster a sense of community between the two groups.
Samcheok has been actively expanding its intake of foreign seasonal workers to address labor shortages on farms struggling with an aging population, a shrinking rural workforce and rising labor costs.
In November last year, the city signed MOUs with Biliran city in Biliran province in the Philippines and with the Lao government to establish a stable agricultural labor supply system, broadening its cooperation with overseas local governments and related agencies.
"We are sincerely grateful to the foreign seasonal workers who have worked so hard to help fill the labor gap in our rural communities," a Samcheok city official said. "We hope this cultural experience event helped deepen their understanding of Korean culture and supported their stable adjustment to life here, and that both residents and workers alike had a wonderful time."
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