The government's recent decision to consolidate two visa categories for ethnic Koreans — merging the F-4 and H-2 visas— was framed by officials as a step toward greater equality. But critics argue that the change leaves intact a more fundamental hierarchy that discriminates based on ethnicity and country of origin. Eliminating the previous visa distinctions, which treated ethnic Koreans from China and the former Soviet states differently from those arriving from wealthier countries such as the United States, marked an important move against discrimination, said Yu So-jin of the University of Sheffield. Even so, she added, the benefits remain reserved for co-ethnic migrants (of Korean descent) and are not extended to non-ethnic migrants in Korea, underscoring the limits of the reform. “On a fundamental level, this visa system is discriminatory against all other non-coethnic migrants who are subject to stricter rules. It also reflects that Korea’s immigration policies are more restrictive and less inclusive than many other comparable countries which have more lenient immigration