A small note on the term "Undocumented"
I feel that to really appreciate the standpoint and complexity of the characters Yun Gil Ho, Min Seo Jin, Kim Jae Hui, it helps to understand the complexity of this term Undocumented.
In many regions, the term Undocumented, usually suggests a migrant who is living in a region without a visa, aka an illegal immigrant. This is not necessarily so in South Korea. Whether a child is born of a single mother, poverty stricken parents, immigrants, even North Korean defectors, registration of births is not straightforward.
South Korea has somewhat socially complex, family registration laws. It is only since 2008, that females have been legally able to register their child's birth. https://www.international-divorce.com/family-registration-law-korea.htm. I.e. Before 2008, if you were born to a single mother, and your father did not acknowledge your birth, your birth could not legally be registered - therefore you're Undocumented.
And it is only THIS year, 2024, that the SK government has been forced to legislate to close a loophole, that allowed thousands of children to remain unregistered (otherwise known as "Ghost Babies") https://m.koreatimes.co.kr/pages/article.asp?newsIdx=378919. Parents must register births and could, until this year 2024, choose not to. Hospitals etc., played no part in the registration of births.
The stigma surrounding children of single mothers, orphans, adoptees, abandoned children, continues to be significant in South Korea. Patriarchal family systems are still absolutely the minimum expectation in society. The law may have changed in 2008, but human societies can be slow to change. If you are in this undocumented category, you are automatically an underclass, in a very class based society. I.e. as an underclass, you're not even included in the class strata! You don't even qualify as lower-class. Yun Gil Ho, Min Seo Jin, Kim Jae Hui, ALL originate from this category.
