Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Woland]

It's interesting, reading the article linked below to compare between the two groups. I don't for a minute want anyone to think that I see the jobs as comparable either in safety or compensation. I don't think anyone is going to want to trade places. But the similarities, involving control of visas, recruitment practices, and labor mistreatment are notable. Also a Labor office that is starting to defend workers.

Comments?

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/world/middleeast/06dubai.html?hp

[Roch]

Woland,

Thanks for the post.

[lastat06513]

I had worked in Kuwait and I could see first-hand how people were living, especially the foreign workers there.

In Kuwait, the ratio of Foreign worker to Kuwaiti is about 4:1 and although the conditions are not nearly as bad as in the UAE, they are still similar.

And yes, it is exploitation.

But can we say that the conditions that foreigners face in Korea are similar to the conditions faced in places like those in the middle east?

[Vicissitude]

Temperatures reach over 50 C/122 F with a very high humidity factor. It would be better if the workers were working at night when the heat is more bearable. I bet most of you reading this board have never spent an entire day out in that type of heat, let alone work in it doing harsh physical labor and for days on end. It sounds like hell on earth!

Indentured Servitude is just a fancy term for Modern Day Slavery.

[lastat06513]

[Vicissitude]

[lastat06513]

Wow!

I was just talking to someone about this TODAY.....
The US today is now reeling from the "welfare society" it created in the inner-cities during the 70's, 80's and part of the 90's (if not all of that decade).
It created whole generations of people who would sit at home and just collect money for having babies who would go and give birth to more babies of their own (the average age of a new mother here was between 16- 19 years old. Some sociologists did predict (and were ridiculed for) that this new generation would be a drain on the middle-class economy, as alot of the tax revenue collected would be used to support them continuously.
But in 2001, the monkey in office actually did something that made "some" sense- He made a cut-off period for people to receive benefits top 6 months and gave them an opportunity to be trained in a trade and that the income would be supplimented with some kind of assistance that would help with supporting the children born during the "welfare years"-- That's why alot of people who used to be on welfare are being trained as NAs' and Security guards.

The dangerous aftereffect are the children.
In places like my hometown of New Haven and in places like Phillie and Chicago, the children from this past generation, because they lacked alot of parental guidance and control, are running amock doing all sorts of stuff. The murder rate in my hometown is the second highest in the state (granted it is a small state), but how can you account for 113 murders in an 8-month period.

I would have to say something good about Islam (at least the moderate form of the religion), it gives people moral guidance and makes young people more conscious about their families and that it is their responsibility to support them as they get older.

I was not knocking the system they have of welfare, I was just pointing it out to those who might read the article and get a distorted image.


I just want to say one thing, people keep on putting down ESL teachers, but being in a position to travel and see much of the world, we get to see places and meet people that normal folks back home would never get a chance to meet, sometimes putting down all the steriotyping done in the media regarding these places....

[jlb]

Now that's a novel idea. The government tapping into the companies bank account/reserve to pay the workers that they didn't pay. Don't hagwons have to do the same thing...give the government a certain amount of money. If only the labor board had the power to get to those assets to pay the workers who got screwed.

[Vicissitude]

[Paji eh Wong]