Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Tony (ATEK)]

Hello everyone, I'm writing to you about something that affects you today.

Every E-2 visa holder has to jump through multiple hoops in order to obtain their visa. ATEK has recently learned that the legal basis for the drug test and HIV test you must undergo is shaky: it is unconstitutional under Korean law and in violation of international law.

The Association for Teachers of English in Korea is now announcing the launch of a campaign against discriminatory visa requirements to coincide with the filing of a related report at the National Human Rights Commission of Korea yesterday.

According to the filer of the report with the Human Rights Commission, law professor Benjamin Wagner of Kyunghee University, says that current foreign language instructor (E-2) visa rules, which require a criminal background check, drug tests and an HIV test, should be revised as they clearly discriminate on the basis of national origin. Non-citizen teachers are required to submit to these checks, but non-citizen ethnic Koreans, foreigners married to Koreans, and Korean citizens are not.

Read this interview with Kyunghee University Professor Benjamin Wagner to learn about how the E-2 Visa Regulations are wrong and should be struck down. If you want to read something shorter, check out this article at the JoongAng Daily or this one at the Korea Times.

The E-2 Visa Policy Memo (which mandates the drug and HIV checks) is subjecting thousands of non-citizens to in-country drug and HIV tests without a reasonable, objective or factual basis. These tests (requiring individuals to provide blood and urine at national hospitals) constitute searches of the most personal and private nature, which are conducted without any grounds other than the xenophobic conviction that non-citizens are dangerous. This Policy Memo was not created by Presidential Decree. It did not go through the formal regulation approval process (which is why it is called a "policy memo," and not an "enforcement ordinance" or "regulation"). The Korean Immigration Service acted independently and without oversight in adopting these rules, which are at odds with both domestic and international law.
YOU can stop this discrimination against you and other teachers like you NOW.

The Human Rights Commission has an English language site with an online complaint form. They investigate all complaints filed and the United Nations Committee on the Ending of All Forms of Racial Discrimination monitors the number of complaints. Large numbers of complaints will show the UN that there is a problem here. The Korean government routinely tells the UN that foreigners are satisfied with the requirements, because there are never any complaints! We urge all teachers to exercise the rights granted them under the Korean constitution, and fill out the online form. It takes only five minutes and the Commission does not share your name or identifying information with any other government agencies. Your complaint is anonymously investigated.
ATEK urges all teachers to exercise their Korean constitutionally-guaranteed rights and file an online complaint with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea.

ATEK has prepared instructions for filling out the form, and some suggested things you can say. You can find the instructions on our website. Please be a part of the first time the non-citizen teaching community has come together to make our voices heard. Make yours heard too.

You can find out how to file a complaint here.

--Tony

________________________________________
Tony Hellmann, M.Ed.
Communications Director
Association for Teachers of English in Korea

[Zaria32]

I wouldn't want a convicted criminal, or drug user, or HIV positive person teaching my children...calling it discrimination is silly.

[Toffenheim]

Testing for drugs and taking a criminal background check is pretty common in the US, that part doesn't bother me so much. The part about asking for pictures, date of birth, medical problems, disabilities, etc. is the real problem. It facilitates just about every form of discrimination possible except for maybe sexual orientation discrimination.

[madoka]

[candyteacher]

[Ya-ta Boy]

[candyteacher]

[yeremy]

You sound like a nice person, but I think your claim is not on the whole accurate.

I have a couple of Korean friends who have an English hagwon. They recently had a problem with their first grade students, who are in the habit of coming to their school half an hour to forty five minutes early, before class, to meet their classmates and play. The solution they (accidently) came up with was to put on the Disney Channel for those very young students to watch and they calmed down immediately.

Re: ATEK-I agree with another poster that background checks (resume and reference verification), drug and HIV tests are consistent with many employment policies in the US. Today in the US, background checks and employment drug testing are a part of life. In the Seattle area, if you want to get a job with Safeway, a large supermarket chain in the NW and on the West Coast, you have to take and pass a drug test at a local clinic, which is arranged for and paid by Safeway. Do you want to lower the requirements for getting an E2 to be less than what it takes to get a job as a night stocker or a courtesy clerk at Safeway? I don't.

[ThingsComeAround]

I think these rules are stupid.
and yes, they should be across the board and equal if Koreans really cared about keeping their kids safe.
I know two people (ethnic Koreans) working in Korea teaching English.
One hasn't finished university yet.
One is AWOL from the military (USMC)
If they weren't Korean, they wouldn't be teaching.
That is discrimination.

[jinks]

It doesn't make much sense to claim that criminal, drug and health checks for overseas teachers in Korea are discriminatory; they are pretty standard immigration/employment practices, as others have poined out. However, if ATEK want to be useful, they could start asking for some kind of consistency in the application requirements for E2 visas. Immigration is a gong show, you never know what will be asked for next, and what you are told by immigration depends on who you speak to, not on actual policy.

[inkoreaforgood]

I was under the impression that the drug and HIV testing were discriminatory simply because no Korean teacher has to undergo that kind of testing.

Remember that in Korea only foreigners have AIDS and use drugs, and they commit all kinds of unspeakable criminal acts. Or at least that's what the media says.

[candyteacher]

yeremy, my school tried something like this and while it worked for a week or so kids can have short attention spans and move on to something else quicky. Kids need alot of attention and high energy is part of being a child, and personally i hate to see a child who is sedate or who has being bullied into being quiet by either a teacher, parent or another kid. Which i did see alot not only in korea!

As far as double standards in Korea, yes there is alot of that, unfortunately its part of life there. so why not just try and ignore it and enjoy your time, rather than trying to change the country!!

[wylies99]

The Korean government should be consistent and require police background checks for ALL teachers. That's FAIR and in the best interests of children.

BTW, the real troublemakers in Korea, among the foreign "teachers" tend to be the illegal teachers- those teaching WITHOUT visas and diplomas. What is the Korean government doing about that issue? Hmmmmm?

[Young FRANKenstein]

[Young FRANKenstein]