Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Who's Your Daddy?]

I've been here 10 years. I've known about 10 South Africans in that time. The 7 black SAs returned within 3 years. The 3 white's I've known have been here for like 7 to 11 years.

So, I'm not sure how to phrase it politely; but are white South Africans better off in Korea? (Are my acquaintances odd?) All the blacks I know went back, but none of the whites did.

[Poker]

The Afrikaaner white South Africans tend to stay longer since there is not much going for them back in post-apartheid South Africa.

[Otherside]

While 10 is a pretty small sample, the results are pretty telling.

White South Africans are far more likely to emigrate or stay abroad long-term than black South Africans.

To the question are white South Africans better off in Korea? Well that depends on the person, I'm certainly not, however the opportunities for white Saffas are pretty limited back home.

Unless you have a highly-coveted qualification (BA in basketweaving doesn't fall into this category), good connections or go into your own business, the opportunities just aren't there. Almost all positions are BEE (black economic empowerment) or AA (affirmative action), and given a choice between 2 equally qualified candidates, companies will always choose the black candidate.

So to earn 30mill won+ a year and pay minimal taxes vs the struggle back home, for many it's an easy choice. Unlike the rest of the E2 countries, 30mill won is actually a decent salary back home.

This is just one part of the puzzle, there are plenty of other issues in SA (crime being a very noticeable one - which doesn't discriminate), so economic reasons are only part of the reason many white SAs stay abroad.

Actually, Korea is a kind of "second prize" for most SAs. A few years ago, almost "Everyone" would go to the UK for a year or two after high-school or University. Many would stay longer. Some were able to go on EU passports or Ancestry visas, but most went on a working holiday visa. At the peak (late 90s - early 2000s), there were over 1million South Africans living in the UK.

About 4-5 years ago, the working holiday visa changed and SAs were no longer eligible. Not surprisingly the decline in SAs going to the UK was followed by a HUGE rise in SAs going to Korea. According to the last statistics I read, there were almost as many SAs in EPIK/GEPIK as there were Americans (about 38% each). This is especially noticeable as SA has a far smaller population than the US and a far smaller proportion of the population are University graduates (E2 eligible). If it weren't for the preferences of many Korean employers, I have little doubt that there would be even more SAs in Korea.

In a nutshell, while most of the black guys from SA come to Korea for the traditional reasons of experiencing a foreign culture, taking a year or 2 off, and travelling, many whites on the other hand look at Korea as a way out.

[Fox]

One need only look at the news articles that come out of South Africa to see that any white South African would be entirely wise and rational to flee their home nation.

[Waygeek]

[Dodge7]

[Fox]

[dairyairy]

There are many South Africans in GEPIK and, for some reason, they tend to be concentrated in the Suwon, Osan, and Hwaseong areas. They seem to like the low crime culture of Korea but they dislike the fact that South African food and food supplies are in such short supply in Korea.
A lot of the men come here to teach but the women seem to be the ones who stay and there are some who marry Koreans.
For whatever reason(s), there has been a wave of illegal teachers coming from South Africa. It makes you wonder who's been recruiting them.

[dairyairy]

[Dodge7]

[Ave, L�cifer]

this thread is ridiculous

[Dodge7]

[12ax7]

Is it really that bad for whites?

Desmond Tutu just wrote an editorial in which he says he will no longer be voting for the ANC. Inequality is one of the reasons they've lost his support:

"South Africa has the capacity to be one of the most vibrant countries in the world. We have some of the most wonderful people of all races that you could imagine. Our potential is immense. And it's an ache, it is a very huge ache, for oldies like me to see our country deteriorating and slowly sliding off what we thought belonged to us � the moral high ground. It's a great pain to see that we still have the kind of disparity we used to decry under the apartheid dispensation."

http://mg.co.za/article/2013-05-17-00-where-did-our-future-go-asks-tutu

Indeed, according to a recent census, the average white South African household earns 6 times more than the average black household:

http://madamenoire.com/229954/south-african-census-finds-economic-disparities-between-whites-and-blacks-growing/

[Fox]

People like 12ax7 here are another reason it's wise for white South Africans to flee: no matter how bad things get, they will never receive international support. Their problems will always be met with shrugs at best, outright scorn at worst. Fellows like him look at economic data, see that the average white earns more than the average black in South Africa (almost no one on this forum is intellectually honest enough to actually discuss that particular matter in any honest fashion), and concludes, "Oh, they're fine." Easy for him to say, it's not his daughter being raped (and quite possibly infected with AIDS in the bargain), it's not his wife being killed by home invaders looking to snatch his laptop, and it's not his son being denied a job because of his skin tone. It's easy to be indifferent when you aren't the one affected, doubly so when indifference puts you inline with the prevailing orthodoxy.

If whites were fine in South Africa, they wouldn't be fleeing the nation. It's that simple, really. This article makes the same economic point 12ax7 does -- that whites in South Africa still on average earn decent livings -- but it's more honest about the situation, pointing out that tons of whites have nonetheless fled:

[12ax7]

Did I make any claims? To say that I did is intellectually dishonest.

I asked a question which I expected to be answered by a South African, not by an American who, in typical fashion, assumes he knows everything about the world.