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Octavius Hite
Joined: 28 Jan 2004
Location: Househunting, looking for a new bunker from which to convert the world to homosexuality.
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 Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2005 11:05 pm Post subject: Acadia U. rocks -- in S. Korea |
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More about our illegal brothers in arms:
From the Globe and Mail:
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By COLIN FREEZE
Saturday, October 15, 2005 Page A18
An unlikely tribute to a small Canadian university is scribbled, in magic marker, on the walls of a holding cell in Seoul: Acadia University "rocks."
It's a dubious honour for the Wolfville, N.S., school, which through no fault of its own is developing a tarnished reputation in South Korea. Fake degrees in the institution's name are at the centre of a crackdown on English teachers by authorities there.
Korea has long enticed English instructors from Western countries by promising free rent, low taxes and good wages. All that's required for the work visa is a university education.
Lately, however, a segment of the teaching population has been detained and deported for fudging education credentials. Canada's Foreign Affairs Department says at least 50 Canadian citizens have been caught in a crackdown this month.
The arrests have largely followed that of a Korean recruiter with a reputation for being a one-man convocation ceremony: A fixer who could readily churn out bogus degrees from Acadia University and the University of South Dakota.
No one knows why those two universities, with a combined enrolment of about 13,000, were picked, but the scam was widespread before being uncovered recently.Now, droll deportees are writing "Acadia Rocks; South Dakota rules" on Seoul jail walls and making toasts to alma maters they never attended on forced plane rides home.
At the same time, university graduates who say they studied in Wolfville find themselves being questioned by Korean immigration authorities.
"They looked at my diploma briefly and then showed me copies of other Acadia University diplomas," said Crystal Rhyno, a graduate who was pulled out of her English class this month by two inspectors. "I told them that I knew my diploma was legitimate."
In an e-mail to The Globe and Mail, she wrote that "they seem to be targeting graduates of Acadia University" and that several of her friends are under investigation. One she said, "was taken to immigration offices in a bus with bars on the windows."
In Nova Scotia, Acadia University's registrar is aware of the problem and is trying to work out a solution.
The university "has been dealing with officials in South Korea as well as Foreign Affairs," spokesman Scott Roberts said in an interview. "We've offered to take a look at the degrees for them, and we can pretty quickly determine whether and how it has been forged -- whether it's bogus or made up."
He added that five bona fide graduates in Korea have contacted the university, asking for transcripts.
Young teachers who have been deported for having false degrees say they are being wrongly demonized.
Speaking from his family home in Barrie, Ont., Andrew Dekker, 28, described the chain of events that led Canadians like him to be jailed in Korea alongside illegal factory workers from Pakistan and China.
He says he turned himself in to immigration authorities early this month, but spent five days in custody before being deported.
"I thought I would be given exit papers and possibly fined," he said.
"Next thing I know it's 'Stand here and take your clothes off.' I said 'Whoa. Whoa. I'm talking to my lawyer,' and they're like 'Turn your phone off. Take your clothes off. Put your shoes in this basket.' "
Mr. Dekker soon discovered he was not alone. "We had a Canada House in prison," he said, explaining that several of his countrymen had been locked up alongside him.
He remembers calling his parents in the middle of the night, to say he was being held in a dingy foreign jail cell with a hole in the ground for a toilet.
"I said, 'Mom, come on, please do something,' " he recalled.
Across Canada, dozens of parents recently got calls like this, and they, in turn, began to light up the switchboards of Foreign Affairs and their local MPs.
Mr. Dekker, who travelled extensively and worked as a cameraman before going to Korea, admits he used bogus documents.
"I just wanted to travel, make some money, and pay off some debts," he said. So he hunted around on the Internet and got in touch with a recruiter. "I said I only have high school, can I come to Korea? He said 'Yeah -- it's perfectly fine.' "
But upon arrival, he says, the recruiter established his bona fides by presenting him with a fake diploma from the University of South Dakota. "There's lots and lots of people who go through this guy," Mr. Dekker said, adding he believed officials were aware of the problem long before the crackdown began.
He says that the Koreans long turned a blind eye to, or even outright encouraged, immigration fraud.
Besides, he added, degrees shouldn't matter all that much. "You're either a good teacher or not a good teacher," he said. "In my case, I think I'm a good teacher."
Mr. Dekker says many people are unsympathetic to this argument -- including a cousin, who works as a border guard in Canada.
In any case, he said he was exceptionally happy when he was finally deported to Canada.
"I walked past the customs guard and hugged and kissed the pillar in the Vancouver airport," he said. "I said, 'Canada!' "
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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051015/KOREA15/National/Idx |
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Pligganease
Joined: 14 Sep 2004
Location: The deep south...
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| Posted: Sun Oct 16, 2005 11:55 pm Post subject: Re: Acadia U. rocks -- in S. Korea |
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| Besides, he added, degrees shouldn't matter all that much. "You're either a good teacher or not a good teacher," he said. "In my case, I think I'm a good teacher." |
Funny, that's what my doctor said. |
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peppermint
Joined: 13 May 2003
Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.
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| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:14 am Post subject: |
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I was talking to my Mom this morning, and I'd expected that at least one person might have asked her about this mess, knowing she's got a daughter here.
Apparently it's a non issue everywhere except the cafe. |
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dogbert
Joined: 29 Jan 2003
Location: Killbox 90210
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| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 12:37 am Post subject: |
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| "Crystal Rhyno"?? |
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chiaa
Joined: 23 Aug 2003
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| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 1:21 am Post subject: |
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| Break the law you go to jail in any country. I do not think that any place has a "white collar detention center" (different from the big house). |
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Hyalucent
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: British North America
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| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 3:07 am Post subject: |
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| peppermint wrote: |
Apparently it's a non issue everywhere except the cafe. |
As individuals get deported, it's showing up on local CBC sites. I noticed stories on the Manitoba and Newfoundland sites last night. Also, I caught a segment on Newsworld about it Saturday night.
So the Globe and Mail isn't the only media outlet that's covering it now. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 3:59 am Post subject: |
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So the Globe and Mail isn't the only media outlet that's covering it now.
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Does that mean there's hope someone will actually do some investigating? |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:34 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
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So the Globe and Mail isn't the only media outlet that's covering it now.
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Does that mean there's hope someone will actually do some investigating? |
Why? Is there burning need to get to the bottom of a bunch of people who knowingly commit fraud, spend five days in the clink, and then get sent home? |
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Hyalucent
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: British North America
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| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:07 pm Post subject: |
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| mindmetoo wrote: |
Why? Is there burning need to get to the bottom of a bunch of people who knowingly commit fraud, spend five days in the clink, and then get sent home? |
Not necessarily knowingly. There's still that pesky perception that people with no qualifications can get jobs in Korea and hearing it from a perceived authority figure like a recruiter can reinforce that for some of individuals in question, who correspondingly are of low education to begin with.
If anything, these stories should be viewed as a warning to remind people they DO need qualifications.
I keep thinking of the high school drop-out, welfare mom with three kids who asked me how the public school system was for English-speaking kids in Korea 'cause she was "thinkin' about goin' over to teach too." It wouldn't have been hard for a recruiter to blow sunshine into her bong and convince her to hop on a free flight.
I think these stories are aimed at the naive among us... not those of us who know better. |
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bourquetheman
Joined: 18 Aug 2003
Location: Suwon
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| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 2:52 pm Post subject: |
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On a totally different note Lucy (from Trailor Park Boys) used to be an ESL teacher over here in Korea! Heck if Lucy can be a teacher, anyone can!  |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 4:01 pm Post subject: |
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Why? Is there burning need to get to the bottom of a bunch of people who knowingly commit fraud, spend five days in the clink, and then get sent home?
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I was criticizing the quality of the G & M's coverage so far. Let's say I've been underwhelmed.
I wouldn't mind knowing how many people have been detained and deported. For instance, does this round-up involve under a hundred people out of the thousands here? How are the detainees treated? Are they really being locked up in over-crowded cells with a hole in the floor for a toilet? Are they being fed only 3 bowls of rice a day? Why was the woman nabbed at the airport but a guy on the same flight, presumably in the same circumstances, not picked up? What was that all about with the guy being asked for his diploma at the Vancouver airport? |
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Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
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| Posted: Mon Oct 17, 2005 9:42 pm Post subject: |
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Well, my mom called to see if I was being harrassed. She said putting these guys in prison is seriously hurting Korea's image in Canada. She said that people who get confused between NK and SK are starting to think SK is a pretty messed up place. The danger here is that if enough idiots who flunked out of high school geography start to dislike SK, it won't take long before SK's product image begins to suffer.
By the way, is it really necessary for them to haul in all the people who have a degree from Acadia? Wouldn't it be easier for the Korean government to search the university's website to see if their names appear on lists of people who graduated? For example, if you graduated from Hendrix University in 1971 with a degree in Fine Arts (Majoring in Knitting), this information could be compared to what appears online. Just to see, I did a search of my name on Google and came up with two entries, both on lists of the students who graduated the year I did at my university (I have a pretty common first and second name, but apparently not when the two are together). |
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chiaa
Joined: 23 Aug 2003
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| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 4:36 am Post subject: |
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| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
| She said putting these guys in prison is seriously hurting Korea's image in Canada. |
Just curious, what should they do with the people that they catch? Put them up in the Hyatt and fly them out first class?
There is a reason why some of these people are sitting in a cell for up to a week. When you get detained and then ordered to leave the country you have to pay for you airline ticket. Takes a couple of days to facilitate. |
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Bulsajo
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 5:27 am Post subject: |
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| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
| She said putting these guys in prison is seriously hurting Korea's image in Canada. |
No offense to your mom or anything but I have not found this to be the case. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Oct 18, 2005 2:14 pm Post subject: |
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| With all the different threads about Canadians working illegally, don't you wonder how Derrek is feeling? He must be in ecstasy. |
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