|
Korean Job Discussion Forums
"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Teachers from Around the World!"
|
| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
ghostrider
Joined: 27 Jun 2011
|
 Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 12:26 am Post subject: UN Slams Korea Over Racist Treatment of Foreign Teachers |
 |
|
| Quote: |
The U.N.-affiliated committee ruled Wednesday that the HIV testing of foreign teachers in Korea is a form of discrimination.
In reaction, the Ministry of Justice admitted that it was aware of the ruling through media reports.
"We have not received an official ruling through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yet. We will make a decision on how to respond to the ruling after we receive it," a ministry official at the immigration control bureau said.
Meanwhile, calls for the abolition of the practice are increasing.
"This is racial discrimination," an English teacher from Northern Ireland, who refused to be named, said. "Why should only white, American and European people be subject to this? There is an insinuation here that white people are more promiscuous, and more inclined to take drugs than Korean people.
"If you want to protect young students, then you test everybody for drugs and HIV. Not just foreigners." |
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2015/05/116_179406.html
Somehow I feel this is just the tip of the iceberg. Foreign teachers have been demonized for years as drug users, HIV carriers, and perverts. |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
Chaparrastique
Joined: 01 Jan 2014
|
| Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 3:34 am Post subject: |
|
|
I never cared about the HIV test.
I wish they put more focus on reforming the E2 visa and legal system to protect foreigners. That is all. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Stan Rogers
Joined: 20 Aug 2010
|
| Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 5:05 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I appreciate Korean's honesty. I don't understand why so many foreigners find honesty to be offensive. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
metalhead
Joined: 18 May 2010
Location: Toilet
|
| Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 5:19 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Stan Rogers wrote: |
| I appreciate Korean's honesty. I don't understand why so many foreigners find honesty to be offensive. |
I think there is a lot in this world that you struggle to understand. Maybe put the bottle down for a change and treat your wife to a nice delicious meal of dwaeji gukbap instead of trying to understand such incredibly complex things that your brain clearly cannot handle. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
|
| Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 5:37 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Chaparrastique wrote: |
I never cared about the HIV test.
I wish they put more focus on reforming the E2 visa and legal system to protect foreigners. That is all. |
It's all part & parcel of the same problem: discrimination. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Weigookin74
Joined: 26 Oct 2009
|
| Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 6:57 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I haven't had to do an AIDS test or Drug test for the last couple of years. I use to pay over 100 bucks for a medical test each year and this year paid 40 because I only had a few tests. Am I missing something? Maybe, 2012 or 2013 was the last time I did that extra crap. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
|
| Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 9:16 am Post subject: |
|
|
HIV is like the drug test. If you can't get yourself clean for 30 days, you shouldn't be moving to another country. Likewise, if you have HIV, moving here to teach might not be the right move. Why should Korea have to absorb the costs of your care and deal with any potential extended leave from work? Having HIV doesn't make you special. Also, the typical manner in which you get it (IV drug use or unprotected sex. Yes, I know a very small minority has the bad luck of getting it through blood transfusions or some other 'bad luck' means) does imply that you have problems with self-control and decision making and probably aren't prime material to move overseas.
Should Korean teachers have to take it as well? Yeah. But the whole "don't discriminate against AIDs" thing makes about as much sense to me as "don't discriminate against someone who has burns because they lit themselves on fire while doing a bunch of drugs". There's jobs out there for people like that, moving overseas to teach in Korea is not one of them. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
|
| Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 9:53 am Post subject: |
|
|
| And, surprising nobody, nobody at all, SR yet again misses the point. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
catman
Joined: 18 Jul 2004
|
| Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 10:31 am Post subject: |
|
|
| I don't have a problem with it. We are temporary foreign workers not citizens. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Steelrails
Joined: 12 Mar 2009
Location: Earth, Solar System
|
| Posted: Sat May 23, 2015 5:48 pm Post subject: |
|
|
From the article. Nice to see discrimination being fought with ethnocentrism and stereotype. Expects Koreans not to stereotype and stereotypes herself. Rich. -
| Quote: |
| "Why should only white, American and European people be subject to this? There is an insinuation here that white people are more promiscuous, and more inclined to take drugs than Korean people. |
Talk about "missing the point." There are other people, other than white people teaching here. I guess this piece of work didn't care about the problem until it affected white people. This person gets it wrong. Not all NETs are white. There ARE NETs who are black, latino, South Asian, Middle Eastern, East Asian, and (gasp) ethnically Korean who also have to take the test. Nice to see that the people complaining have a really poor concept of the NET makeup. How can we be granting any credence to this person's view of the situation when they so fundamentally misrepresent it ? Not all foreigners have to take these tests. Korean teachers at public schools are still subject to physicals. These tests are on the basis of EMPLOYMENT. The primary criteria for whether you have to take the test is EMPLOYMENT. These are for teachers. Not factory workers or office workers or tourists. Countries do have the right to quarantine entry of people with infectious disease. They have the right to screen based on country of origin due to disease outbreaks. They have the right to not absorb ill people who may be a burden on their health system.
Also, as far as the insinuation that people back home are more likely to do drugs, sorry but that's just out in the open and true. Ask a bunch of NETs if they've ever smoked pot and you're surprised at the people who haven't. Ask Koreans and you're surprised at the people who have. It doesn't help that at various events and conversations some foreigners constantly talk about drugs. Should you assume NETs do drugs? No. But whining that you're being "portrayed" that way is a stretch.
Furthermore, if Koreans really perceived you as pedophile druggies, then we wouldn't be here and standards would be a lot more strict. Believe it or not, the majority of Korean people generally grasp the situation well. They know that most NETs are fine people. A bad story breaks, the government responds with a few token gestures and basic screenings. They just want basic protections to weed out the bad apples. There is a vast gulf between how some NETs think Koreans perceive them and how they are actually perceived.
Remember, there were virtually ZERO restrictions beforehand. That wasn't reasonable either. You do have to have some sort of screening procedures for entry and employment. Everyone says they are against such things because they are not the employer and having to bear the costs. If you were an employer and got burned once by some guy who was a constant high-on back home and was a liability, or got some employee who missed 10 days a month because of health conditions, YOU would support screenings as well, especially considering you are paying for their airplane ticket (something that doesn't happen with Korean teachers.
Also, if you don't want to be treated any differently than Korean teachers, that means you have to be treated EXACTLY the same. Have the requirements, duties, and responsibilities. Equal privilege and benefits? Equal responsibilities and requirements. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Scorpion
Joined: 15 Apr 2012
|
| Posted: Sun May 24, 2015 4:43 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Steelrails wrote: |
| Should Korean teachers have to take it [the Aids test] as well? Yeah. |
Awesome. I'm glad we're all in agreement on this. But there is only one reason they are not tested for AIDS, while we are, and that is what bothers people so much. It's not rocket science. People aren't necessarily opposed to AIDS tests. They are opposed to being singled out as individuals and members of a group uniquely deserving of being targeted for such tests. If it was really about "protecting the children" the tests would have been implemented in a very different manner. Therein lies the grievance. But, of course, you already know this. And everyone who frequents this forum knows that you already know this.
Last edited by Scorpion on Sun May 24, 2015 5:31 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Scorpion
Joined: 15 Apr 2012
|
| Posted: Sun May 24, 2015 5:27 am Post subject: |
|
|
| catman wrote: |
| I don't have a problem with it. We are temporary foreign workers not citizens. |
As are the million other foreign workers who are, nevertheless, not obliged to take the AIDS test. Gyopos here on "F" visas working as English teachers are also not citizens, yet are not obligated to take the tests. Surely you can't be as stupid and /or ill-informed on this subject as your post suggests. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
young_clinton
Joined: 09 Sep 2009
|
| Posted: Sun May 24, 2015 7:49 am Post subject: |
|
|
Even with all the problems that foreign teachers have in Korea, they're nothing compared to the problems that expats and NET's have in Saudi Arabia. I paid huge sums of money for an employment visa for a company called AEL, located in Abha, Saudi Arabia. When I received the visa the company all of a sudden has no teaching position available. Koreans are 10 times more reasonable in their visa process. I spent only a small sum of money to get into Korea.
It's surprising with expats in Saudi Arabia being conned into arriving in Saudi Arabia then being put into indentured servitude for up to 10 years that the UN wouldn't complain about Saudi Arabia. Inshallah  , wrath is going to come for the Saudi's, I just wonder how long it's going to take? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ghostrider
Joined: 27 Jun 2011
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ghostrider
Joined: 27 Jun 2011
|
| Posted: Sun May 24, 2015 8:16 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
GENEVA (20 May 2015) – A New Zealand woman’s rights were violated when her employers in the Republic of Korea demanded that, as a foreign English teacher, she undergo HIV/AIDS and drug tests as a condition of having her contract renewed, UN experts have found.
The Geneva-based Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) was considering the case of L.G., whose contract was not renewed in 2009 after she refused to undergo a secondary mandatory HIV test required only of foreigners, arguing it was ““discriminatory and an affront to her dignity”.
In their findings, CERD members noted that the Republic of Korea did not provide any reasons to justify the mandatory testing, from which Korean and ethnic Korea teachers were exempt*. They also noted that, during arbitration proceedings, L.G.’s employers, the Ulsan Metropolitan Office of Education (UMOE), said that HIV/AIDS tests were viewed as a means to check the values and morality of foreign English teachers.
The testing policy, the Committee wrote in its findings**, “does not appear to be justified on public health grounds or any other ground, and is a breach of the right to work without distinction to race, colour, national or ethnic origin.”
The Committee called on the Republic of Korea to grant L.G. adequate compensation for the moral and material damages she suffered. The Committee also urged the authorities to take steps to review regulations and policies related to the employment of foreigners and to abolish, in law and practice, any legislation which creates or perpetuates racial discrimination.
“The Committee recommends the State party to counter any manifestations of xenophobia, through stereotyping or stigmatizing, of foreigners by public officials, the media and the public at large,” members wrote. The Committee has asked the Republic of Korea to inform it within 90 days of the steps it has taken. |
http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=15981&LangID=E#sthash.oDhJqYXM.dpuf
Good to hear. I wonder what Korea's response will be. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
|
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
