quote:

---

Nearly 50 English teachers from Canada have been detained, deported or investigated on allegations of visa fraud in South Korea, a country seeking to purge itself of young Westerners increasingly regarded as unqualified, unruly and unwelcome.

---

My sister taught English in Greece for years without proper documentation. She had to leave the country every six months or so, then return.

She'd go across the border to Bulgaria or where-ever, then turn around and come back.

She got caught once between two borders and spent many happy hours trying to convince someone to let her into one or the other country.

This deal in Korea could very well be related to some politician who is trying to look like a bit of a crusader.

It's true the teachers shouldn't be working there in the first place 'cause they don't have the proper paperwork, but they will have been assured they were ok, and no one was going to bother them. Otherwise they wouldn't have gone over.

quote:

---

Originally posted by Cougyr:
Globe & Mail

What's this all about? Is it just xenophobia? Or is there some behind the scenes political hanky panky?

---

While it is seemingly true that South Korea is among the more rampantly xenophobic developed nations on earth, it is also seemingly true that English "teachers" teaching without legitimate credentials is a problem. If I were a South Korean parent who found out his son was being instructed in English by a clueless Canadian kid who considers himself to be in effect there on extended vacation, and who lacks any meaningful linguistics background or language instruction expertise on arrival, I'd probably be pretty annoyed.