The Globe and Mail article

The following is a link to a very interesting article in The Globe and Mail that a lot of people have been referring me to. I've also attached a comment that I posted on the website later that day.

Basically, there's been a round-up of teachers who are working illegally in Korea using forged visas and degrees to get jobs here. There's a lot of debate going about whether the article demonizes Koreans, or whether the response from other legally-working teachers in Korea has been too harsh. I definitely am one in the second group, as I have no sympathy who cries when they are caught for breaking the law.

If you do decide to read the article, I should point out: at no point have Jessie or I ever been called "white devils" or treated poorly. The people have been extremely patient with us, considering we came to their country knowing absolutely nothing of their language, and now rely on their kindness to get by day-to-day. Aside from being made to stay in Yeongam with the expectation that we would illegally tutor outside school, everything is peachy. But that is hardly their fault, the last english teacher tutored illegally, so why would they expect different of us?

Here's the link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20051010/
KOREA10/TPInternational/?query=korea

Here is the comment I posted after reading the article and stewing for a while.

If a Canadian is forging documents in order to get a work visa, or working illegally in Korea without a work visa at all, is that not the real issue? These people are breaking immigration law and staying in another country to work with children. Ignoring any other allegations of drug use or trafficking, this is a pretty serious offense. It's pretty easy to say that Koreans are being xenophobic and over-reacting, but what if we imagined the reverse situation? If a Korean person had fraudulent documents in order to work as a teacher in Canada would we not demand that they be held accountable for that illegal act? If a person comes to Korea with the intention breaking the law, they should realize the consequences. Is it being inhumane to arrest and deport people for breaking the law? There's no report of any serious abuses in this article. Putting too many people into a cell is not nice, but it is hardly extreme. If people were caught working in schools with fraudulent visas in Canada, would they be put up in the Royal York before being deported? No. My girlfriend and I are Canadians who have been made to feel very welcome as legal teachers in Korea, and we work in a very small farming community where we are two of the very few Westerners to have ever lived. We both worked very hard to make sure that all our documentation was proper, so this is a situation that we have a hard time sympathizing with. Canadians who defraud the system make it harder for honest people to find good jobs with decent employers here. It seems likely that the xenophobia is being contributed to by people like these, who forge their documents in order to work illegally in Korea.

Hope your days are going well and are arrest-free. Mine is. BECAUSE I WORK LEGALLY.