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Media reports said that the teachers were being detained or deported as part of a South Korean crackdown on illegal workers. Officials put the number of English teachers working legally in South Korea at 7,800, including hundreds of Canadians. The number of those working without the necessary documentation is believed to be around 20,000 in over 5,000 schools.
The Canadian Foreign Affairs Department is reportedly monitoring the situation had has confirmed that at least 35 Canadian teachers had been deported after being detained. Some reports put the number of teachers being detained at 150. Many of those being detained were apparently hired by recruiters who were turning a blind-eye to official requirements in South Korea. The Immigration carckdown follows what is being described as growing resentment towards foreign teachers which was fuelled in part by a documentary on Korean television that depicted foreigners as lazy and unqualified. The Asian Pacific Post reported last March that Canadian English teachers were among the main targets of the growing resentment after the TV show painted a picture of foreigners in South Korea as an assortment of high-school dropouts, losers, drug peddlers and pedophiles. This triggered a homegrown campaign urging foreigners to leave South Korea. Another flashpoint for the anti-western sentiment in South Korea was a website set up to help Western English teachers find jobs. Featured on the site was a forum dedicated to Seoul‘s social life which also organised parties where Westerners and local girls drank, danced and flirted. Koreans got wind of the site, hacked it, and brought it down. The Seoul Times said that a local Yahoo-style portal named Daum has also set up a petition to rid South Korea of “low-grade Westerners.“ The paper said in an increasingly nationalistic South Korea, civic groups, local government, and on and off-line communities react fast to any perceived sleight on their nation. Other media that have angered South Koreans include the BBC which lampooned Korean cars as “fridge like” in their design. The popular US TV show Lost was also heavily criticized after it was accused of perpetrating negative stereotypes of Korean men. Even Oprah Winfrey couldn‘t escape criticism after she accused Korean women of being obsessed with plastic surgery. The South Korean government has denied the immigration crackdown is aimed at Westerners teaching English. | ||||||
