Tag: foreigners

Here are some interesting statistics provided by the Korean government:

Around eight in 10 foreigners in Korea say they are satisfied with life here, data showed on Wednesday. 

In its 2022 survey aimed at analyzing the quality of life in Korea, Statistics Korea said 40.8 percent of the respondents said they were “extremely satisfied” with life in Korea while another 39.6 percent responded they were “a little satisfied.”

Meanwhile, nearly one out of every five foreign residents of Korea has experienced discrimination in the midst of an increase in the foreign population. The data showed that 19.7 percent of the 25,000 foreign residents responded that they had faced discrimination in the previous year.

The level of discrimination was “minor” in general, with 37.6 percent of the respondents saying they experienced discrimination at stores, restaurants and banks.

Another 34.1 percent said they experienced discrimination at workplaces while another 32.2 percent picked streets and neighborhoods. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Why doesn’t this person just take their business to another bank instead of expecting the bank to completely upgrade their software to accommodate them:

A local bank’s refusal to open an account for a foreigner with a long name is discriminatory, South Korea’s human rights watchdog said Monday.

The move came 13 months after a foreigner filed a petition with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea for being rejected by the bank to open a bank account for a self-employed business on the grounds of a long name.

The bank said its computing system allows up to 20 characters for the names of a client and his or her shop to open a business account, regardless of the nationality of a client.

The bank said it is possible to improve its system to ensure a client’s name can exceed 20 characters, but it is considering upgrading the system when it builds a next-generation computing system due to costs.

The rights commission said it is difficult to say that the bank directly discriminated against the client for being a foreigner, but the bank’s refusal constitutes “indirect discrimination” if it caused a great disadvantage to a certain group of people and an individual.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link, but the article says their were five other major South Korean banks with the software to handle the long name.

For some expats living in Seoul you may be getting a check from the City of Seoul soon:

Foreigners living in Seoul will receive a one-time Covid-19 relief payment, a city official confirmed Wednesday.  

During a plenary session Tuesday, the Seoul Metropolitan Council passed a supplementary budget bill that included plans to allocate 33 billion won ($27.4 million) for a program to dole out emergency funds to foreigners.  

But the city has been light on basic details, including the timing and payment amounts.  

Seoul’s decision to provide Covid-19 emergency payments to foreigners came less than a month after Korea’s human rights watchdog, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, issued a policy recommendation to the metropolitan government of Seoul and the provincial government of Gyeonggi not to discriminate against foreigners when providing Covid-19 relief. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

I had a cab driver do this to me before and I got out and thanked him for the free ride after recording his driver information:

A taxi driver has been fined for overcharging British passengers. 

According to police, the driver picked them up at the International Passenger Terminal in Busan Port on Wednesday morning, drove about two kilometers with the meter off and charged 20,000 won ($18), nearly four times the proper fare. 

When the passengers told their Korean guide about the incident, the guide reported the driver to the tourist police, a special unit committed to handling complaints from foreign visitors. 

Police confirmed the offense after looking at the vehicle’s dash cam and CCTV footage. The driver admitted he had overcharged the passengers.

Korea Times

I wonder how much the fine was? I doubt it was enough to discourage taxi drivers from continuing this activity.

I don’t find this survey very helpful when the term discrimination is not defined.  I have not been picked up by taxi cabs before, is that discrimination?:

One of out of every five foreigners in South Korea suffer discrimination, due mainly to their nationalities, government data showed Wednesday.
The data compiled by Statistics Korea showed that 21.2 percent of 1.3 million foreigners said they were discriminated by South Koreans. 
Among them, 60.9 percent said they were discriminated on the basis their nationality, while 25.7 percent said they faced discrimination on the grounds of their lack of Korean language proficiency.
The data showed 6.6 percent cited appearance and 2.6. percent pointed to occupation as the reasons behind discrimination.
The statistics agency did not provide details on the nationalities of foreigners who they said were discriminated against.

Yonhap

English teachers in Korea got to experience recently “Don’t Molest Students” training and they did not like it:

Foreign English teachers across Gyeonggi Province woke up extra early on Saturday, Oct. 20, many before sunrise, to attend a seminar they were told was mandatory. The seminar, held in the remote provincial town Icheon, started at 8:30 a.m., requiring many teachers from the far-flung corners of the province to find their own way there, as they had to leave before public transportation opened.

Joe McPherson, a longtime resident of Korea on an F-5 permanent resident visa, was up at 6 a.m., leaving behind his Korean wife and children in Gimpo and driving his car to what he called the “Dirty Foreigner Seminar.”

“This isn’t about career enrichment,” said McPherson, a restaurateur and owner of a successful tourism company who teaches on the side to make ends meet. “It’s because of the stereotype that we’re all sexual deviants.”  (…………………..)

Throughout the talks, attendees were reminded numerous times not to sexually harass students, although little instruction was given on what sexual harassment was and how to avoid it.

“This reinforces the stereotype that foreigners are by nature potential sexual predators and drug fiends,” McPherson said. “Do teachers really need to be told that molesting children is wrong?”  [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link if you want a good laugh for the day.

GIs have been dealing with shady landlords for decades, but in my opinion things have actually improved though it appears foreign students are now a bigger target:

International students here are increasingly falling victim to real estate-related fraud.

In one case, a Vietnamese student, 28, didn’t get her room deposit of 5 million won back because her landlord said she didn’t pay any monthly rent. But she claimed she paid six months’ rent in a lump sum but didn’t receive a receipt.

“The real estate procedure is complicated for international students,” one Chinese international student, surnamed Jing, told Dong-A Ilbo. “And it is harder to understand the jargon when they speak in Korean.”

Foreign students, now numbering 120,000 here, often fall victim to the fraud.

The paper cites four types. The first is a makeshift contract. Instead of a standard template contract, the landlords arbitrarily draw up one that does not protect the rights of foreign tenants.

The second is the cash transaction.

The third is the imposition of repair costs on the tenants. In the second and third cases, the landlord tries to take advantage of the foreign students’ inability to speak Korean or lack of related knowledge.

The fourth is a conflict when a student sublets a room to another tenant without a contract, which a landlord can use as an excuse to eject the tenants.  [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Thai tourists pose behind a welcome sign set up at Myeongdong Street in downtown Seoul on April 25, 2018. The Seoul city has launched the 2018 Spring Welcome Week for foreign tourists, which will last until May 6. (Yonhap)

Here are how police in Daegu are hoping to help prevent crime by foreign workers in Daegu:

Daegu Seobu Police have been cooperating with foreigners to jointly patrol areas where crimes by foreigners often occur.

On Wednesday, 16 members of Seo-gu Bisan 7-dong voluntary crime prevention group joined police patrols.

The area around Bukbu Bus Terminal where many foreigners hang out was their target area.

The crew included seven foreigners ― one Sri Lankan, one Chinese, three Pakistanis and two Bangladeshis.

“Bisan 7-dong around Bukbu Bus Terminal is one of the areas with a high density of foreigners. Crimes involving foreigners take place frequently,” inspector Kim Dong-sik said.   [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Korean TV channel asks: why are you stupid foreigners (Benedict Cumberbatch, Anne Hathaway, Keanu Reeves) coming here and doing a namaste to us? Is this your standard “oriental” greeting? https://t.co/6gHOTXMPGf

— Anna Fifield (@annafifield) April 16, 2018