It appears the illegal immigration reform South Korea has implemented has had some success in reducing the number of illegal immigrants:
One out of 10 foreigners living in South Korea are illegal aliens, government data showed Tuesday.
According to the data released by the Ministry of Justice, 211,320, or 10.5 percent of the total number of foreigners living here as of end-January, are staying without a valid visa.
The number is up 1.1 percent from what was tallied the previous month, which stood at 208,971, it said.
The total shot up to 223,464 in 2007 and dropped to 177,955 in 2009. Since 2014, the number has hovered around 200,000.
The percentage of illegal aliens, meanwhile, has been declining from 12.3 percent in 2012 to 11.3 percent in 2015 and 10.2 percent in 2016 with the overall rise in the number of foreigners living here. [Korea Times]
The South Korean government implemented a program where if illegal immigrants self deported, after six months they could apply for a work visa for the prior job they were working. It seems a program like this could be something that could work in the United States as well.
I saw this question posted on to Reddit and figure I would comment on it:
I’m wondering why the foreigners who re-sign year after year until they’re past the 5+ years in Korea mark and don’t learn Korean stay in Korea? If you, after more than five years in a country you are choosing to live in, can’t have a conversation in Korean, isn’t that racist/Eurocentric? What reason would you have for not bothering to learn your host country’s language? The Bangladeshi worked in the factory has learned it, why haven’t you?
I get the “I thought I’d just be here for a year but then I re-signed,” I really do, but after five, six, seven years you’re a long-termer. [Reddit]
I don’t think it is racist to not become proficient in Korean. From the US military perspective I knew servicemembers who had many years of service in Korea and could not speak Korean. A lot of it has to do with working in an English work environment plus Korea is so English friendly as well especially around US military bases that knowing Korean is not mandatory. Getting fluent in Korean takes a lot of time and work that most people don’t have. However, many folks who have served many years in Korea do know enough Korean to get around and communicate simple things.
This Korean family is lucky their child did not drown:
A family visiting Hawaii from South Korea is grateful for the good Samaritans who helped rescue their young son from waters on Oahu’s North Shore.
Cell phone video taken Sunday just after 5:30 p.m. shows 8-year-old Ryon Kim playing in the whitewash near shore at Sunset Beach. His younger brother plays nearby. Their grandfather can be seen gesturing to Ryon, though he does not appear to realize the danger the boy is in.
Ryon attempts to leave the water, but a retreating wave knocks him over and sucks him out into the ocean. His grandfather and mother struggle to reach him and that’s when several people can be seen running in to help, including Ewa Beach native Christopher Tuncap.
“The minute I saw the second wave come, that’s when I got up and I started sprinting,” said Tuncap. [Hawaii News Now]
You can read the rest at the link plus view the cell phone video, but Oahu’s North Shore is infamous for its large waves during the winter months and is not an area for little kids to be splashing around in.
It does seem pretty weird that the pro-Park protesters are waving US and Israelis flags which have absolutely nothing to do with the corruption scandal that caused her impeachment:
Controversy is brewing over the use of U.S. and Israeli flags by supporters of the impeached President Park Geun-hye during their weekend rallies that have nothing to do with the countries.
Right-wing groups have organized these rallies to counter much-larger demonstrations demanding Park’s removal from power by the Constitutional Court.
Pro-Park counterprotesters have waved the Korean national flag, or Taegeukgi, at the rallies, which they call “Taegeukgi rallies” themselves. Lately, they have also been bringing U.S. and Israeli flags to the political events.
The participants claim it is a way to show their “patriotism,” but criticism is prevalent that the flags are being misused.
Several protesters, who are mainly in their 60s or older, have been waving the Korean and U.S. flags together in a bid to underscore the Korea-U.S. security alliance against “North Korean sympathizers.”
Some others, who call themselves devout churchgoers, have brought the Israeli flag with a wooden cross and other symbols they think can represent their faith.
But critics said Monday that such expressions may only stir up misunderstandings toward the U.S and Israel as well as Christianity.
The U.S. and Israeli embassies in Seoul were not available for comment. [Korea Times]
It looks like Paris has their own example of apparent police misconduct being used as an excuse by thugs to riot and rob:
A group of South Korean tourists in Paris were robbed of their train tickets and one passport in what appeared to be a case linked to the recent unrest over alleged police brutality, officials said Sunday.
Some 40 Korean tourists were on a bus to their hotel around 9 p.m. Saturday (local time) when three or four black men boarded the bus and fled with the tourists’ Eurostar tickets and the passport of the group’s Korean tour guide, according to officials at the South Korean Embassy in Paris.
The men shouted and brandished what appeared to be glass bottles and struck some of the tourists on their heads. The group included children and senior citizens.
An official at the embassy urged caution in the suburbs north of Paris where the hotel is located, citing safety concerns. More than 2,000 protesters gathered in the nearby suburb of Bobigny the same day to express support for a 22-year-old black man who was alleged raped and subjected to unnecessary violence by police officers during his arrest on Feb. 2. [Yonhap]
I wonder if we will see a trend of Korean pilots growing beards now:
A Seoul appeals court ruled on Wednesday that the regulation by Asiana Airlines Co., South Korea’s No. 2 flag carrier, to ban its pilots from growing facial hair is illegitimate, a ruling in favor of its employee who was barred from flying for nearly a month due to his beard.
Overturning a lower court’s decision, the Seoul High Court rejected the case filed by the flight operator in July 2015 to nullify a local labor commission’s order to compensate the pilot for what he could have earned if he was not barred from flying. He was allowed to return to the cockpit in October 2014, only after he promised to no longer grow a beard.
The pilot brought the case to the labor commission in June 2015, saying the company’s regulation that only allows foreign pilots to have beards and not for Korean nationals is unfair.
The Seoul Administrative Court had ruled in favor of Asiana Airlines in May 2016, saying flight operators can regulate workers’ outfits and looks in a wider scope than other companies considering the need to respect customers’ satisfaction and trust.
The appellate court, however, said the regulation which bans locals from growing a beard based on nationality violates the Constitution, and said it cannot acknowledge the necessity or find reasonable cause for the ban in the filed case. [Yonhap]
You can read more at the link, but Asiana Airlines rule for not allowing beards was because it creates a perception of untidiness which may effect the confidence that passengers have in the pilot.
The Joong Ang Ilbo has a pretty interesting story about a Korean-American who was deported from the US after a number of gang and drug related arrests. He turned his life around in Korea by opening a Mexican restaurant where he cooks food that his grandmother from his third foster family taught him how to cook:
Kim and his wife, Kendra Jeong, co-run El Pino 323 in Mapo District, western Seoul, a Mexican restaurant. El Pino is the name of a pine tree near his grandmother’s house; 323 is the area code of East L.A. [PARK SANG-MOON]June 18, 2002 was a momentous day for Korea. In a World Cup match held in Daejeon, the national football team defeated Italy 2 to 1, propelling it into the quarterfinals for the first time ever.
It was a momentous day for Kim Dong-hwa too – the worst in a life of continuous lows. Kim and his sister had been abandoned by their Korean mother in infancy. As small children, they were flown from Korea to the U.S. to live with a new mother and father. The adoption didn’t take. The pair bounced around, were physically and emotionally abused. Kim ended up running with a gang in East Los Angeles. In his 20s, he was convicted of gang related crimes.
Kim was expelled from the U.S. and sent to a native land he knew nothing about. He landed on the day of Korea’s victory over Italy.
Kim recalls his first glimpses of Seoul driving in from Incheon International Airport. “It was a sea of red,” he says. The national team’s uniforms were red and fans wore red to support them and celebrate.
“It was chaos here. I thought my mind was going to blow up.
I recommend reading the rest at the link because it is a great story to read about. Kim definitely did find a good nitch to open a restaurant for because Seoul has long been lacking in quality Mexican restaurants.
