This is odd — the Philippine Star reports that there are some 240,000 Korean nationals in the Philippines, but only a sixth of them are properly documented. Apparently, most of the illegals are involved in retail businesses in major cities.
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16 Comments
How is it the Philippines get the entrepreneurs while others just get whores? Or is that phase two of their cunning plan?
And $2.5 million required to set up a retail business in the PI?!
What a dumb nation. Anyone who has visited Philly knows that it badly needs foreign investment, business know how and creation of new sources of productivity. So first they protest the American military and the Americans react by closing its bases that cause massive pain and suffering upon the Philly economy. No wonder they can’t get out of their own self-made economic cesspool of crap!
How is this “odd” Marmot? Korean nationals have as much respect for the rule of law in the Philippines as they do in the ROK.
If the US makes the epic mistake of extending the visa waver program to Korea So-Cal will face a situation similar to the one in the Philippines.
This is just they way ROK Koreans are. They have little respect for anything, other than their own, tiny circle of family and (useful) friends.
“This is just they way ROK Koreans are. They have little respect for anything, other than their own, tiny circle of family and (useful) friends.”
First of all, let me say that your statement is a sweeping generalization and just plain out wrong. Second of all, do YOUR countrymen have any respect for anything other than their own, tiny circle of family and friends? I am an American, and I live in America. I see how Americans take care of their own (which is a good thing in my opinion); I see how many Americans treat non-Americans, particularly illegal immigrants (and whether that is a bad thing or not is up to debate). But I also encountered MANY Americans living in Korea and working illegally (namely teaching ESL illegally)….so my point is, 1) DON’T make a sweeping generalization of Koreans….and 2) don’t say or imply that Koreans are this uniquely screwed up people who have no concern for other country’s laws because the actions of other nationalities living in Korea often was MUCH to be desired in terms of the breaking of Korean law.
I agree with a bit that JK says, but when 83% (conservatively) are flouting the law perhaps a sweeping generalization is acceptable.
JK - I don’t agree with Tambe, but I think he is actually throwing out a slightly different generalization that would still be consistent with your comment.
In terms of Koreans taking care of their own, “their own” strictly refers to their own circle, people they actually know, to the exclusion of strangers (even if they are Korean). [This is a common criticism of other Asian cultures too, like the Chinese, where you respect no one except those within your own "guanxi" circle.]
Whereas in your example of Americans taking care of their own, “their own” in that case is the American people. This is an idea that Americans are generally nice to other Americans, but are totally xenophobic when it comes to outsiders. The dividing line in the US tends to be race rather than family or social circles.
Either way, I think the generalizations are overbroad and unhelpful, but lets at least get our generalizations straight when we’re arguing over them.
caliboy888,
I appreciate your calm reply to me…but I don’t think I was wrong to correct exactly what tambe said about ROK Koreans, who I quoted before responding to.
I received a great deal of help and aid from “ROK Koreans” when I lived in Korea. They were either colleagues or those I became friends with (and to whom I was not “useful”). I will always appreciate what they did for me. I also got SCREWED a few times by Koreans. But I met more helpful Koreans than anything. So I responded to tambe’s remark. How is this inconsistent in any way with what he said?
Corruption is a problem over there. One big scandal was that some Korean developers were apparently allowed to build a gated community on land that wasn’t even theirs.
Sorry, but I had the misfortune of spending a couple years in Korea. The vast majority of them do not give two shits about the rule of law at all. They only care about their little circles. Koreans (ROK Koreans) do not follow the rule of law.
The ROK is an industrialized nation that pumps out tens of thousands of illegal immigrants (or law-breaking legal ones) to virtually every Western (and many non-Western) nations. They do not have respect for sets of laws or institutions regardless of where they are.
When 5/6 are breaking the law in one country alone, a generalization isn’t a generalization but supported fact.
It does make the South Korean media’s obsession with the ‘low quality English teachers’–all 10 000 of the ones who are here without proper documentation–seem petty xenophobic nonsense…not that it excuses these ‘teachers” lack of proper documentation, of course.
“This is just they way ROK Koreans are. They have little respect for anything, other than their own, tiny circle of family and (useful) friends.”
JK:
I understand that you feel angered by Tambe’s sweeping generalisation - but I must confess, although I am really trying not to generalise, that I believe that the attitude described is, indeed, prevalent not only in the ROK but in all countries the cultural foundations of which are based on Confucianist principles. Because these principles emphasise the well-being of the group at the expense of the position of outsiders.
In Western countries the opposite principle rules - outsiders are usually at an advantage:
Germans are full of scorn for their own white underclass and would never spare a dime for these people except under compulsion from the tax system - but they are, without hesitation, willing to donate enormous amounts of money for the poor in Africa, South / South East Asia and in Latin America…
Another example:
Recently I took a city bus in my place of residence. A black man got on at the same time. The driver asked him to show his ticket (he is allowed though not obliged to make random checks), and it turned out that the passenger had no ticket. Thus he was requested to pay a fine (appr. $30,-) for boarding the bus with a fraudulent intent, as it is set out in the Public Transport Code. If passengers who have been trying to board a bus without a ticket are unable to pay this fine or to provide proper identification (so that their data can be registered and the fine can be enforced later), the police will be called.
However, before the driver could take any further action, about half a dozen other passengers (who all had tickets and who all were white) got up from their seats, went to the front of the bus and threatened him with violence in case he really tried to enforce the penalty. The driver felt intimidated and did not proceed any further. They would never have done anything the like for a white person…
While I do not actually condone the actions of these people, I nevertheless found this scene infinitely more appealing than the behaviour of the average ROK citizen who would have done just the opposite…
On occasion I myself also take advantage of the fact that my skin is darker than usual here - though never in the context of evading fines.
Could be phase two, since Korean entrepreneurs need, er, entertainment as much as, if not more than, anyone….
Could be also that the local offer of, er, for-hire, young and not-so-young, ladies [and I am not talking about housemaids], is more than plentiful — that is, if places like Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur is anything to go by.
11 Fantasy, was he allowed to sit in the front of the bus?
“In our records, only 40,000 Koreans have visas and permits and around 90,000 have pending applications. Now the others are illegal aliens. They are the usual tourists who extend their stay here without even bothering to register with the bureau,” explained Hussin.
The BI official stressed this number of undocumented Korean nationals could even be much lower than the actual figure, considering the continuous influx of Koreans in the country. The bureau has earlier estimated some 600,000 of them arrive here every year.
So BI is saying a little less than half are illegal aliens, not 5/6 “breaking the law”, and that number “could even be much lower”.
But that headline… maybe the Philippine media is treating this issue the same way the Korean media treats English teachers and GIs.
#13, Railway:
“Fantasy, was he allowed to sit in the front of the bus?”
I guess he would have been had he insisted.
He preferred to get off the bus, though. He seems to have been worried whether the driver would change his mind again. I do, however, not believe that there was any such danger as long as the other passengers remained on the bus, as well. The driver was clearly not willing to put up a fight over this…
Aren’t whores entrepeneurs!