Yeah, But Do They Like Vegemite?

by Robert Koehler on March 17, 2008

in Korean Diaspora

Some 28,000 Koreans are on “working holiday” in Australia, making them the second largest holders of working holiday visas in Australia after the British.

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1 Baek du Boy March 17, 2008 at 4:07 pm

Most Koreans live in the city centre in Sydney 8 or 9 to a two bedroom apartment illegally rented of course from a Korean landlord. They eat Korean food, watch Korean dramas on their laptop and hangout in pc cafes, coffee shops and Korean hoffs. Very few make friends with locals. Many work for Korean/japanese restaurants or coffee shops or other odd jobs and get paid in cash at a lower than legal hourly rate, but come off about even as they don’t pay tax (but they work holidays at normal rates and hove no legal protection).

Some Koreans actually travel around the country and try and work on a farm for a visa extension…girls don’t usually last long on the farms.

Without generalising too much, I guess the reverse is true, most foreigners want to live in Seoul, hangout in Itaewon and eat fried chicken and pizza and watch AFN. Many teachers work illegally in Korea also.

Tit for tat I guess.

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2 JohnT March 18, 2008 at 7:52 am

Yeah, but Koreans think no one has the right to work illegally in Korea.

It’s ok for Koreans to do it in any country they want though.

In 2005, according to a report in the Korea Times if memory serves, the Korean government estimated that upwards of 450,000 Koreans were residing in the US alone…WOW!!!

Yet Koreans dare complain about a handfull of illegals here.

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3 Baek du Boy March 18, 2008 at 11:04 am

I once read (about 2 years ago) there are 500,000 Koreans in LA and 300,000 in Vancouver. This may also include nationalised citizens.

Can’t name a source for this info though.

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4 choiboi March 18, 2008 at 5:40 pm

I live in Central Sydney and trust me, it isn’t just those handful (in the thousands) of Koreans who illegally work here by evading tax. In fact, I’d argue that the vast majority of casual workers employed in take-away restaurants in Sydney are doing the same.

Moreover, although most of what Baekdu Boy has said is absolutely true with regards to Korean working holiday makers (워홀) in Australia, I must note that in most cases, their hourly rates do not come off even when they don’t pay tax.

Some of my friends working in Korean restaurants in the city get paid $6/hour which is about half of what they are legally entitled to. But they work there anyway because no one else would employ them due to their poor English skills.

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5 Baek du Boy March 19, 2008 at 10:14 am

$6 an hour!! wow..they must be deperate. I heard friends say they make about 10-12 an hour.
I remember working at coles as a student around 1999, I was getting paid $18 on a sunday, 23 odd dollars on holidays.

Tell your friend working for $6 on a sunday or holiday he/she is being robbed. Yeah..the English skills is a big factor. They’d do alright on a farm for 3 months but many can’t seem to stand it. (not that I’d really enjoy that either).

Yeah agreed, not just Koreans. This might be why my tax is so high! Or maybe it’s those ‘professional’ surfers up in Byron bay and the Gold coast.

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