Teacher and freelance journalist Adam Walsh thinks the AIDS test on visa applications is unnecessary.
What I found most interesting, however, is who must take the AIDS test — according to Mr. Walsh, that would be E-2 and E-6 visa applicants. Now, I think we can probably guess why Immigration thinks E-6 (”entertainer”) visa applicants should submit AIDS tests, but E-2 (”English teacher”) visa applicants? Makes you wonder what they think you’re doing here.
33 Comments
Difficult to say, but maybe AIDS tests are not the worst idea in the world.
However, the bad part of it is that it continues the Korean idea that AIDS is a “foreigners disease”.
If they really want to get serious about containing outbreaks, they would teach school kids about condoms and have campaigns to get sexually active people to use them.
It’s shocking how many Koreans don’t use condoms.
The biggest target should be the Korean men who take sex tours to very risky areas and insist on going bareback.
Well, for now, they seem content on acting as if only foreigners have or are in danger of having AIDS.
Well, more to the point is that this policy seems to assert the idea that if we just keep foriegners with HIV out of Korea, then Korea will be totally safe.
Let’s ignore the fact that AIDS is already here and a shocking number of Koreans practice usafe sex.
Let’s also ignore that many Korean sex tourists head to the Philippines, Thailand, etc. and have unprotected sex.
How many shots (or times having blood drawn) here has your “nurse” worn gloves? Forget Mad Cow ..
I’m pretty certain that to immigrate to the US, you have to be HIV negative.
I assume this is, because,
well, let’s say you ARE HIV positive.
you immigrate, you’ll most likely be using some form of aid, most likely govt money to buy your drugs for life.
that money could have been spent on sick children. Dambae penalty in the US, ring a bell?
by far and large, transmission is by ELECTIVE behaviors.
even the US doesn’t want an immigrant who’s coming in, basically to use up resources, and contribute very, very little to society.
Kind of like the Mexicans who fly in from Mexico, and use up big city US county hospitals to get very, very expensive things done. Hell yeah, they don’t pay. Unbelievably, they come in with a legit visa to visit their families in the US. And, they demand Espanol only. I guess the US did do something wrong, by defeating them in various wars, taking Texas and the Wild West from them. I always wonder what sort of things US expats living in Mexico have to say about Mexico.
I didn’t mind being tested, to be honest it is good to know that one is healthy. The curious thing was, as Big Mike suggests, the “nurse” did not wear gloves.
When I thought I had compressed the puncture long enough for it to clot, I remover the cotton swab, and rolled down my sleeve. Leaving the lab, I realized I had begun to bleed rather profusely from the puncture and turned back to the lab. My shirt and arm was covererd in blood, but once again the nurse simply cleaned me up with several swabs, no gloves again. She visably had my blood all over her fingers.
I started to wonder if I should be the one worried about her.
“Well, more to the point is that this policy seems to assert the idea that if we just keep foriegners with HIV out of Korea, then Korea will be totally safe.”
Or maybe it just to discourage people from applying for E-2 visas. In any case, I agree with the author of the article, the implications are offensive.
#5,
You should instead worry for your and the other patients’ safety if she doesn’t wash her hands thoroughly. Fact is, HIV can’t penetrate the skin unless through an open sore. You see, skin plays two major roles: it keeps moisture in and keeps foreign bodies (viruses, bacteria, and dust) out of your blood.
I can understand their wanting testing for HIV and AIDS, but why are they only requiring E2 and E6 visa applicants to get the test, and not other visa applicants, such as those for E1 visas. I know some E1 visa holders who are a lot wilder than me. In fact, everyone I know is wilder than me. This makes me suspect that there are other reasons involved, besides health reasons. Do foreigners coming to Korea on student visas also have to get the tests?
I have a feeling that this is another one of those poorly thought-out laws that I have come to expect from Korea.
I am certain no country would want an immigrant or foreign worker enter while having a sexual disease or addicted to drugs. Most E-2 holders have close contact with children.
Most responsible companies in the US demand a drug test upon hiring. Why should Korea be any different in wanting to know these details?
Why would this even be an issue?
sooo…they’re afraid E-2s will have sex with children, or do they believe that HIV can be transferred from giving hugs, or high-fives?
better get tested for cancer then. i hear if you cough on someone, they can catch The Cancer.
I don’t resent having to take a blood test for AIDS and illegal drugs for my work visa as most, if all, Western countries apply the same measures for extended-term visa applicants, prospective immigrants and/or permanent resident applicants.
What I do resent is that these tests are only required for E-2 and E-6 Visa applicants. You either apply the tests universally or not at all.
The fact that only individuals on the ‘entertainment’ and Foreign language instructor Visas need take these tests speaks volumes of Korean Immigration’s assumptions of E-2 and E-6 applicants’ character and likely activities once in Korea.
And the irony is that that fuck, Christopher Neil was on an E-1 Visa anyway.
I should be happy though, as a result of that test I not only found out I don’t have AIDS but I have fairly-high cholesterol - no more hot dogs for me!
@4: Bluejives’ hero, Fred Reed, is an American expat in Mexico and writes often in favorable terms of Mexicans and their way of life.
#11 nailed it that it is not so much the testing that is the problem, it is the selective testing.
#4, you might want to be careful about where you cast those stones at other immigrant groups. I know a lot of Koreans here who think nothing of taking a yearly vacation and/or dumping the kid/s with relatives in LA or NY and letting them go to a public school for a month or so. Bit of a drain on the taxpayers, no?
Justifying an AIDS test by virtue of teachers working closely with students is pure ignorance about what AIDS is and how it is contracted. As per the first post:
This is a very accurate assessment because AIDS already in the Korean community, in Korea. There is currently a great lack of sex education in the education system as well.
Frankly, there should be education about AIDS before any testing of visa applicants since that would save more lives by far; it is ignorance of the disease that kills rather than the foreign teachers in the midsts of Korean society.
#11 -
Is that right was Neil really on an E-1 visa? I thought
he was at a kid’s hakwon in Gwanju. Hakwon teacher’s usually roll
with E-2s. I have no idea what visa he had, but I’d think it would
have been an E-2.
By the way, when it comes to AIDS US immigration policy while
certainly not the most enlightened is a good measure less
benighted than Korea’s. You are in error when you state that
“Western countries apply THE SAME measures for extended-term visa applicants, prospective immigrants and/or permanent resident
applicants.” They’re quite different.
See below for more info:
http://www.nationalimmigration.....hivmanual/
But no dig intended and get back to me with the Neil’s real visa
status. Inquiring minds want to know.
aaronm - omg, i just remembered where i saw that avatar.
you are a bad, bad man.
#11
Is that right was Neil really on an E-1 visa? I thought
he was at a kid’s hakwon in Gwanju. Hakwon teacher’s usually roll
with E-2s. I have no idea what visa he had, but I’d think it would
have been an E-2.
By the way, when it comes to AIDS US immigration policy while
certainly not the most enlightened is a good measure less
benighted than Korea’s. You are in error when you state that
“Western countries apply THE SAME measures for extended-term visa applicants, prospective immigrants and/or permanent resident
applicants.” They’re quite different.
See below for more info:
http://www.nationalimmigration.....hivmanual/
But no dig intended and get back to me with the Neil’s real visa
status. Inquiring minds want to know.
I am fairly certain that he was not E2. That is one of the main reasons the policy was scoffed at - the measures put in place would not have stopped that guy anyways.
- he was not E2
- no prior record
- “sparkling” resume (really)
#16, So sayeth the missus and a bunch of my mates. Let me know next time you’re up for a round at Patpong or Nana Plaza.
#17 - I stand corrected on the AIDS immigration policies, I admit I assumed and didn’t really look into it.
I may well have jumped the gun of Neil’s actual Visa status and the validity of the information I heard on his status, as it may well have been false, given it came for an Internet discussion board - not the most authoritative source around.
But, I do remember a few posts on Dave’s ESL where it was mentioned that he was working at an International school in Gwangju before fleeing to Thailand. A few posters who claim to have actually known him in real-life mentioned that he worked in the Seoul/Gyeonggi area before commencing the teaching position in Gwangju. He was a certified teacher back home as well.
Just found a thread which mentions that he was actually on an E-7 Visa not an E-1 Visa as I mentioned earlier. Apparently, foreign teachers working at International schools are given E-7 Visas.
#18
I’d sure like to know. Seems strange, but then again I do know uni profs with E-2s and the qualifications for an E-1. They just didn’t know any better and filled out whatever immigration form the uni gave them.
I would say though that it’s the first time I’ve heard of an E-1 at a hakwon. Hopefully someone can settle this Neil question with a factoid before too long.
Cheers.
Being uppity foreigners who need to stop fucking their women?
John Mark Karr (people forget about him) though, he had the record. The new measures would have kept him out. Not that he was accused of anything here or found guilty of JonBenét’s murder.
#22
Take a peek Chuck Sirloin’s comment (#214) on the “US Netizens Are Saying Mean Things About Us: Yonhap” thread. It seems like everything comes back to that…
http://www.rjkoehler.com/2008/.....ent-162036
It’s a sound idea, Korean women being so loose and Korea having so little to interest foreign residents other than the huge and ubiquitous sex-for-pay industry.
Implement the test. It is simple enough and I wish my country would implement it too.
Test ALL teachers/child-workers for communicable diseases and illigal drugs if you test one.
Nobody can thus complain.
Why stop there, have them ALL psychologically evaluate and polygraphed if you have the resourses and time.
Can’t be too carefull when it come to protecting children.
I submit.
But do it to EVERYONE.
They’re unnecessary but a good idea. They should be applied universally. Thinking too much about the ‘implications’ and ‘what they really think of us’ is an exercise in self-victimisation.
#28
Exactly right. Test everyone for AIDS with any contact to the school/institute. And don’t forget a criminal check as well.
If you are going to test the foreigner teacher in the classroom,
then test the Koreans teacher in classroom. And you can’t stop there.
The bongo bus drivers, the cleaning ajumman and the door ajoshi,
the part-time girl working the phones.
If as the government alleges the measures are to protect the children
then you figure out who has the potential to hurt the children. The
answer is everyone in contact with them. (this is what they do in US schools -we don’t just test Mexican janitors). Further, it is more likely
than an abuser is Korean. The overwhelming majority of abuse of
Korean kids is by Koreans.
So #28
We are not “thinking too much about the ‘implications’ and ‘what they really think of us’” - it is a clear message that the foreigner is a threat while Koreans aren’t. There is no “self-victimisation” here.
I love this law.
Hogwon Engrish teachers, and entertainers. Hogwoners and entertainers.
Ha ha…think about it. It makes ALL THE SENSE IN THE WORLD MATEYS!
“teacher! game day today?”
A small note on the universality of blood tests. I work at a high school in Gyeonggi for the Ministry of Education. GEPIK Slave. Argh. Anyway, shortly after completing the Ministry of Immigration test (with an emphasis on TB and HIV minus the cannabis test), word came down on the annual physical checkup of all teachers for the MOE… and my co-teacher joked that I had basically done all that and I should’ve just requested a second copy of the results. Anyway since everyone else is doing it, I guess I’ll do it again… I’m not sure what all it entails, but it’s an interesting note that perhaps public school teachers get more rigorous safety checks than hogwans and other private institutes… maybe.
Seems like typical Confucian xenophobia. Like China instituting border temperature checks for foreign passport holders after the SARS crisis. Why? Because SARS is a foreign disease … oh… wait, it was invented in Guangdong wet markets. D’oh!