With young Korean women taking advantage of Korea’s recent entry into the US Visa Waiver Program to do part-time work in the States as hostesses in Korean-style entertainment establishments in Migukland, ladies are using wheelchairs to ensure they are not rejected at the airport by US immigration officials, reports the Kukmin Ilbo.
You see, the immigration folk at US airports are apparently the world’s toughest, and 20-something women — many without jobs and leaving to do part-time/vacation work in America — have a difficult time getting through.
Unfortunately, many young women — unaware of this final barrier — think getting into Migukland would be easier thanks to the visa waiver. But while it doesn’t happen often, there are reportedly occasional cases of women going all the way to America only to be turned back at the gate.
That’s where Korean ingenuity comes in. With word of this situation spreading, some women are resorting to passing through customs in a wheelchair. This is because they can enter the country easier if they’re in a wheelchair and are carrying an old doctor’s note saying they’ve gotten an operation or treatment.
Apparently, US society goes easy on the disabled, and this is often reflected at the immigration gate, too. Oh, and the disabled can get their luggage first, too.
Ms. Yu, a 29-year-old office-worker who recently entered the United States, said she heard this story when by chance she entered the country with an early-20-something female college student in a wheelchair. As soon as the student passed through customs, she walked out of the airport quite leisurely with her friend who came to meet her. Yu said she was reminded of Kevin Spacey’s character at the end of “The Usual Suspects.”
The problem — aside from the abuse of US hospitality (if such a thing can be said of immigration officials) and flagrant violation of US immigration law… neither of which mentioned by the Kukmin Ilbo — is that most of these women are heading to entertainment establishments in America’s Koreatowns. Local Koreans, a.k.a. Korean-Americans, are concerned that the proliferation of “Korean-style entertainment culture” might harm public order and the atmosphere of American Koreatowns.
Lee Gyeong-jun, a journalist with an LA Korean media company, said that since the visa waiver, the situation has gotten so bad that people are saying LA Koreatown’s entertainment establishment are overflowing with hostesses (like that’s a bad thing). Apparently, locals refer to the girls coming in on wheelchairs as the wheelchair eonni budae.
{ 62 comments… read them below or add one }
Sorry Robert, can you point out for me clearly what the “flagrant violation of US immigration law” is in this instance? Is it a crime in any land to ride in a wheelchair with no actual medical impairment necessitating such?
It will be interesting to see how US customs reacts to bumper to bumper wheel chairs at ports of entry. But don’t they need to pass a physical inspection first? If not, they may start requiring one.
I wonder if these girls will be trying to sue the US in about fifty years for forcing them into sexual slavery?
Entry for the purpose of engaging in a criminal activity. You obviously didn’t do the rocket science curriculum.
A careful reading of the sentence will reveal that Robert wasn’t referring to the motive for entering vis-a-vis the “flagrant violation of US immigration law”.
If he was, the sentence would read something like this: “The problem — aside from the flagrant violation of US immigration law — is that most of these women are flagrantly violating US immigration law.
Doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure that one out.
To answer hamel’s question, if these ladies produced a false doctor’s note, or lied about a medical condition, I’m sure that would be a violation. But if they simply showed up in a wheelchair, without claiming any kind of medical condition, in the hope of garnering sympathy at the gate, I don’t believe that violates any written immigration policy.
This one merits a 4 week ban.
Unfortunately, I personally know 2 Korean-Americans who started 유흥 businesses in NYC with hope that this no-visa program will make them filthy rich.
Sad sad world.
Other than the second hand rumors that they just printed..
Where is this paper getting their facts from? What source? How many women have the wheel chair to successfully enter the US? Did they interview the US immigration officials? How did they come to the conclusion that US immigration officers take it easy on wheel chair people? What is the breakdown of successful entry of people with wheel chair versus the normal people? Was there any undercover work done to test US immigration?
Ah the wheelchair… Is there nothing it can’t achieve for Koreans?
“Oh, and the disabled can get their luggage first, too.”
That was hilarious.
They’re throwing George W. Bush’s gift to Koreans away.
I think Obama would have never done it. Look how he yaps about Korean cars, Korean cars, but when did you hear him complain about Americans preferring German lux cars over Buicks?
And Hyundai takes 5% of the US market. Obama is not criticizing British cars, Italian cars, Nordic cars, etc.
Objectively, it was wrong for Bush to give Koreans a visa waiver. It was a gift. It was something done for goodwill between US and Korea. It isn’t quite living Latin America a visa waiver to America, but it’s not quite EU and US doing a visa waiver.
Koreans will lose the visa waiver with a couple of stints like this. Use it wisely.
Korean Americans would be the major users of these imported prostitutes. Shame on ya’ll.
but, I’m sure Italians and Irish imported plenty of their motherland prostitutes in the early 1900′s. Mafia, too. So there is a precedent. Not sure if the Korean kangpae world is interested in Los Angeles or Flushing. I would tell them to go to Virginia and dirty the waters over there.
The waters in Virginia are already plenty dirty with illegal Korean activities, thanks:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/10/AR2009011001848.html
Hey Robert, you failed miserably on the explanation of just HOW they are taking advantage of the system. By showing up at the airport with a wheelchair does not give them a pass. They already got that! Are you suggesting that America discriminates against those who do not arrive in a wheelchair?
Even though I can’t read the Korean article, I’m guessing that the reason it was printed was to discourage Korean women from going to America to have sex with Americans.
If Korean women are already going to these extremes (for what advantage this gives them the article and/or ROBERT didn’t care to explain) then I don’t think any article will help.
wjk and tbonetylr, thanks for the comic relief.
That’s an interesting theory. What would the Korean government prefer, prostitutes remaining in Korea or the same prostitutes going to U.S.?
Or, maybe you’re just wrong and they don’t give a shit.
유흥 – thanks for the new word (for me).
I’ll bet that that’s exactly what some girls tell their eager customers….
Lots and lots of snark in this thread.
Most of these ladies of ill repute are smuggled in from Mexico and then literally “taxied” from Los Angeles to other parts of the country. It’s pretty sad.
This is one of those things that I have to see to believe. This is not a matter of “Korean ingenuity” but rather more that of gullibility on the part of Homeland Security.
Expel the foreigners!
It is my firm belief, after relationships with women of various backgrounds, that East Asian ones are by *far* the craftiest. Docile? Peaceful? Submissive? A big crock. Spousal abuse against men is probably higher than vice versa in East Asia. But don’t quote me on that.
Still…wouldn’t trade what I got for anything in the world
You sound like a paid-spokesperson raving about a product in a late night info-merical. Please help yourself to a nice hot steaming mug of STFU.
Well have fun circling the drain in sentence diagramming pedantry mode. In the meantime, the answer to the question remains that the violation of US immigration law involved is the intent to engage in criminal activity.
That was a bit crass, even for Gerry’s standards.
JW, of course the obvious answer is that the Korean govn’t. would prefer the prostitutes to stay here.
what else would they do for 삼차 after the noraebang?
Crass, and I’m not ususally a gbevers fan at all, but I thought it was pretty funny.
let’s ask a question.
if you have a Korean girl, and you are not Korean, WHY do you like the Korean?
Must be a shock for the guys who are there to greet their mail order korean brides!
Yeah, but are their establishments any good?
What does your question mean?
Are you suggesting there is some ethnic standard for how a person decides what they like? Please elaborate, this could be a boon to genetic predisposition theory.
I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be pedantic. We have enough language pedants on this blog already, but I wasn’t deconstructing a sentence per se (I’ll leave that to the English teachers and rocket scientists), rather, the logic of proposing an answer that the question specifically excludes, and then disdainfully insulting the person who posed the question.
Of course, you have to pay careful attention to understand precisely why your answer is excluded. The answer you gave is not only excluded by the original sentence, it is also excluded by the second part of hamel’s question, which narrows the scope of the first part. I’m only explaining this to you because from your response it appears that you still don’t get it.
I can only speak for the room salons since I’ve been to both in Korea and in the U.S.
They are just okay. There is greater attention to, ahem, “customer service” in Korea.
Sperwer: thanks for the questioning of my intelligence. Par for the course on this blog, I guess. The environment here seems to do it to us. For the record, I think most of your comments are on the money.
Robert: thanks for not even bothering to answer my question.
In the article I saw an allegation (K-girls using wheelchairs to get thru US immigration with kid gloves treatment) and a speculation (they are going there to engage in prostitution or other illegal activities). But I don’t see a causal link between the two, nor was it alleged that every girl fraudulently using a wheelchair was doing so for sex work purposes. So I was wondering if Robert was refering to the wheelchair scam (is it illegal?) or to the sex work (a smaller subset of the wheelchair scammers – is there proof of this?) I guess it will never be answered.
Are wheelchairs really just standing around outside airplanes for people to grab? Don’t they have to be supplied by the airline upon request? My aunt has a muscular problem and when she flew out to visit me she had to organize a wheelchair beforehand. I suppose if someone tried really hard they could get one, but I wonder how common this scam really is. Or is it another case of “media turns one anecdote into a news story”?
“Or is it another case of “media turns one anecdote into a news story”?”
And in turn, this blog propagates it as gospel for the community, not to be questioned or second guessed. Critical thinking has no place in a cult. I could hear the conversations now – “did you hear about these prostitutes that are using wheelchairs to get into the states?”, “oh yeah I did hear that somewhere, have they no shame?!”, “immigration should put a stop to this nonsense”. And so on and so on until it becomes accepted as “common knowledge”. I believe someone in another thread refered to this as “incestuous amplification” (lol).
Now God forbid a young women with a real medical issue requiring a wheelchair finds herself at the airport, wondering why all these strangers are staring at her and giving her dirty looks.
You have to wonder, how much of what is accepted as common knowledge goes unexamined around here? I remember reading a thread about fan death which was just an extended expat circle jerk of crude jokes and racist diatribes, with no signs of real insight or critical thinking. No questioning of the gospel. The sheer stupidity of this place cracks me up sometimes. What a riot.
Hamel,
I don’t know about you, but one of the things I truly love about Korea is the unique combination of cool daring and unabashed chutzpah that enables Koreans to even think up this stuff. It doesn’t make it right, of course, but still, what cajones those gals have!
It reminds me of the first Korean dude I ever knew – a university classmate who drove around in a new BMW even as he attended school on a hardship scholarship!
Cheers,
DLB
Au contraire, tiny synapses; you are the one so befuddled by your own by your own obsession with language games that you are still missing the real world point: What is the immigration violation? Entry for the purpose of criminal conduct. Carry on if you like. I’m not following you down the rabbit hole.
Hamel: My bad. You are correct; I blame the environment – it exacerbates my ingrained impatience. And thanks. BTW, it would be interesting to know if there’s any substance to these allegations.
Hamel,
Maybe this is obvious, but I think the idea was that young Korean women who might be trying to get into the US for prostitution might use a wheelchair at immigration, not to get sympathy from the officer in charge, or to qualify for an easier screening process. I think they use the chairs to pretend that they are disabled, and thus beyond suspicion for working as prostitutes, since the assumption is that a disabled woman would not work in that line of work. That was my interpretation.
DLBarch: sure I kind of admire anyone’s chutzpah in thinking up any scams. Just as I partly admire Nigerians (and now Ghanaians) for “putting one over on the former colonists” (“I go chop your dollar” in their parlance) for doing what they do. But as I sat on the subway yesterday I thought about fake beggars – you know, we’ve all heard stories about “blind” people who could see and cripples with good legs – and I thought how on the one hand they were inventive and just doing what they could to make a buck, but on the other hand how the net effect of that is that it erodes public trust.
On the streets of Melbourne, where I once lived, I have heard so many fantastic stories about why someone is without money and they need it from me, that I am no longer prepared to trust ANYBODY. And that is quite sad. Has the day arrived when we look at all people in wheelchairs wondering who really needs it? Gosh I hope not. Anyway, that’s my soapbox bit for today.
Sperwer: no worries.
tinyflowers: sure, we do need to avoid bandwagon jumping and question assumptions, etc. It’s a worthwhile thing to do. That’s what brought us this far in the conversation. Life is a whole lot more complex than we think. Circle jerks feel good, as long as you are not the one who has to eat the soggy cracker at the end of it.
On a related note, I was talking to someone from USFK PA the other day, about that “Koreans going to DODS schools who shouldn’t be” and he pointed out the obvious, that if a kid is legally adopted by a USFK person, how can the school question that adoption and deny the child enrolment in the school? I bring that up here because I recall thinking at the time that story came out that it was simply a beat-up: rumor presented as some kind of national trend. The only surprising bit was that it was put forward by a Korean “journalist” and not some kind of angry expat blogger.
By the way, speaking of which, here is your angry expat KTimes letter of the week:: http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/opinon/2009/02/137_39708.html Gosh it made me laugh. Some people take it all too seriously…
P.S. I think it’d be nice to have a Marmot’s hole meet-and-beer session one day. Of course, just the sensitive, thoughtful commenters. [wink]
dokdoforever: I understand what you are saying, but doesn’t it assume that ONLY women who intend to engage in paid sex work in the US are resorting to the ol’ Verbal Kent scam?
Perhaps he rails on Korean auto imports because they are dumped into the US market. I haven’t heard that the Nordic, Italian, German, and British cars you are talking being dumped. Stop playing the victim card.
Anyway, aren’t you banned? Log off.
“You see, the immigration folk at US airports are apparently the world’s toughest,”
If by toughest, you mean, in general, a group of rude, asshole-acting, incompetent fucktards, then I am in full agreement.
Nowhere in the world that I travel to or through am I treated as despicably as in my home country of Americana. Scam on, brave young ladies. You’ll make it through no problem because immigration will be too busy hassling my native-born-and-raised ass to bother with you. The “authorities” call it “homeland security,” and it works very much in your favor.
If what’s been reported is true, this image (NSFW) shows how Arrivals might look in the near future.
The real problem with this post is that it tars all disabled East Asian looking women entering the states as potential prostitutes – an inherently racist presupposition. And all this based on a poorly researched article in an obscure newspaper that is very likely to be untrue.
Be honest, next time you arrive at an airport in the states, and you see a young Asian women in a wheelchair, what will go through your head? Maybe that image linked to by the child in the above commment? You will look at them differently as a result of this post. This community really has no shame.
“You have to wonder, how much of what is accepted as common knowledge goes unexamined around here? I remember reading a thread about fan death which was just an extended expat circle jerk of crude jokes and racist diatribes, with no signs of real insight or critical thinking. No questioning of the gospel. The sheer stupidity of this place cracks me up sometimes. What a riot.”
You could say the same about Korea and Koreans if you just replaced the words “fan death” with “US beef imports” and “expat” with “Korean”.
But at least there aren’t hundreds of thousands of expats rioting in Seoul, assaulting police officers and burning their buses, causing massive traffic problems, demanding that young Korean girls not be allowed into the US.
tinyflowers, if I’m a child, then blessed be youth. To me, this topic’s not serious at all. Does it have to be, because you think so?
Moreover, why does ‘this community’ lack a sense of shame as a result of this post? Clearly, the thread shows differences of opinion, and in any case, some regular posters haven’t even posted here at all. You wrote that this post ‘tars’ an entire group as a result of what may only be anecdotal evidence. Aren’t you also guilty of leveling a judgement against too broad a group – The Marmot’s Hole, and all who post on it – as a result of what’s been posted by only a few persons here?
This blog hardly commands the force of change you described above. Airports will continue to function as they have, and travellers will continue to be received in the same manner as before, no matter what gets blogged about here. In any event, you shouldn’t presume to know what others will come to think as a result of it.
Yes yes, we’re all guilty of judging an entire group of people based on the (unsubstantiated, in this case) actions of a few individuals. That was my entire point. And yes, I’m guilty of doing the same, I should have said “some people” have no shame. But that hardly changes the substance of my point.
And I never said that airports will function differently as a result of this post, just that perceptions will by influenced, sometimes in subtle but harmful ways.
That is of course, a predictable response, simply to reverse the situation. But you’ve been beaten to the punch. If you were paying attention you might have noticed the ironic tinge in my rant about unthinking expats partaking of the Kool-aid.
In any case your scenario with the rioting expats is so stupid it defies description.
What I really love is that the pseudo-legitimate Korean newspaper (aptly titled “Cookie Tokk Tokk News”) is accepted as true on face when the article is about Korean prostitutes in US…
From the same section of the news, apparently there is an international firestorm of popularity for the Wonder Girls that’s overtaking the world from young to old. Why? Because apparently there are about 80,000 youtube clips about the Wonder Girls. Oh man, Korean Wave, huh?
“Yu said she was reminded of Kevin Spacey’s character at the end of “The Usual Suspects.”
It wouldn’t fool me. I noticed that he switched hands before shooting one of his victims in the opening scene of the movie (left hand to right hand if I remember correctly). Being ambidextrous, I immediately came to the conclusion that Kevin Spacey’s left-handed character was the one.
That’s ludicrous. While it might be true in your case, we’ve no way of (nor, perhaps, any interest in) knowing for sure. I’ll simply remind you of something I mentioned before: you shouldn’t presume to know what others will come to think. That was the substance of my point above.
If you really believe that this blog possesses the ability to subtly change the perceptions of all who read it, why not create another blog, one with opposing views, to counter its effect? In any case, given your beliefs, you shouldn’t spend much more time here.
She’s my wife so I’m under orders to like her!!
gbnhj,
While it is impossible to know what others will think as a result of this post, if the trackback at the bottom of the page, which loudly proclaims “Korean Prostitutes Smuggled into America By Wheelchair” is any indication, the meme is spreading in exactly the manner I described. In the linked blog post, the author states “the next time I’m at LAX, I will have to keep my eyes open for an inordinate amount of women in wheelchairs”. So there it is for everyone to see. A perfect example of the incestuous amplification of unsubstantiated racist hearsay.
How ironic that in another recent post, expats are bitching and moaning about how racist it is for them to be labelled druggies and STD carriers (which probably has more basis in truth than the story about the wheelchair sex workers). The sad part is the shameless hypocrisy of (some people in) this community. The funny part is that you are completely oblivious to it.
Aye, a good product at that. I guess you’re one of those Koreans that get real steamy at the sight of a foreigner with a Korean girl, huh? Not like it makes a difference, and it’s ironic that for what you’re criticizing me of, you’re simply copying word-for-word redundant old internet phrases.
kookmin ilbo is not an obscure paper.
kuki news is not fake news.
oh, the dumbness here is beyond what I care to correct.
I’ll leave it to someone else to do that.
Good point you’ve made there.
Tinyflowers makes a good point. However I would like to draw attention to another assumption that appears common here and that is the ludicrous idea that women in wheelchairs would make good prostitutes. One of my boyfriends lost the use of both of his legs in a work accident and was confined to a wheelchair and I cannot stress how difficult it was to have sex. In fact the effect on our sexlife was one of the main reasons we eventually broke up. That and his cheating with my then best friend.
One word for you, sister. Cowgirl.
I think I got your meaning just fine. I was assuming – for argument’s sake – that your unsubstantiated claims about commenters here, (and in particular the expat) were in fact true. My intent in throwing in the rioting expat blurb was to contrast the reactions by each of the offended parties, to the perceived offense by the respective offender.
Or, to put it in simplee terms –
SCENARIO 1: unsubstantiated claims about tainted US beef = violent riots in Seoul.
vs.
SCENARIO 2: unsubstantiated rumors of young Asian girls (presumed to be prostitutes) using wheelchairs to better evade US immigration = a few snarky remarks on some blog.
In any case, I’ve been looking around and noticed you comment quite often here. I’m envious of all the free time you seem to have. But, given the subject matter of this particular posting, don’t you think you’re taking it a little too seriously?
You have some traveling to do, then… While I have been faced with assholes at US borders, including a Papito Brother in Hawai’i whom I am not yet ready to forget and forgive, 15 years later, I have also met nice, friendly people. And as for despicable behavior, I have met more assholes at Japanese and Korean borders than in the US.
dda, there you are! When you have a chance, could you update the greasemonkey script, please? I haven’t changed any settings, but since wjk’s reinstatement a few days ago, the filtering isn’t working anymore. Thanks!
did you make that just for this?
crass, but talented.
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