(Port) Coquitlam Odysseus

Over at the Marmot’s Hole, Robert Koehler, drawing on a the work of GI Korea has just published ground-breaking survey of foreign English teachers arrested in Korea for drug offenses.

Among the highlights:

“As of August 2006, there were 4,598 Canadian E-2 visa holders. Even if we were to round the number of Canadians up to 5,000, the number comes out to one drug-related arrest for every 185 Canadian English teachers. That, friends, is an ugly number, especially compared with 1 out of 5,480 Koreans.”

This number of 1 drug offense per 185 Canadian E-2 visa (the visa required to teach English in South Korea) holders intrigues me. Where I live in the greater-Vancouver area, I would guess that the the vast majority of Caucasians (who make up the vast majority of foreign English teachers in Korea) use or have used marijuana regularly. One might extrapolate from there the number of Caucasian undergraduate degree-holders (a requirement for the E-2) who use cannabis, although I suspect it would be somewhat lower. Of course, this is comparing apples and oranges to some extent: the Korean statistics are for drug offenses, and I am talking about drug use. Also, the statistics on the Korean side mention Canadians in general, while BC-ers have (I think) the highest rates of cannabis-use in Canada. Even so, it would appear to me that while that 1:185 ratio is quite awful, Korean Immigration is actually doing a a good job of ferreting out most of the white trash.
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On a related note, I cannot understand why so many foreign English teachers are balking at the requirement that they submit criminal record checks to Korean authorities. In Canada, this is standard fare for those working (and often even for those merely volunteering) with children. This was a smart move by the Korean immigration authorities, although perhaps the manner of implementation (without adequate warning), coupled with several really obtuse moves by Korean Immigration, is what is really irking the foreign English teachers there.