From the Korea Times:
Foreign envoys whose countries adopt English as an official language criticize what they call Korea's discriminative visa regulations against foreign English teachers. Korea allows English teaching or E-2 visas to only native-English speakers from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Ireland.
The envoys said the "narrow-minded'' visa policy prevents Koreans from developing English proficiency in a more efficient and cheaper way. They also argue it is against international norm of equal treatment for all.Last week, Pakistani Ambassador Murad Ali sent a letter to Justice Minister Chung Soung-jin, urging the Seoul government to allow qualified Pakistanis the English teaching visa.
Should English teachers have to be from designated English-speaking countries? Clearly, they have to speak English. But just as clearly, there are many people from countries other than those listed in the article who speak excellent English (some better than mine, no doubt). Is the distinction Korea makes a reasonable one? I haven't looked at Korea's GATS commitments to see what they say about this issue, but there were some allegations that the rules have been violated:
[Ambassador Ali] also said that the regulation violates the World Trade Organization (WTO) rules (Article II of GATS), which mandate most-favored-nation (MFN) treatment to all WTO members.
