The Rise and Fall of E-2-visa HIV testing in South Korea, 1988 - 2017

Or, how a "Citizens' Group" worked with news media and police to tar foreign English teachers as AIDS threats and convinced a government ministry to require HIV tests for them, and how these were challenged at the national level (which failed) and then at the international level, which ultimately led to them being rescinded. 

Some of this material exists elsewhere on this blog, scattered about (or as parts of other series), while most of the new posts (parts 5-10, 11-12) expand on previous posts by translating various articles, in particular the TV news reports from July 2007. I translated these almost five years ago but just never got around to posting them. Considering the work I put into it back then, I decided I might as well post it all and gather it all together. (This will also convince me to finish my 1988 Olympics series, the conclusion of which ties directly into HIV testing of foreigners.) Elements of this research appeared in this 2012 Journal of Korean Law article written with Benjamin Wagner: "HIV/AIDS Tests as a Proxy for Racial Discrimination? A Preliminary Investigation of South Korea’s Policy of Mandatory In-Country HIV/AIDS Tests for its Foreign English Teachers".

This (for now) collects the series together; once Part 2 is finished I'll place this 'table of contents' at the top of each post.

  The Rise and Fall of E-2-visa HIV testing in South Korea, 1988 - 2017

Part 1: The 1988 Olympics and Korean fears of AIDS
Part 2: HIV testing for foreigners in the aftermath of the 1988 Olympics (unfinished)
Part 3: Anti-English Spectrum begins to link foreign English teachers to AIDS (2006)

Part 4: "Tracking [down] blacklisted foreign teachers suspected of having AIDS" (2006)

Part 5: Using their own articles, Anti English Spectrum petitions for E-2 visa changes (2006)

Part 6: The Chosun Ilbo: "White English instructor threatens Korean woman with AIDS" (2007)

Part 7: News reports on arrest of instructor link him to 'AIDS threat' (2007)

Part 8: Police, SBS and KBS highlight instructor's 'AIDS threat' while KBS interviews AES (2007)

Part 9: Drug arrests, the case of Christopher Paul Neil, and AES's invitation to an Immigration policy meeting (2007)

Part 10: "Illegal native speaking instructors will no longer be tolerated": the E-2 policy memo is issued (2007)

Part 11: Challenging the E-2 requirements by petitioning the NHRCK (2009)

Part 12: Anti-English Spectrum's response to the NHRCK petition (2009)

Part 13: Bill 3356 attempts to legislate HIV and drug tests for all foreign workers (2009)

Part 14: The battle over HIV tests for foreign English teachers (2009-2010)

Part 15: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon urges E-2 visa HIV tests be dropped (2010)

Part 16: The ROK lifts all HIV testing of foreigners... except for E-2 visa holders (2010)

Part 17: The Constitutional Court rules on the Vandom case (2011)

Part 18: MBC’s “Shocking report on the realities of relationships with foreigners” brings up HIV (2012)

Part 19: Journal of Korean Law article about HIV testing of foreign teachers (2012)

Part 20: Mandatory HIV Testing Policy Challenged at the International Level (2012)

Part 21: Press release regarding the CERD case (2012)

Part 22: CERD case (and other) updates  (2012)

Part 23: Preliminary results of the foreign teacher HIV testing survey (2013) 

Part 24: Korea Herald asks "Is HIV testing of foreign teachers here to stay?" (2013) 

Part 25: HIV and drug testing for Korean Government Scholarship Program applicants (2014)

Part 26: CERD rules that HIV tests for foreign teachers in Korea are discriminatory (2015)

Part 27: NHRCK recommends ROK government stop mandatory HIV testing of foreign English teachers (2016) 

Part 28: APHA urges UNAIDS to revoke ROK’s status as a country with no HIV-related travel restrictions (2017)

Part 29: Justice Ministry announces it has ended HIV tests for English teachers (2017)

Part 30: Yonhap: Controversy over discrimination prompts Korea to stop E-2 HIV tests (2017)

Part 31: Fringe Christian anti-gay group opposes ending HIV tests for E-2s (2017)

A selection of related articles and series:

The French foreign language teacher scandal of 1984

A brief history of scapegoating English teachers in Korea (1990s - 2007)

A collection of newspaper cartoons about foreign English teachers (1984-2014)

The 2005 English Spectrum Incident

The Achievements of Anti English Spectrum (2005 - 2011)

Inside Story's 2006 articles on the evils of foreign English teachers

The Weekly Chosun on English Teachers (2009)

A closer look at the crime statistics for foreign English teachers (2009)

In the National Assembly: The "undisclosed crimes" of potential child molesting foreign English teachers (2009)

Delinquent foreign instructors, "Freeze!" (NoCut News' Puff Piece about AES) (2009)

Korea Herald: "Blurring line between hate, free speech" (2009)

The February 2010 Donga Ilbo interview with Lee Eun-ung (2010)

A Response to the Donga Ilbo interview with AES (2010)

SBS radio interviews AES's Lee Eun-ung (2010)

Itaewon - 'a loser's paradise' where Korean women are ruined? (2010)

GEPIK drinking parties and sadaejuui (2010)

Incorrect statistics in National Assembly depict foreign English teachers as "part time workers" harming regional English education (2010)

The 2011 Amendments to the Hagwon Law

Uncontrollable 'yougle,' and other tales of drugs and crime (2011)

The budget cuts which hobbled GEPIK (2011)

The SMOE native speaking teacher budget cuts (2011)

NoCut News's July 2012 war on white men and foreign instructors

From incorrectly calculated foreign crime rates to tabloid TV (2013)

The Anti-Refugee Protests: Xenophobia, the media, and citizens groups (2018)

Korea's handling of COVID-19 and the Itaewon outbreak (2020)

A reminder from Yonhap: You need to be anxious about foreign English teachers (2020)