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[baka_janai]

...and not misconstrued with the actual colonization of a country.

Besides, there are other ways to "colonize" a country without it being an actual colony.  For example, the oil industry effectively colonized the Arab Gulf and Iran.   

[baka_janai]

And I think it's also fair to state that Cuba was effectively colonized by American business interests (with official US government support) up to the time of the revolution.  Cuba was never an official "colony" of the US (as it had been a Spanish colony) but Americans living in Cuba prior to the revolution clearly lived colonial lives.

[aardvark]

This phrase in your book blurb: "The colonial paradigm, what it is and how it is reinforced" is interesting for someone living in Thailand (which has never been colonized by a western nation).

One of the reason we finally left the Arabian Gulf (after 12 years) is that we didn't like the colonial atmosphere were expats had Indian and Philipino "servants" and got used to special treatment and all too often started acting in the sorts of bigoted, pig-headed ways we make fun of in the British Raj or Colonial East Africa.

I have a Filipina "servant."  I am okay with it.  And she thinks that she's better off being my "servant" than going back to the Philippines.  But perhaps in an ideal world she'd have to go back to the Philippines instead of working for the likes of me?

[baka_janai]

I have a Filipina "servant."  I am okay with it.  And she thinks that she's better off being my "servant" than going back to the Philippines.  But perhaps in an ideal world she'd have to go back to the Philippines instead of working for the likes of me?

It isn't so much the having of a "servant" but rather that subtle changes that can take place in such arrangements.  For example, I found that, in the Gulf at least, that people (good people, my friends people) who had maids often went from caring "everyone's equal" employers to people who might not sound out of place on an Old South veranda talking about how "you cain't get a lick of work out of 'em."  Otherwise perfectly normal people would say things like "If you give 'em a day off, they'll just go out and get pregnant."  And then start wondering if they're overpaying because they're paying $120 a month and "everyone else" is only paying $100.  Of course, they can always claim that they treat their maid "better than the locals" because they don't beat or rape or starve them. 

Now I'm not saying that most started acting like this.  But it wasn't uncommon either.  Also for me, I just couldn't imagine having someone living in the house (as most maids did) with whom I wasn't supposed to have normal conversations with or even make eye-contact with as she went about her business.  It'd be different to have someone come in a couple times a week for a few hours to clean but I couldn't do the "live in maid" thing.

Another reason we had a bit of a different perspective on this is that because my Mexican wife was regularly mistaken as a Filipino (even by other Filipinos).  So she got to experience first-hand some of the prejudice reserved for "non-Western" expats.  She also was constantly being approached by virtually enslaved Philipino maids begging her to send messages for them to the Philipino Embassy because their employer had completely cut them off, taken away their passports, and locked them into the house ever minute that the employer was away. 

At any rate, there's no doubt that "colonialism" is alive and well in many expat communities.  It may often be "enlightened colonialism" but it's there nonetheless.

BTW, as you might expect, we feel the same about people in the US with "several Mexicans" who do the tasks around the house the ordinary middle class people are nromally expected to do for themselves. 

[baka_janai]

And she thinks that she's better off being my "servant" than going back to the Philippines. 

This is no doubt true.  I got a bit of a taste of the "other side" when I was working in Saudi and ordinary Saudis on the street (not even my students) would come up and announce to me that I was their "servant" -- there to serve the Kingdom.  Of course, I was there for not such thing.  I was there to serve myself a slice of the Saudi salary pie.  And have some exotic fun in the process. 

I do understand the idea of working for a buck -- or a baht -- and just making a living however and wherever you can.  I can respect that.  I can respect my wife's family illegally living in the US, picking fruit and barely getting by. 

[aardvark]

She also was constantly being approached by virtually enslaved Philipino maids begging her to send messages for them to the Philipino Embassy because their employer had completely cut them off, taken away their passports, and locked them into the house ever minute that the employer was away. 

I can't speak for the Gulf, but where I live the Filipina "domestic helpers" (we don't actually use the term "servants") come and go freely on their day off, or when the kids are at school, or whenever there's not some specific task they're supposed to do.  No, they don't make a lot of money, but it's just not possible to call them "virtually enslaved."  Obviously, it is a different matter elsewhere.  (I live in China).

Oh, and they hold their own passports.

And frankly, it seems to me that the Filipinas who are able to get Gweilo bosses like that better than being stuck with local Chinese employers.  But then I may be imagining this.

(My wife and I don't have kids, so our domestic helper doesn't put in more than 25 hours per week, and as long as she keeps the place relatively clean and has our evening meals ready for us 6 days per week, she is otherwise free to do her own thing.  She is, of course, free to return to the Philippines if she thinks that's a better option, but then I don't anticipate that).

[baka_janai]

I can't speak for the Gulf, but where I live the Filipina "domestic helpers" (we don't actually use the term "servants") come and go freely on their day off, or when the kids are at school, or whenever there's not some specific task they're supposed to do.

This described the situation with the majority of Western expat employers in the Gulf.  The Arab (including expat Arabs) are generally much stricter -- and less interested in "human rights."  Still, even for the Western expats it can be a slippery slope.

No, they don't make a lot of money, but it's just not possible to call them "virtually enslaved."  Obviously, it is a different matter elsewhere.  (I live in China).

I'd be surprised if there weren't some horror story with Chinese employers.

Oh, and they hold their own passports.

Ditto with Western expat employers in the Gulf.  But a common "trick" among the Gulf Arab employers is to take the passport away and then inform the maid that they will not be getting any wages until their airfare (paid by the employer) has been repaid.

And frankly, it seems to me that the Filipinas who are able to get Gweilo bosses like that better than being stuck with local Chinese employers.  But then I may be imagining this.

I'm sure that's true.  But it's still just relative.  It would be different if the maids were earning enough to have their families living there with them.  But that's not the case.

(My wife and I don't have kids, so our domestic helper doesn't put in more than 25 hours per week, and as long as she keeps the place relatively clean and has our evening meals ready for us 6 days per week, she is otherwise free to do her own thing. 

I know there are a lot of professionals in the US with essentially the same arrangement.  My wife and I just couldn't do it.

[ajarn]

WOW!

Lots of emotion here!

“But like a lot of us "expats," ajarn doesn't quite fit the mold for US academics and so would probably be viewed with suspicion when applying for US positions.”

Understatement there!

In case it matters (which it seems to do to some here), I started into my thirties without a degree of any sort, earned a BS while serving in the US Navy, earned my MBA in the evenings at a foreign university while teaching English during the day and then did my PhD online. I realize I will never be one of “them,” but I am quite comfortable being one of “us” (or just me) and I am enjoying the hell out of life and my career. I may not be tenured but I sure have a leg up on most when it comes to “been there and done that.” If I ain’t good enough for some of you blue-bloods, I won’t lose any sleep over it; your problem, not mine.

I suspect those who are the most violently opposed to “us” (non-traditional “scholars”) do so because their degrees are their only real qualifications.   

Anyway,

I used the term "colonial" to refer to a mindset, not the actual colonial experience. After all, the book is about current expats, and how the colonial experience has become a major part of Anglo-American and European culture (ever read Conrad or watched Indiana Jones?).

In the book I also proposed the concept of being an expatriate be expanded to include the large numbers of people working abroad who are not studied or analyzed in the empirical work on expatriates. In reality, only a small exclusive subsection of the population is being studied and obviously this results in academia having a skewed view of the experience of living and working abroad.

Anyway, that is my two satang, if you disagree, fine, write your own book on the subject.

[baka_janai]

Well said, ajarn.  I too have a non-traditional pedigree which I'm sure some US academics would look down their nose at.  I did do a traditional MA (linguistics) before moving overseas for an EFL job.  But I've realized over the years that I am in the definite minority in having done so.  I then taught in the EFL trenches alongside large numbers of other EFL teachers for many years before reaching a point in my life when doing an Ph.D. made personal and financial sense.  But I still took the UK research degree route because it was the only realistic choice for someone with a wife and three children.  Not a few academics in the US seem to see UK degrees as little more than "distance education." 

Yet during my (fully paid) sabbatical year as an official Visiting Scholar at UCLA, I was shocked at the limited world (both real and academic) of many of the Ph.D. students I met.  They read only what their professors assigned them to read, usually limited to a narrow set of big-names.  They worked on the same kinds of projects as their advisors, often doing grunt labor within an already established research grant.  They lived and breathed the rarified aire of the US grad student experience and though of TAing classes of high-level international students as relevant EFL experience. 

By contrast, by the time I finished my Ph.D. I had had nearly 20 years of full-time professional experience teaching ESL/EFL/ESP/EAP across four continents.  I've taught students from dozens of countries.  I've taught doctoral-level students and students who couldn't read in their L1.  I've taught survival English to Southeast Asia refugees who didn't know how to hold a pencil or use a shopping cart.  I've taught lab report writing for chemistry majors and classes on scientific presentation for grad students in microbiology.  I also had years of experience doing teacher training, supervising teams of teachers, leading testing committees, etc. 

Yet, I am considered at "a long shot" when applying for the very few tenure track positions in Second Language Acquisition which open up in a typical year (usually less than 5 total per year).  My years of experience seem to count for next to nothing.  My UK degree is looked upon with suspicion.  Instead, the search committees go for someone close to half my age from a big-name school with perhaps only a half dozen years of language teaching experience (often only as a TA at there own institution). 

I guess I'll just have to take solice in the fact that I have a tenured position at a Japanese university which pays up to $20,000 more annually than any of the tt track jobs I would be applying for in the US.  And they throw in free housing.  And an office with a balcony.

[baka_janai]

Emotion seems to interfere with good spelling.

[dundee]

baka_bourke, you seem to have a pretty sweet deal in Japan, so why even bother applying to jobs in the States?

The narrowmindedness of American academia, especially in light of most academics' self-perception as enlightened, can be quite astounding.

[windchimes]

In case it matters (which it seems to do to some here), I started into my thirties without a degree of any sort, earned a BS while serving in the US Navy, earned my MBA in the evenings at a foreign university while teaching English during the day and then did my PhD online. I realize I will never be one of “them,” but I am quite comfortable being one of “us” (or just me) and I am enjoying the hell out of life and my career. I may not be tenured but I sure have a leg up on most when it comes to “been there and done that.” If I ain’t good enough for some of you blue-bloods, I won’t lose any sleep over it; your problem, not mine.

I suspect those who are the most violently opposed to “us” (non-traditional “scholars”) do so because their degrees are their only real qualifications.   

Emotions do prevent one from looking at things rationally.

The problem in your case is not in the fact how and when you did your "things", but where you did it. Your MBA degree from a third-world country doesn't really inspire a confidence even in professional circles, and your online PhD is a joke because it came from a diploma mill. Frankly, calling yourself "doctor" probably makes quite a few folks here cringe, and is downright misleading, if not false (for all practical purposes.)

If you think I am wrong, try getting a traditional academic position anywhere in a Western world, and see how far will that get you? But I think you are very well aware of that, and that there's something else at play here (I won't talk about that).

Anyway, you can't have both. You can't have a third-grade "education" (if one can even call it that) and then turn around and demand respect. Also, you can't demand a respect from the system which you were never part of. It's either or. And it also goes both ways; calling those who did their time in the rigorous "system" as "blue-bloods" shows rudimentary lack of respect for them and their paths.

[baka_janai]

Windchchimes, you definitely seem to have a bug up your a$$ on this.  And it makes me question YOUR background in a "me thinks he doeth protest too much" way.

Your MBA degree from a third-world country

Don't kid yourself, there are plenty of crappy MBA degrees being offered by brick and mortar universities in the US. 

...and your online PhD is a joke because it came from a diploma mill.

Let's just say that ajarn was unfortunate enough to have his dissertation processed through an exposed diploma mill vs. one of the "research style" Ph.D. programs -- or even one of the many "legit" Ph.D. programs in the US in which finishing is pretty much a given.  I've read some really awful dissertations from legit US schools.  I don't know anything about ajarn's dissertation.  But based on what he's shared in this forum, I suspect it's worth the Doctor title.

If you think I am wrong, try getting a traditional academic position anywhere in a Western world, and see how far will that get you?

There are so many things wrong with this as a "test" of academic prowess that I don't know where to begin.  Landing a tt-job in many fields is a crapshoot at best with a lot of reputation mongering involved. 

Anyway, you can't have both. You can't have a third-grade "education"...

And the nonnative speaker detection sirens are going off.

Also, you can't demand a respect from the system which you were never part of.

There are a great many things about the (US) system that I do not respect.  I never would have pursued the research I did or written the dissertation I did, had I been groomed (monitored) for years by the US grad school system. 

who did their time in the rigorous "system"

As near as I can tell, the most rigorous part of the US grad school experience (vs. the British experience) is that US grad students have to put up with an incredible amount of bureacracy and exploitation.  Ph.D. level coursework is a joke.

[baka_janai]

baka_bourke, you seem to have a pretty sweet deal in Japan, so why even bother applying to jobs in the States?

Because for the past 4 years I've been dealing with the "two-body" problem with my wife and children living in the US.  Plus some teeny little irrational part of my brain keeps trying to tell me that being tt at a US university is "the big leagues."  The more I read on CHE, the easier it is to resist this voice.

[dundee]

I can certainly understand the two-body problem, being part of an academic couple myself. Good luck to you.