I don’t think this is surprising for anyone who knows a bit about the ESL industry in China (or any other second/third world country I’d guess). Still an interesting read!
@Miro: If you read the whole article there’s that one case where the school faked this guy’s degrees to apply for a work visa on his behalf and didn’t even tell him. Authorities found out and he got in trouble, even though he had no idea what was going on. So there are definitely cases where people get f**ked over by schools and job agencies unknowingly.
That said, I agree that most people who come over here to teach know mostly when they are breaking the law working illegaly and just dont care. Part of the reason is that no one cared in the past and I feel like word of mouth amongst many expats is still that it’s no big deal working on an F or L visa. Don’t we expats all know someone who’s working here illegaly? I’m also from Europe and find the outrage in the expat community every time police do crack down hilarious. Same thing with tighter rules for the visa application process that they introduced last year – people are still bitching about it. What do you expect? That Chinese authorities keep all gates open so the country gets flooded with more and more illegals?