Hi!
Note:
There is a similar thread in the "Canadian" section, and I have seen similar threads about this same topic regarding foreigners flying for US organizations.
Intro:
I am an expat pilot in East Africa. Why? I was laid off from my US airline, and this was the ONLY job I could find, worldwide.
So far, the job and living here are going better than I expected. The only real negative was leaving my family in the US.
Answers:
Japan:
JAL terminated all/some of their foreign pilots.
Japan, as a country, is STILL importing pilots as we speak:
"Aug 14, 2009 B767 Captains & First Officers (Sept 2009 Interviews) - Japan CREW RESOURCES WORLDWIDE
Aug 14, 2009 B767 First Officers (Sept 2009 Interviews) - Japan CREW RESOURCES WORLDWIDE"
Why expats?:
Because they are needed. If the local company could find the pilots they needed that FIT THEIR REQUIREMENTS, they wouldn't hire expats.
The requirements vary greatly, from costs (sometimes they hire expats because it is cheaper, overall, than getting locals), to needing people immediately to do a specific job (ie: ATR-72 TRI needed within 2 weeks, etc.).
Aviation only?:
No. This situation exists in ALL industries, not just aviation.
Today, there are Nigerians in America, filling jobs that the companies felt the Nigerians, for whatever reason, were better suited for than any American citizens.
Personal Observations:
Now:
We have had, basically, 7 guys from outside Africa come in, and I am the only one that stayed, for various reasons. I have flown with locals, and some were great, and some were terrible. The full-time local pilot we had is now gone, and we have been looking for local pilots continuously, and so far have added none since April, as we can't find any that FIT THE COMPANY'S REQUIREMENTS.
Long Ago:
There were some African pilots in one of my military classes (I think from Nigeria). They were all not very good at all. Why? Because they did not come in with the background and training necessary for them to succeed. Their host country was not willing to spend the resources needed for them to be trained, both in the classroom, and operationally, to the level that they needed to be to attend the class I was taking and be successful.
I am 99% sure that if they had the training necessary to get them to where the average American was when they showed up to start class, they would have had the same success and failure rate that the Americans had.
Note: My roomate, who was American, was not successful at the training class I was in, either.
cliff
NBO
PS-A HUGE problem in Africa is the graft and corruption. The resources needed to improve the country, as a whole, are sucked up by individuals.
Recently, a US MP equivalent was convicted, by the US courts, of accepting bribes. He was required to pay back ALL the illegal bribes he had received, and was sentenced to something like 20 years in federal prison. I have not seen anything like that happening recently in Africa.