by Akisato Fujita

From the readings, I found that many mixed-ethnic children suffer from teasing in the Japanese school system because their appearances are different from others. This time, I’d like to think about the reasons why there is some difficulty of accepting foreigners in the Japanese society and children which have a foreign parent are abused in the school system. It is considered that there are mainly two causes about it.

The first reason is the principle of Japan. Japan is classified into countries which have ethnic nationalism because it has a jus sanguinis principle and it is relatively hard to acquire its nationality. The jus sanguinis principle means that when one of natural parents has Japanese citizenship, their child also acquire it. This principle is usual for countries which have ethnic nationalism. However, Japan has many conditions for foreigners to get Japanese nationality, and the procedure is very complicated compared to other countries. It can be said that that is why there are not so many foreigners living in Japan. It means that most of Japanese people do not have much time to communicate with the people having different backgrounds. Therefore, Japan has too few people who understand them, and has not still created the societies which could accept foreigners, and it also affects the Japanese children’s way of thinking about mixed-ethnic children.

The second reason is the education about foreign people in the Japanese school system. There are basically no education systems in the Japanese school system which teaches children to understand people from foreign countries and mixed-ethnic ones. If there were many children from other countries in Japan, they would not be teased even if their appearances are different from others because spending time with them is usual for Japanese. However, Japan has not still had so many foreign people, so it is unusual for Japanese children to meet mixed-ethnic children. Therefore, it is necessary to teach children other different cultures and identities in order to understand mixed-ethnic people. The problem is that children are not taught about them in the school system now, and it causes some difficulties with many mixed-ethnic children.

For two reasons, Japanese principles and education, it can be said that most Japanese people including children do not understand the people who have different identity. Therefore, it is needed for all Japanese to think about people who have different identities and try to accept them.

by Yuu Yokoyama

I’m interested in the topic; what is the good point by being born as hafu. In the TV which we watched last class, they answered, “People can remember us easily as hafu.” by this question. I was surprised this answer, but I also apply to this answer. We Japanese think hafu as special people and different ordinary Japanese although they are not special human but they are Japanese or another country people like us. This makes hafu different people.

I found out interested blog in which an interviewer asked a hafu person do you have good or bad experience as you are hafu (Joruju, 2011). That person is hafu between Japanese and Portuguese, but he have never been to go Portugal since he was born, he cannot speak both English and Portuguese, he can speak only Japanese and he studied in only Japan; thus his interior is Japanese.

He calls himself as unfortunate Japanese because he cannot speak English, he is not bilingual and he has no English name although he was born as hafu. He said that many Japanese expect he can speak English well and he lived in Portugal, but when people noticed the fact, people are always disappointed.

I think we Japanese take it for granted that hafu people can speak English and they have another name although not all hafu people are so and we are disappointed one-sidedly. Hafu people do not lie and they are innocent. I think it is serious problem.

Although internationalization go ahead, Japanese people still have the different view for foreigners and hafu people; we still judge by appearance. It is not always bad, but we should not have the prejudice for them. For example, my friend who came from Sweden has been studying in Japan for two years, so he can speak Japanese well. However when he speak Japanese outside, Japanese are surprised and looked at him. He said although he can speak Japanese well, Japanese talk to him in English because Japanese think foreigners cannot speak Japanese. He gets angry that thing. This is a little different from the circumstance of hafu but this is the fact that Japanese often judge people by appearance.

We Japanese think hafu people are beautiful or handsome, we often say “ Hafu! Urayamasii!” However, we should not jump to that conclusion. We have to think about hafu again because they are not special, same human. We should not judge by appearance. Hafu people have the same mind with us.

References
Joruju. (2011). What is the good point as hafu? Retrieved October 11, 2012, from http://theinterviews.jp/flyer-to/1117506

by Misa Takahashi

I would like to talk about hafu in Japan. There is Japanese idea which hafu lead to a feeling of privilege and to heightened self-esteem (Kamada, 2008), many people maybe this is true, but I don’t think every ‘hafu people’ feels a sense of superiority in the term of ‘hafu’.

I read a story when I was in an elementary school, this story is engraved in my memory－the boy said to his mother, “ Mom, am I 1/2 (hafu) ? Am I different from my friends?” Mother answer, “you are not 1/2 (hafu). You are ‘double’.” He became to feel that he is ‘double’ rather than ‘hafu’, he gained a self-confidence.

In this story, I think that there are 2 problems. First one, almost of all people have a fixed idea which term of ‘hafu’ only means superiority. The dictionary means of ‘hafu’ is 1/2 (半分). Person is 1/2? This is real superiority term? I don’t think so. However, no matter how I call mixed-ethnic person ‘double’, I can’t fully convey the term because people think that mixed-ethnic person is ‘hafu’. They don’t recognize that calling ‘hafu’ has means (but, in these days I believe ‘double’ is good term, so I can’t criticize them.). Second one is problem of how to call ‘quarter’. In fact, there is the oppositional term to ‘hafu’, ‘double’, though this is not usual and truly good, but there is no oppositional term to ‘quarter’. ‘hafu’ problem is tend to only selected, but there are variety mixed-ethnic people and many variety problems. For example, one of my friends, she has a Brazilian grandmother, when she was called ‘quarter’ by friend, she was not glad that (the friend didn’t mean any harm, rather than it means superiority). If she is ‘hafu’, we can call her ’double’, but she is not also ‘hafu’.

In modern century, traffic technique has been developing, and the number of immigrants from foreign countries has been increasing rapidly in Japan. Many race, groups, and variety sense of values are maybe intermingled in the future. In conclusion, I think that calling ‘hafu’ should be stopped, so we have to realize that calling ‘hafu’ is hurt his or her feelings, after all, we should recognize that the existence of terms of ‘hafu’, ‘double’ and ‘quarter’ hurt mixed-ethnic people’s feeling because we separate ‘we’ and ‘others’, ‘we’ and ‘different’ unconsciously by calling these terms.

by Suguru Kobachi

Last class, we talked about hafu in Japan. First of all, is the word, hafu, okay to use as a way to call them. The word hafu comes from the English word half, and some people might consider themselves as not a complete person if they get called this way. Some other words that we came up in class that we could use to call them were mixed, hybrid, and etc. If we were to change the way we call them, I thought the best one would be hybrid even though it sounds a little weird when it’s used for calling a person instead of machines. Mixed sounds more discriminating because we use mix for dogs and other animals and I think that it’s not the right word to describe a person.

Before I listened to what we talked about in class last week, I’ve never thought this much about what hafu meant and what it means to the people being called hafu. But what I was thinking while we were having this discussion in class was that, “Is being called a hafu, such a bad thing?” If this word was being used in a discriminative way, it’s definitely not good, but in Japan, the majority of the people assume hafu as a good characteristic. Everyone is jealous because hafus are pretty and handsome. In my opinion, if I was a hafu, I think that I would be proud of the fact that I am hafu.

But I wanted to hear other people’s opinions about this topic too so I had a small discussion with my family members. An opinion that I agreed with them within the discussion was the fact that we, as in the Japanese people calling these people hafu doesn’t sound bad at all from our point of view. But if you look at it from the hafu people’s point of view, they might have a different way of taking the meaning of the word. If I was a hafu, then I might have had a different opinion about this topic. As a result, I think that even though if that person is a hafu, if they are living in Japan and are acting like a Japanese person, we should consider them as a Japanese person and treat them the same way as any other Japanese person would be treated.

The United States consists of a lot of immigrants. In 1840s and 1850s, many immigrants flooded into the United States. They were from Ireland or German. In the case of Irish, 3 million people starved because of potato famine in 1845. Most of immigrants lived big city and got a job which does not need specialty technique. Some German promoted new business or engaged in agriculture. In 1860s, immigrants from China increased. Most of them lived in California. They built railways or worked a mine. As many as five million Chinese came to the United States. Some problems happened between first immigrants and Chinese because they have different language, religion and culture. However they got along each other, and new immigrants from China had opportunity to get better jobs, life and land.

In 1870s, immigrants came to the United States from England, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway. The reason they came was seeking jobs. In 1890s, over six million people came to the United States. They were from Italy, Bulgaria, Poland, Greece and Russia. Immigrants who came from Europe by ship made a landing to the port in New York. From 1892 to 1943, Ellis Island was the entrance. Each immigrant underwent a medical examination and turned in an identification card there. Sometimes over five thousand people passed in a day.

When the number of immigrants increased rapidly, American people were worried that immigrants rob jobs from American or immigrants bring poverty and crime. Then government established some new law which controls immigration into the United States and restricted immigration. To be concrete, they set up a law which refuses immigrants who cannot read and write English to enter into America in 1917, and in 1924, a law which limits the number of immigrants was in force.

The United States established and fixed the system for immigrants in a history. Because of a lot of immigrants, America becomes a biggest country in the world, I think. Japan should start to receive immigrants and set up systems. It may be difficult to live together with other culture or value, but forces of immigrants is necessary to become grater country.

sources:

http://www.ohsaka.com/index.htm

“L’odyssée des émigrants”　Nancy Green 1997

by Ayako Ueda

United States Permanent Resident Card is an identification card that shows the permanent resident status of a foreigner in the U.S. It is informally called as “Green Card” because color of the card had been green from 1946 until 1964, and it has got back to that color since May 2010. Green Card gives its holder proof as a Lawful Permanent Resident (LPR). Then, the person is officially considered as immigrant and can reside and take employment in the U.S.

There are mainly three ways to get Green Card. First, many people acquire it through their family. People may be eligible if they have an immediate relative of a U.S. citizen, a family member who has already held Green Card, or if they marry a person who has a U.S. citizenship. Second way is through job or offer of employment. The main methods to immigrate based on a job are through job offer, investment, self petition or special categories of jobs. Special categories of jobs mean for example Afghan/Iraqi translator, broadcaster, international organization employee and so on. Third one is Green Card Lottery. Every year, around 50,000 immigrant visas are issued through the Diversity Visa (DV) program, and the lottery is a part of this program. It targets people who were born in countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S. Applicants can be entitled only by their country of birth, not by their citizenship. Anyone who is selected under this lottery will be given opportunity to apply for permanent residence. In addition to that, U.S. government gives chance to refugee and asylum seekers to acquire Green Card.

Green Card gives a chance to foreign people to live their lives in the U.S. However, this system has some problems. One of them is marriage fraud. Criminal cheat and marry someone who has American citizenship to get the right of permanent residency in the U.S. After he/she obtains the right, he/she pronounces divorce on his/her spouse or disappears. The number of crimes like this is increasing every year. In 1990, a movie named “Green Card” was published in the U.S. The story focuses on an American woman. She takes part in a fake marriage with Georges, who is from France and live in the U.S. illegally, to allow him to obtain a Green Card and remain in the United States. Putting this movie on view shows marriage fraud for Green Card is becoming serious problem.

Now, this is a big problem not only in the U.S. but in Canada and other countries that have accepted a lot of immigrants. It is difficult to judge fake marriage or not because it might lead to a kind of invasion of privacy, but the government should improve the system to prevent criminals coming to the country, for example to interview the couple many times, to ask someone who can prove their marriage or something like that.

by Aya Sadahiro

Do you know how to apply an entry visa in Japan? It is very important but complicated procedure for coming into Japan for foreigners. Based on the law for the immigration control refugee authorization, the foreigners who are to get into Japan have to get and prepare a valid passport and a visa which is issued by Japanese government. People can get the visa by the embassy of Japan or the Japanese Consulate General. In addition, they must get visa until coming into Japan because they cannot get them when they have already come in Japan.

There are two patterns to get the visa in terms of the purpose. That means the procedures are different between the case for sightseeing, making a business, seeing acquaintance or relatives, and the case for staying for more than 90 days because of the work. In this blog, I would like to pick up the case for the long stay based on working. First at all, foreigners who plan to come into Japan need to get some necessary documents. There are five classifications of documents in terms of the purpose of entering Japan: vocational visa, general visa, specific visa, diplomatic visa, official visa. For example, in the reception of the candidates for a care worker or nurse based on the economic agreement between the Philippines and Japan, people who want to come to Japan need “specific visa”. They are permitted to stay for only three or four year by the visa, because if they have their medical licenses in their country, they cannot use it in Japan. So, they have to pass the national examination in Japan, otherwise, they have to go back their country. The documents for the specific visa are a passport, an application for the visa, a photograph of the face for certification, and the certificate for the qualification of residing in Japan. However, the candidate for the care worker and nurse cannot get that certificate for the qualification and they must make appointment with government establishments abroad individually. If they can get this certificate, the procedure for visa would be clearer and more simply.

The population of the people who leaves their homes in search of temporary work just goes on being larger. Then, it is natural that the number will be more and more in the future throughout the globalization. However, there are some problems that necessary documents for the migrant workers are not clear. In this illegible stance of Japanese government, we Japanese cannot participate in this problem.  It is important that Japan prepare the clearer and more simply explanations for the visa.

by Sayaka Kurata

    In Japan, almost people have an own family and many families also live together. It is happy for us to live with our families. On the other hands, there are many who take up posts in another city, leaving their families behind in their hometown too. I think that it is very sad even if they can meet frequently. However, in case of immigrants or migrant workers, they cannot meet them families for a long time. How do they feel like the situation.

     Actually, it will not be long before I become similar situation. One of my valuable person leave to Australia to study abroad. I fell very lonely just imagine about we will separated. Of course, we can make contact with each other on e-mail, and talk on the phone. If we use a videophone like skype, we can see our faces. It seems like to meet by the side of him. Although, the fact is we are still separated, so we cannot meet each other whenever we want and touch each other. The technologies take our mind off, but once we find the truth, it made us sadder. I want to beside him ever after.

     When we are separated from valuable people, just like families, we feel very miserable and miss them. I think that it is not enough for us to make contact or talk with the people. The more important thing is living with families. I am sure that almost all people want to live with valuable people, mother, father, brothers, sisters, lovers and so on. However, many immigrants and migrant workers are in difficult situation to live together because of strict regulation for them. The strict regulation need them too much money to get them visas, but it is hard for them, because they have only few money and no sponsors. That is why many of them cannot live with family. I know it is important to save safety and profit from visas. However, I also want to little revision the strict regulation, because families should live together if they want to do so. I wish the day coming soon.

by Erina Hayashi

The 2005 riots in France were sparked by the deaths of two teenagers who were electrocuted during a police chase in the Paris suburb of Clichy-sous-Bois. Hundreds of youth roared with anger because a police chase had gone too far, and incited a riot that included attacking the police and vandalism in poor suburbs that were inhabited largely by immigrants from Maghreb, Algeria, and Morocco. Most of rioters were second generation Muslim immigrants. The riots had quickly spread to other towns. During the riots, more than 8973 cars were set on fire and 2888 people were arrested. In general, France was thought to tolerate ethnic minority. However, the riots forced France to confront the anger building for decades among Muslim immigrants who complain of discrimination and inequality.

After two world wars, France opened the door aggressively to greater numbers of immigrants with a great demand for labor, especially from Maghreb. Since the 1970s oil shock, however, its economic situation worsened and the government has started to support tighter immigration measures. Especially, since the 1980s extreme rightists have promoted anti-immigrants sentiments that claim that immigrants have a propensity for violent and that they steal jobs from French people. In addition, since the September 11th terrorist attacks, Muslim immigrants have been considered as a terror and people are concerned about public boundaries. Even though France has the largest Muslim population in Europe, the animosity regarding Muslim immigrants is increasing in the society.

Under the hostile circumstances towards immigrants, they feel socially isolated. The French government constructed housing projects in suburbs while increasing the immigrant population, but those areas became something of a ghetto where low-income immigrants live together. As the segregation between immigrants and mainstream society is becoming worse over time, they really feel frustrated economically and socially. Separating them from the society has led to discrimination and inequality against them. Immigrants who live in suburbs of Paris have, on average, lower incomes, education levels and employment rates than French people.

They are desperately underprivileged and outside mainstream society, and complaints and racial troubles caused by discrimination and inequality have been building up. Above all, while the second generation of Muslim immigrants who are born in France and are provided French education do not feel that they are belonging to a homeland, they cannot integrate into French society while being treated differently because they are an immigrant. It makes youth bear enmity towards French society. In the end, the deaths of two immigrant boys triggered the 2005 riots. They exploded with the anger of social and economical inequalities.

The French suburban riots in 2005 are painful moans and cries to be heard from immigrant youth who are the poorest and least powerful in French society. They have no hope or possibilities for the future in suburbs where youth unemployment, crime, and violence thrive. It is not just a problem in France. There have been similar riots across Europe, like in Greece, Italy and the UK. If immigrants are excluded from the mainstream of society and economically discriminated, riots will continue to occur. They should be accepted as real members of society and given fair opportunities and hope.

by Jeawon Moon

  “Although I am disagreeable, there is only this.” The young man who caused the riot by the young men of immigration system of France was talking like this on television. To accept immigration in France starts age of independence of African countries. Why does France have much immigration? The answer is in history. After World War Ⅱ finished, the population decreased sharply. France government decided to accept a lot of immigration to solve worker insufficient problem. The cause which this riot broke out is an economical blunder of second and third immigration by Vietnam War and Algeria war of independence.

Immigration has great influence on the country. After World War Ⅱ finished, a lot of  black persons came to America and black culture was spread by them. Rhythm and blues, lap music and reggae became famous by them. In addition, after Vietnam War finished, a lot of the Puerto Rico system immigration came to New York and Salsa music was spread by them. If Japanese government decides to accept immigration, our culture may change. For example, many Japanese people may speak English fluently.

A decrease in the birthrate appears in advanced nations recent years and a main subject of many development countries government will be immigration problem like an American popular rights movement and the young man riot of France. According to the date “present condition of a decrease in the birthrate and future prospect” of National Institute of Population and Social Security Research, Japanese population of over age 65 will be 20 percent in 2006, it will be 25 percent in 2014 and it will be 30 percent in 2033. In the future, Japan will be the most age people around the world. Cultural communication will become important for Japanese people, because a decrease in the birthrate is progressing in Japan and immigration may be accepted in order to obtain workers. Do you think should Japan accept immigration more?

http://janjan.voicejapan.org/world/0511/0511115020/1.php

by Sunao Tanaka