Category Archives: International Soc

Fear of change or fear of oneself?

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by Marius Brusegard

In 2008, just below three percent of the world’s population were international migrants, according to “Immigration’s complexities, assimilations discontents” (2008), by the professor of sociology at University of California-Irvine, Rubén G. Rumbaut. This means that as much as 97 percent of the world’s population is still living in the countries where they were born.

It strikes me then, to hear about incidents like the one in which the Ecuadoran immigrant Marcelo Lucero was stabbed to death in Patchogue, N.Y., by 16- and 17-year old boys, as described in Anne Barnard’s article in New York Times (2009). The reasons for these attacks can be argued to be based on ideas such as racism or nationalism, or just the ignorance of youth feeling the urge to experiment with violence or such.

Another way of explaining the attacks can be fear, which the previously mentioned reasons also are rooted in. This being fear of competition in the job market, fear of cultures unknown to themselves, fear of changes etc. If the less than three percent of immigrants (on a world basis), creates enough fear to make someone kill another human being, that might either mean that some people are extremely easily scared, or that they do not need a good reason to become able to kill another human being.

In this case though, the Latino student population in Patchogue Medford School District had risen to 24 percent from 4 in 2003. However, this relatively fast growth of Latino students shouldn’t create as much fear as should be needed to perform the atrocities mentioned. After all, studies have shown that immigrants adjust to their new societies by language assimilation and such. As Rumbaut (2008) describes in his article, the Spanish language of immigrants is no longer spoken by the third generation, because of a switch to English. In fact, studies by Rumbaut and Alejandro Portes (2002) studies show that 95 percent of even Cuban-American children attending private bilingual schools actually preferred English.

Also, Rumbaut argues that according to numerous studies, immigrants are less likely to commit crimes or go to prison than the natives, in spite of the opposite misconception. These are all studies that show how the fear of differences in cultural values, or changes, or just immigrants in general, seems unfounded. The immigrants are adapting to their new societies, not the other way around.

America might be the country with the highest variety of nationalities in the world, and the citizens are almost all known to have heritage from outside of America. They call themselves Irish-American, French-American, Chinese-American and such. Yet in a country like that, it seems to be quite a lot of fear of and resistance towards immigrants, in spite of the American’s ancestors all having been immigrants not too long ago.

Should the Japanese Government Institute an Education System for Immigrants?

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by Megumi Takase

In “International Sociology” class, I was surprised to hear that in Europe, students from other backgrounds take two or three times a week to have lessons in their native languages. In Japan, some elementary schools in which there are many foreign students have Japanese classes for them to understand regular Japanese classes. However, few schools have lessons for immigrants in their own languages. In addition, there are not many ethnic schools in Japan. Even though foreigners living in Japan mostly consist of Chinese, there are only 5 Chinese Schools in Japan. If children from other countries continue to attend Japanese schools and don’t do vigorous effort to learn their history or culture, they will have difficulty in building their identities. This is one of the reasons why foreigners are unwilling to live in Japan for a long time.

In my opinion, Japan should institute an education system for immigrants. For example, it should begin classes for immigrants in their native languages. It not only benefits students from other countries but also Japanese. It will increase the number of immigrants if Japanese education system is reformed in favor of foreigners. Japanese is suffering an aging society, so Japan will face the problem of lack of labor in the near future. Thus, Japan should accept immigrants to solve these problems. In order for foreigners to be willing to come and live in Japan, Japan should create the environment for them to live comfortably. One of reforms which Japan should tackle is education system.

It will also lead to intensification of international competitiveness of Japan if many foreigners immigrate to Japan. It is said that Japanese have difficulty in speaking foreign languages. In the times of globalization, people who are fluent in many languages are needed. If immigrants grow up as bilingual and begin to work in Japanese corporations, they will largely contribute to corporations.

If Japanese government begins to institute an education system for immigrants, many people will come from other countries and live in Japan. They will serve Japanese society. It is difficult for schools to begin classes for immigrants in their native languages because immigrants come from different countries around the world. Schools should create these classes cooperating with the local universities specializing in foreign languages. It will also lead to create Japanese bilingual students.

Reference

[i] Weblio. (n.d.). Retrived October 17, 2013 from http://www.weblio.jp/ontology/%E4%B8%AD%E8%8F%AF%E5%AD%A6%E6%A0%A1_1

Are foreign languages a threat to the host country culture and language?

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by Glenn Soenvisen

In the mid-90’s a new term, “Kebab-Norwegian,” was coined in Norway; it meant the dialect of the Norwegian language which contained relatively many loanwords from non-western immigrants. This term was soon picked up and used vigorously by the media, where it sometimes was stated as a reason for the deterioration of the “real” Norwegian language. In some extreme cases it was even stated that the verb was put in the wrong place when speaking “Kebab-Norwegian” and female and neuter gender nouns became male. Some even said that it brought unwanted culture into the country, stating that degrading non-western words for “females” were used to refer to females in general. In short, some people perceived “Kebab-Norwegian” as a threat to the “real” Norwegian culture and language. Therefore, we needed assimilation of the users in order to retain our national identity and values.

What I find funny about this, though, is how little basis there are for these utterances. For one thing, “Kebab-Norwegian” is only used in the eastern parts of the Norwegian capital Oslo by immigrant youth and their possible native Norwegian friends; it’s an ethnolect rather than a dialect, and there has been no proof of it spreading to other parts of the country, as is only logical since ethnolects are associated with specific ethnic or cultural subgroups. You could say it is an in-group way of speaking.

And that brings me to another thing worth pointing out: the ethnolect in question is spoken, not written. Sure, users may write it when chatting online through facebook and the like, but those services are closed networks and not available to everyone. Furthermore, even Norwegians may write in their own dialects in such contexts, but it doesn’t seem to affect their ability to write correctly written Norwegian when needed.

Moreover, considering that “Kebab-Norwegian” is almost exclusively used by youths, the users of it are most likely bilingual, or even trilingual, having learned “real” Norwegian from a very young age, as well as English which are being taught from early elementary school level. Keeping this in mind we can take a look at what Alejandro Portes writes in his feature article “English-only triumphs, but the costs are high:” bilinguals outperform their monolingual counterparts in almost all cognitive tests.

In short, immigrants speaking “Kebab-Norwegian” should have no more difficulty in using suitable language to suitable situations on the same level as native Norwegians do. That learning two or more languages at the same time makes for underdeveloped ability in both/all is a thought for the 1930’s.

Besides, even Norwegians themselves mess with the genders of the nouns. I myself use all three genders (male, female, neuter), but in some parts of Norway the female one doesn’t exist. There’s also often the case that nouns can be used as both male and female. What’s more, the new rages in the language debate is that native Norwegian children are more and more using the sound sh [ ʃ ] where kj [ ç ] should be used and, to a lesser degree, using the word hvem (who) where hvilken (which) should be used.

Lastly, it’s not like degrading words for females in general is exclusive to non-western languages. I dare say that bitch is, unfortunately, used extensively in informal spoken English and Norwegian both.

Of course, foreign languages may have influence on the national language and culture, but only in minor ways, such as adding words which we don’t have any words for in our own language, replacing interjections, or introducing new foods. However, this cannot be considered a threat at all. Rather than threatening, the influences enrich and enhance, like an add-on to your browser. If “Kebab-Norwegian” really was a threat, one can wonder why the English influence, which is much bigger, hasn’t made us all speak “Norwish” yet. There is no need for complete assimilation.

Social movements: Anti-nuclear movements in Fukushima

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by Jun Yasukawa

In March 11, 2011, a huge earthquake and tsunami occurred and wide range of Tohoku was damaged. Those damages were mostly due to the enormous tsunami, but there was another big problem. It is the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster. It was a series of equipment failures, nuclear meltdowns, and releases of radioactive materials at the Fukushima 1 Nuclear Plant, after the disaster of Tohoku earthquake and tsunami. It is said that it is the largest nuclear disaster since the Chernobyl disaster, which happened in 1986. Because of this nuclear problem, anti-nuclear movements occurred not only in Japan, but also in all over the world. People all over the world once again recognized the danger of the nuclear plants and the risk that they have toward citizens. On March 12, 2011, about 60,000 Germans lined up on the street, forming a human chain that is about 45-km long, from Stuttgart to the Neckarwestheim power plant. Also, on March 14, 2011, about 110,000 people protested in 450 German towns. During this social movement, opinion poll was conducted and it indicated that 80% of Germans opposed the extension of nuclear power by the government. There are many other anti-nuclear social movements all over the world, such as the ones by 2,000 anti-nuclear protesters in Taiwan and Switzerland. Of course, this is only few cases of anti-nuclear movements, and there are a lot other ones also around the world.

Although the fact that this many people all over the world protest against nuclear power plants, the reality is that we need to depend on nuclear power. That is because it is able to generate big amount of power and if we are not able use nuclear power, there might be a lack in power. Right now, all the nuclear plants in Japan are stopped, but it took long time to stop it, because Tokyo Electric Power Company hesitated to stop it.

I think that almost all the people around the world oppose or have a negative image towards nuclear power plants. However, it seems like those voices are weaker than government’s and companies’ voices, despite the fact that there are way more number of people. Since government and big companies have authorities and powers, it may be a natural thing. However, it is very unfair because unclear power problem is an issue that is deeply related to our life. So I strongly think that our voices need to be heard more. And I hope that government, electric power companies, and other top authorities will compromise and work together with citizens, and we all should seek for our bright future.

References

The New York Times March 8 2012, “Japan’s Nuclear Energy Industry Nears Shutdown, at Least for Now” http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/09/world/asia/japan-shutting-down-its-nuclear-power-industry.html?ref=energyandpower&_r=0

BBC News, March 26 2011, “Germany stages anti-nuclear marches after Fukushima” http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-12872339

How to become a more multicultural society?

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by Jun Yasukawa

Multiculturalism is a society that consists of many various cultures. And they coexist together. Recently in the world, there are many multicultural cities, such as New York, Los Angeles, London, and Hong Kong. However, Japan is not considered to be the multicultural society, even the biggest city in Japan, Tokyo. There are many benefits of being multicultural city, but Japan has not been able to receive those benefits, because of not being multicultural society. Therefore, I think that Japan should be more multicultural society.

Few months ago, I went to Vancouver, Canada, for my school trip to study about multiculturalism in Vancouver. Vancouver had been selected as the most livable city in the world for five years in a row before, despite the fact that it is very multicultural society, consisting of a lot of cultures and races. The biggest obstacle immigrants face when they enter new country is the language problems. Especially, in case of Japan, they must be able to use Japanese. In many different societies, English can be used, even though they are not English spoken countries, such as France and Germany. Therefore, I think that the most important task that Japan and Japanese people has to improve is the ability to use English. By improving the skills of English, Japan can be involved a lot more in international society and people from all over the world can come and interact with Japanese people easily, in terms of both business and private. Also, when I went to Vancouver, I noticed that volunteers are playing a big role of welcoming immigrants, supporting them to settle nicely, and live comfortably. For example, when immigrants enter and decide to live in Vancouver, this organization, run by the volunteers, takes care of all the registrations that are needed to settle, such as housing and school registrations. In this way, immigrants can easily settle into new society. However, it does not mean that immigrants depend on those volunteers completely. They learn how to do those kinds of registration, by looking at the support of those volunteers. And later immigrants themselves can become the volunteers and take care of new volunteers, using the knowledge and experiences that they learned before. That is how immigration and settlements work in Vancouver.

I think that Japan should welcome more foreigners, like Vancouver. In Vancouver, volunteers are playing a big role of welcoming foreigners and support them to settle nicely. Today in Japan, I don’t see many volunteers that work to support immigrants. So, in order to be active in international society and become multicultural society, it is important to form a welcoming society, and support and take care new people in long terms.

Globalization and politics of fair burden for global environmental problems

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by Wataru Yukita

As globalization has progressed, global environmental problems have been addressed in recent years. Global environmental problems are related to all people and all nations, so the problem should be covered equally by all countries. However, is it possible? Despite the fact that there is a large economic difference in the world, could these problems be really shared by all countries? So, I will consider of difficult points for fair and equitable burden in global environmental problems.

First, a feature of the global environmental issue is that it is difficult to set responsibility and role of shared burden. Because defining cause and outcome is hard, to identify responsibility and sharing role is also hard when take measures for these problems. Global warming, which is symbol of global environmental problems, is true of this example, in that it is difficult to identify and share roles. Though IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel Climate Change) provides scientific proof, there is a firm opposite opinion yet and skeptical eye that global warming is caused by greenhouse gas (GHG).

In global warming problem, not only cause and outcome relation, it is also difficult to specify who is a wrongdoer and who is a victim. That is because all people’s behavior has an effect on global warming more or less, regardless of rich people or poor people. What is more, though global warming is a significant issue in the long term, incentive to take measures by having a sense of ownership is likely to decline because the effect is spreading thinly and widely in short term.

Second, while anyone agrees with the concept of sustainable development, in fact, it is not easy to balance environment and development. There is no agreement that how much environmental damage is allowed for economic activity. It is true that it is possible to convert environmental damage to economic cost. But if we pay the cost, are we really allowed to damage environment? It will introduce another problem like morality. Therefore, simple converting is not beneficial solution.

Finally, how adjust interest of developed and developing countries? Perhaps, this is the biggest problem for global environmental issues. For example, in global warming problem, developed countries have emitted CO2 too much for economic growth. Thus, developing countries also want to use energy and progress their economy. However, regulating to emit CO2 around the world and raising cost is not fair for developing countries. They will say “we need to emit CO2 as well as other countries”. In these problems, we need to consider responsibility that is common and differentiated.

Global environmental problems come to be more complicated as global economy has developed. So, it will be hard to solve these problems fairly and equally. However, I think developed counties have responsibility that make framework to solve the problems. For this activity, we need to use globalization.

Reference

“Govt must replace strategy for new CO2 framework”, Dec13, 2012, The DAILY YOMIURI ONLINE.  http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/editorial/T121212003863.htm

The inequitable situations in work places

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by Sungryoung Yoon

Inequitable situations appear while the globalization is being advanced in the world. Japan is generally said to be an affluent country, but inequitable situations are also coming to Japan and I think it is a problem for which we have to find a solution. So I am going to pick up one of the inequitable situations about contract workers, in Japan and am going to write how the situation is going on compared to regular workers.

The number of contract works has been increasing since the beginning of 1990 while the number of the regular workers has been decreasing. Then don’t we have any problems about these situations between the regular workers and the contract workers? The answer would be “NO”. So I am going to talk about why the answer is “NO”.

I pick up four inequitable situations of the contract workers. Firstly, the pay style is totally different from the regular workers. The contract workers don’t have both bonus and retirement allowance, which the regular workers could get. Also the pay per unit time is much lower than the regular workers. These situation makes the other situations that they could not get to buy such a car and home by loan because of low pay. Secondly, employment is less stable compared to regular workers. Most companies employ contract workers for only 1 year to 2 years, and lay off them after that. As I said previously, they could not get the retirement allowance even if they get laid off. Thirdly, their career is not guaranteed at all too. The regular workers usually have some chances a year for advancement and then they could get higher pay and position than before. But the contract workers could get not as same as the situation the regular workers have. Finally, the contract workers don’t have social and employment insurances.

I wrote about four inequitable situations for the contract workers but the four situations are only a few examples of all problems about it. If both of them are working and doing same jobs in same company, they should get same situations with the regular workers. We usually say, the globalization brought the equal society, new society and situations but we haven’t focused on the real situations of inequality yet if we keep saying such a thing.

http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/honkawa/3240.html

http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/honkawa/3250.html

http://hiseiki.com/qa/

http://www.caa.go.jp/seikatsu/2001/0622kazoku-lifestyle/houkoku.pdf

Dream From Cultural Globalization

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by Chika Yamamoto

Nowadays you see western culture everywhere in Japan. If you turn on TV, there are very gorgeous actors and actresses in many advertisements. If you watch western movies or dramas, you see their rich style of living like having gorgeous dinner and going abroad for vacation and people wearing very elegant clothes. The same things happen in other non-western countries, too. Having a huge influence of western culture makes our culture and idea change little by little. It somehow differentiates us from western people and our way of living from their way of living. By watching those affluent lives and people, people in non-western countries start to wish to have their lifestyle someday. It becomes very ideal and utopia for those people to have the western way of lifestyle that is seen in movies and magazines. People tend to have such a very attractive image especially for America besides the concept of American dream. These people dream of having such a great lifestyle if they can go to America. That is because the images shown in magazines and movies are so strong that they can easily believe in them. It gives them very narrow view, which they just look at the only positive image of America not any negative sides. Those huge influences of cultural globalization have some issues for people who believe in the dream.

The problem caused by this culture image is linked to immigration issue in some ways. When people in developing countries see very rich culture such as American gorgeous culture often on screen or TV, they notice how different their way of living is. Because western culture is very different from their lifestyle, they somehow compare their current lifestyle to western lifestyle and think it is inferior to western lifestyle. It starts to change the idea into dream that if they can move to America, they might have chance to have such a lifestyle. It is not only because of cultural globalization but also American dream, too. These people assume that there are opportunities to make their life better like what they see in magazines and on TV by making efforts there. That goes with some of the reasons of immigrants in America. Those immigrants work super hard and keep waiting patiently for time when they can have better life relying on the dream they have from cultural image. However, even though there is a concept of American dream, almost all of immigrants can never be promoted and have such a lifestyle they have dreamed of. It is very rare for immigrants to be half top of American society regardless of their efforts. For me the cultural image and a little bit of American dream seem to just provide them motivation to work hard in the very unfair system of society. The result is either quitting their jobs and dreams of having rich lifestyle or keep working harder and harder so that they can have better lives. It is far different from what they dream of when they decide to immigrate. The gap between the dream from cultural image and the reality is biggest factor for this.

The influence of cultural globalization is still strong today. Especially nice image of western culture gives us so many feelings and ideas in non-western countries. But I think it is very important not to look at just bright side image seen on magazines and TVs but to see other side of the culture and country. Also, looking at other culture makes you realize the significance of your culture, too. I am not saying that globalization of culture is not preferable. I believe that looking at the world not only with a frame provided in cultural globalization but also with a frame that is different side of the image frame is very important in globalized world today.

Is inequality discrimination?

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by Sayaka Umei

There is inequality, such as economy, education, income, ability, wealth etc. Some people claim that we should avoid inequality because inequality contributes economic growth, according to Lane Kenworthy. However, I argue that they are not connected each other, and we need inequality to keep creating valuable things. Kenworthy is talking about the country base, but I would like to apply it to the nation base.

In Japan, some elementary schools have stopped the competition on a sports day because the competition is not equal. For example, children start running toward a goal, and just before the goal they have to wait for their friends who have not been near goal yet, then reach the goal together. So everyone can get 1st prize. They do this because children should be equal, no discrimination.

For another point of this, in the United States there is no public insurance, which is different from Japan. Japan thinks every nation should have equal opportunity for medical care because everyone has the same human right to live. However, there is a problem that this insurance is paid by taxes from nations, so in the theory poor people use the money of rich people. American people point out this problem. They think the richer should get the richer quality of medical care to use their own money for themselves. This is too reasonable.

In Japan people used to think that inequality is not good, so it should be removed. Thus even Japanese society reflects this trend. Japanese companies raise their employees’ salary as a reward for long service because everyone can get their salaries as the term of their engagement. However, this idea has been changing in this recession into the base of people’s ability, which means employees can get their salaries based on their results. More good companies would like to hire more good people who have the ability to grow that company up because it has to survive in this competitive society of this recession. So the company has to pay more to the people who have good abilities to motivate them. It works; this kind of companies such as consulting companies or foreign investment banks can earn more money and they can also get more good people.

In conclusion, in this changeable, international, and competitive society, inequality is unavoidable or necessary to survive. Considered this situation, Japanese people have to understand this trend, and train their children to survive in this society. I would like to warn people who think the inequality is discrimination. Since every person is not the same as everyone knows, they cannot say the inequality is discrimination.

Advantages of globalization

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by Mayu Uehara

When a country tries to be open-minded or accept new idea, it always faces pros and cons of its action. Globalization, for example, it’s a controversial topic for any country. In Japan, after World War Ⅱ, we approved American ideas in Japanese law, and we have developed our country since then. Now, India is the one which has been westernized day by day. Though there are lots of opinions against globalization, globalization is one of the best ways to be promoted. There are three reasons: development of country, diversification of lifestyles, and improvement of right.

First, globalization can highly effect social, economic, and financial development. Now in India, new job opportunity for working in call center which uses English and deal with any questions or complaint of purchasers. Not only conditions of citizen’s life style but also country can be well activated. When the country only decides to be open-minded and foreign corporate build its firm in it, it can provide people bunch of employment; people for building the firm, gathering products which is necessary for building, people who works for trading can also have opportunity to be involved in its projects, people who works in the corporate, and more and more. Moreover, the conditions around the building can be developed, such as public transportation, restaurants, department stores, and so on. Only one movement can lead social, economic and financial development. Some who oppose globalization argue that it causes gaps between rich and poor; however, it is avoidable to accept free trade so that they can get cheaper products which comes from outside of country. It’s better having cheaper food rather than suffering poverty because of expensive domestic products.

Second, lifestyles of citizens can be diversity. Now in Japan, people, studying abroad and speaking second language, has increased. To be open-minded leads people having a broad outlook on their life. Having broad outlook can also support people having ideas or hopes for future and it allow them to find new market share. Though, due to globalization, cultural death has discussed and Japan is the one which has struggled to balance westernized and protecting Japanese culture, threatening of cultural fading promotes protecting national identity. Facing another culture let us recognize our own culture because when we face new idea, we often realize about our nationality which is barely discover when we are get together with same nationality. Furthermore, culture has taken over generation to generation, and we are sharing same identity with genetic so culture is hardly faded away.

Third, globalization can improve rights for social weak. In India, it’s unequal between men and women. Men works outside of house and women have to do house works. Also, men have power more than women in India; therefore, women tend to build up their stress. Women should have equal right to speak out opinions. Why woman’s right has not been accepted is because women don’t even have ideas to get their right because of lack of information. They tend to live in narrow outlook of life and just follow ways which is prepared by social culture. If they choose to stay at home for house job, it’s fine because it’s their choice; however, right to have equal opportunities should be protected in society.

Above all, opinions of acceptation of globalization is supported by three aspects, which are economic, financial, and social development, diversifications of lifestyles and improvement of right. Globalization can support activating society and also citizen’s lifestyles therefore, country should be open-minded to promote globalization.