Category Archives: International Soc

The Argument for Multicultural Policy

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by Sherry Stanczyk

In light of the ‘failed’ multiculturalism in Europe and the growing fear of terrorism and the radicalism of minority groups such as Muslims, the question of whether multicultural policy is beneficial to society or not is currently a heated issue. Last year, British Prime Minister David Cameron blamed multicultural policy for fostering Islamic extremism, and in Norway, multiculturalism was the motive behind Anders Breivik’s mass killing.

Multiculturalism is the visibility of minority cultures, languages, and religions in a society, and multicultural policy is written law by a country’s government that seeks to preserve, sustain, and regulate this diversity. One of the most well-known examples of multicultural policy is the Canadian Multicultural Act, which was included in the Canadian Charter of Rights of Freedoms in 1982, with the goal of preserving and protecting minority cultures and languages. The main goals of the act, as summarized by the government of Canada’s website, include guaranteeing all citizens the ability under law to preserve, develop and share their heritage and language, as well as the endorsement and support of activities that show the understanding and respect for diversity in society and make the use of languages and cultures of the “individuals of all origins”. The act applies not only to French Canadians and Canadian Aboriginals, but also to minorities of all religious and ethnic minority groups.

In theory, the idea of multicultural policy enforced by government sounds wonderful; the creation of a diverse and cultural society in which everyone is accepted and free to be themselves. However, multicultural policy has a growing number of dissenters who criticize it, and with some valid reasons. Kenan Malik criticizes multicultural policy for creating a society of ‘plural monoculturalism’ and a culture which imposes identities onto people. Instead of creating one whole and symbiotic society, multiculturalism forces different groups of people to remain separate and divided from each other, as well as stifles the individuality and dissenting opinions of individuals from minority groups. In this kind of environment migrants and minorities are not given a chance to fit in, and remain easy targets for hate crimes and racism. And if these immigrants never truly blend in with their host society, it is far easier for these groups foster hateful and radical views against the country they live in.

There are truths to these criticisms; if a society is segregated into little communities, differences are both kept and created. But if one were to look at the flip side of multiculturalism–assimilation, do we really foster a stronger and more united community? I would not only say that the answer is no, but that it creates an even less united community. This is namely because assimilation works far easier in theory than it does in real life; shedding one cultural or religious identity for another is neither easy, nor desirable for most people. Should we enforce to the children of immigrants that their heritage is something that is wrong and needs to be changed, and to other children that anyone different is someone to be ridiculed or afraid of? Instead, if we have multicultural policy that attempts to spread this diversity, instead of secluding it in their respective communities, it offers a way for the entire community to connect. The idea may sound too ideal against the realist views of anti-multiculturalists, but the idea that assimilation will erase racism or ethnic tension is even more idealist. It is also worth noting that multicultural policy does not mean that everyone is free to disregard a country’s written laws and rules if it does not suit their religion’s or culture’s.  Xenophobia can only move society back as a whole.

References:

Malik, Kenan. “What Is Wrong With Multiculturalism?”  Pandaemonium, 4 June 2012. Web. 11 Nov 2012.

“The Canadian Multiculturalism Act.” Parole Board of Canada, n.d. Web. 11 Nov 2012.

Immigration Pros and Cons

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by Samuel Slaten

Immigration is a huge part of any developed or developing country’s everyday life. Immigration can be something looked at as a spread of culture and values and a phenomenon that helps bridges societies together. However, the subject has a darker side as well. Immigration also has a side of racism, discrimination, and the aspect of illegally entering a country. This article will focus on the idea of trying to find a balance between decreasing illegal immigration while at the same time giving opportunities to those who had no choice in the matter to remedy their own situation.

The first issue that can be found is that when a country has a large number of people living in an area and receiving pay yet because of no identification those people do not pay taxes on their income and  thus the local economy suffers making life hard on immigrants and natives alike. One example of this is how  in 2011 there was an estimated 11.5 million illegal immigrants in the US (The CNN Library ). Which it then can be deducted that non of them were forced to pay any state of federal income taxes thus in the end were actually hurting their own communities. That same concept can be applied to any country.

Another idea to keep in mind is that where there is a lack of identification there is a lure for crime. Though the issue does not just reside with the breaking of the law (though that is a very pertinent issue) but with what is occurring after. It was reported that in the late 1990’s 4-7 percent of the some 11.5 million prisoners in America were illegal immigrants. Each of these people were costing some $30,000 per year to sustain (Hagan, and Palloni 367). Given that since 2000 the illegal immigrant population in America grew by 27% ( The CNN Library ) it can be deducted that the number of illegal inmates has also increased, meaning that the US government is spending even more money on non American citizens in American facilities paid for by the American people (once again this concept can be applied to other countries as well). It is an issue that needs to be addressed at the roots. Illegal immigration paints a false facade that all immigrants are illegal or violent which is absolutely not the case.  I think if a country cuts down on illegal immigration it will find a decrease in discrimination by the native population against regular immigrants. I believe that should be the goal of any immigration department, finding ways to help immigrants adjust and prosper in their new home.

However, there is another side to the story. With many illegal immigrants there are countless children whom had no say in the matter and who at times have lived in the host country so long that they can not even speak their parents language. At times many have received education in their host country and so promise to become responsible law biding adults. These children deserve to not have to suffer for their parents poor decision making. That is why I agree with movements and bills like the DREAM act that target these type of people and try to help them legally become apart of a country they consider their one and true home. I think that there should be locations where children around the age of 16 can go, whom have already entered the country as younger children, and receive the proper documents and amnesty to begin the application to citizenship.

Thus in order to promote immigration yet limit the lure of illegal immigration it is important for a country to find the right balance. One example is Canada. One way they keep immigration procedures simple is via a points-based system; “To determine whom it should let in to live and work, Canada uses a point system. You don’t even need a job or employer, just skills. Applicants are awarded points for proficiency in education, languages and job experience,” (cnn.com). Procedures are simple insuring immigration flows smoothly thus a united identity seems to form which is exemplified by Canada’s first Muslim Mayor of a major city; “When I was running for office, it was only people who were not from here who said ‘Whoa, is Calgary ready for a mayor like that?’” he says. “The people in Calgary just said, ‘Ah, it’s a kid from the East End. We know him,’” (cnn.com). Thus finding the issues with a country’s immigration department and making them efficient and simple helps spur immigration and the the need for illegal immigration low (due to smooth flowing immigration procedures).

Thus in the end I believe that in order to stop discrimination against immigrants in the long run and help to provide more opportunities  is to focus on stopping illegal immigration. That being said I also think that helping kids of illegal immigrants achieve citizenship without deportation is a very  important goal. Immigrants and native citizens alike are essential to a countries future and should learn to live in peace with each other, in the end we all are human.

Bibliography

Hagan, John, and Alberto Palloni. “Immigration and Crime in the United States.” Trans. Array The Immigration Debate. Washington D.C: National Academy Press, 1998. 367. Print.

“Immigration lessons for the U.S. from around the world.” cnn.com. CNN, 10 2012. Web. 11 Nov 2012. <http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/10/immigration-lessons-for-the-u-s- from-around-the-world/>.

The CNN Library. cnn.com. (2012): n. page. Web. 11 Nov. 2012. <http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2012/06/15/facts-on-immigration-in-the-united-states/&gt;.

Immigrants face labor issues in the host countries

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by Mao Shibata

Nowadays, globalization spreads all around the world and it has brought diffusion of international transportation so that people are able to flow freely over borders. The number of international immigrants who look for a job and seek more stable life is getting increase over the world, while they are struggling with serious labor problem in their host countries.

When I went to Vancouver during this summer vacation and stayed with my host Pilipino family, they were facing labor problem. The father had quit security guard and wanted to be an elementary school teacher, though the Vancouver government did not accept his require and grant letter of acknowledgement. Moreover they had two children who were still 6 and 8 and they live separately with their parents so that he had to take care of them in the home while the mother went to work during the long vacation. Since the mother was a breadwinner, she went to work 7 days a week and even worked on holidays as salary was higher than usual. They knew that as long as this condition persists, it is really difficult to make a living as their children get older. Then, what should they do? Should the father have to find another job-even if it is a lower wages one- while he leaves his children home alone? Should they send their children to their home country where their parents take care of their children?

Though they leave their home countries to get a job or to help their families, they cannot get stable and well-paid occupation even they have documents and the host country’s nationalities. Needless to say, immigrants who come to new country without any documents or visa cannot get a proper and high paying job. What’s more, their children those born and raised in host country also regard as illegal immigrants. Even they are educated exactly as well as children who have that host country’s citizenship and high skilled or talented people, they are not able to enter the university, get any certificate and satisfying job. It causes not only deprives of the children’s bright future but also it endanger their safety and the lives. Since it forces them to engage in unsustainable work and harsh environment such as day labor, low wages and prolong work besides, it may drag them into drug or gun crime to make much money.

Internationalization and development of the transportation make people easy to cross a frontier throughout the world and millions of people decided to go overseas to earn a livelihood or send money home to their families, however, they face multiple barriers in the host countries; low wages and long hour works, limited visa and citizenship. Not only try to restrict the immigrant’s occupations and to drive them away, but we need to consider how to improve their severe working situations and shift policies more flexible to accept them.

Migration and Gender

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by Mayu Shibata

Migrants have to live in a harsh situation in host communities and in case of female they have double disadvantages as foreigner and female and they are more likely than male migrants to be exploited and excluded. There’s a phrase ‘feminization of migration’ which has been used since 1990s. It indicates the increase of female migrants and those female migrants have become individual and independent, not as wives. They migrate to foreign countries on their own.

The number of Filipino and Sri Lankan women who migrate to the Middle East has now increased and most of them engage in housekeeping called domestic helper. They live in master’s house and do the house work. They usually have only one day off in a week. In Japan many Filipinos come in as entertainers and actually work at pubs and clubs. These domestic and entertaining works don’t always come with appropriate protection of human rights. Only because they are female and migrants they are in twice as vulnerable situation as the others. They are more likely to be sexually exploited and through the violence they might be in fatal circumstances like diseases and injury.

However, they still have to migrate to other countries despite the harsh facts. They might have families to care for in homelands and the families need her remittances to live on. They desperately seek for money and chances and they have no way other than migration. Simple restriction of their migration only suffers them and never save them as long as there is no working opportunities in their homelands. Some of them get higher status in families to migrate to other countries and earn money. It’s one of the ways those women become independent in those traditional but conservative style of their homelands. We cannot deprive them of chances to migrate. The possibility of migration must be equally suggested to them, too. However, it’s a problem that they are forced to migrate from other harsh facts such as unemployment as well. They should have free access to migration. Yet the choice should be made on their own.

This problem has been common between developed countries and developing countries. However, as developing countries achieve their economic growing, the number of migrants from less developed countries to developing countries has increased. Now they have the same problem.

MDGs suggests migrants’ problem to be improved by 2015. But it’s getting worse and worse. Because it involves many issues it might not be solved easily but resolution is required now.

How to Treat Undocumented Children

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by Misato Okumura

There are many undocumented children in the States. This is because their parents brought them there when they were little. They were not born in the States but they have surrounded by American culture and grown up there so their identity is almost same as other American children. But they get to know they are not American citizen when they apply for university since their parents are illegal immigrants and they are undocumented. President Obama has been trying to give them a right to live in the States legally by so-called “Dream Act”. Because this is not the children’s fault. They didn’t choose to be illegal immigrant. Their parents did. But should the States really give them a right? Is it good for them? I don’t think this should happen.

First, if they allow them to get a right to stay in the country, more illegal immigrants move to the States to raise up their children. The parents might come to the US only for giving their children to get a right to live in the States. The parents might stay with them because these children might be able to get higher education and higher job. This will increase the number of illegal immigrant.

Second, if some people in the States have a tendency to attack illegal immigrants, they shouldn’t let them stay in their country. It might increase crimes even though illegal immigrants are less likely to commit to crime. If you think you need to protect the children, accepting them as US citizen is not an only way to do so since some people might attack them because of their faces. Even though the children get a citizenship it won’t be decreased because they attack people who look immigrant. So this might bring more crimes in the States.

These 2 points are important for thinking about illegal immigrants and their children in the States. If the United States allows immigrant children stay in their country, it will bring more illegal immigrant in the States and it will increase people who commit crimes. Do you still think you should accept immigrant children and give them citizenship? The answer is No.

“Dream Act” sounds very nice project but I don’t think immigrant children should be documented just because they have grown up in the States. Accepting them as their citizens will bring the country more crimes.

Prejudice and Multiculturalism in Japan

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by Ayaka Nishizaki

In this time, I would like to bring the topic about prejudice and multiculturalism in Japan. One month ago, I saw a shocking situation that one couple of an American boy and a Japanese girl were insulted by one Japanese stranger. I was sad there is still some situations that ‘being different from others’ is not enough accepted in Japanese society. Therefore, I start to think how that situation occurs and about multiculturalism.

One big problem is that the Japanese idea of ‘egalitarianism’ sometimes causes prejudice. I learned the word ‘egalitarianism’ during class and I agreed that Japanese school and society focus on equality for everyone. Japanese school gives students the idea that we have to give same opportunity for everyone so that prejudice will not occur. However, I wondered ‘this egalitarianism is the exactly same meaning as treating people equally?’ In my opinion, Japanese school teaches how important they have to give same opportunities and rights for everyone, but they don’t teach ‘how important we accept something being different from others’. I felt strange when during discussion class, some Japanese students mentioned same opinion that I had heard before and many students agreed on. Japanese prefer ‘safety’ in society, so they unconsciously chose opinions they may feel comfortable with. I know not all of Japanese are like that and that is just one of examples, but my point is that Japanese society focus on being equal so much that it sometimes makes difficult to express ourselves and try to become similar to others in terms of fashion, hair style, even our different idea or thoughts.

‘Multiculturalism’, which is one I learned, will be very important in Japan. It is commonly said that many Japanese can’t think say their different opinion. On the other hand, American society gives people the basic idea that everyone is originally different. I don’t mean that American education is better: I think at least Japanese egalitarianism leads to some prejudice for foreigners. Therefore, Japanese needs to respect something being different, but how can Japanese society teach multiculturalism and make Japanese multiculturalism? I think it needs long time because Japan has one ethnic and they already have similar background, so students have difficulty in imaging what does being different mean. It is not easy to bring multiculturalism to Japan because of fixed environment. However, I can suggest that changing Japanese education system is one of the ways. After I came back to Japan from my studying in the U.S, I felt how few there are opportunities to share my opinion in Japan. Making more opportunities for students to discuss and share their opinion could be one step to multiculturalism in Japan.

Borderless Culture

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by Ayaka Nakamura

When I asked foreign friends a question, “what is Japanese culture?” many said, samurai and kimono that are related to traditional Japanese stereotype, and Japanese people also often say Japan is a mono-cultural traditional country. Yet, I think Japanese culture contains many foreign origin customs and is ever-changing. However, although it is difficult to differentiate a multicultural country from a global country, Japan is not enough globalized to be capable to accept people who have different cultures.

One of the most frequent answers to the question, what is Japanese culture, might be kimono. There is no doubt the traditional clothes is a part of Japanese culture, and many Japanese wear them for festivals and various ceremonies. Yet, kimono is not Japanese original or only-Japanese culture. Similar style wears were used over Asia, and Japanese people actually imported pre-kimono clothes from China and Korea. Then, how about Zen culture? Japan has five famous Zen temples where sophisticated monks created poetry and paintings, and the word, Zen, is widely known as a Japanese culture in the world. Yet, Zen was happened in India and was brought to Japan much later. Although both kimono and Zen are not originally from Japan, they are part of Japanese culture.

In addition to these pan-Asian cultures, Japanese culture contains Western cultures, too. One will hear the Symphony No. 9 in D minor, Op. 125, by a European composer, Beethoven, on the last day of every year in Japan. Playing and singing the Symphony No. 9 altogether is a Japanese ending year custom, and people eat soba noodles listening to it. Moreover, how about shaking hands? Is it not a Japanese culture? Although touching someone’s body part would not fit into Japanese polite manners, shaking hands became a common way of a greeting especially in business, and most of all Japanese know what shaking hands means. From ancient time, Japan integrated many foreign cultures into its own culture, and people are not aware of their non-Japaneseness as cultures are invisible.

However, instead of accepting foreign cultures, Japan is not capable of having people who have different cultures yet. If accepting people is about globalization, then Japan has not globalized enough. Although many companies expresses they need “global” people to work with, they would not hire a Muslim man who can do a great work but who needs to have praying time five times a day. It would still take time for Japan to stand at the global stage. Yet, I believe it is not impossible, and Japan can be a more multicultural and global country. For the change, Japan definitely has to deal with some overdue customs, such as treating women as tea servers and recruiting only Junior students, that would cause a delay in the global business race.

The immigrant issue in Japan

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by Asako Morita

Because the lecture last week by guest speaker was quite inspiring, I decided to research more about immigrant in Japan. Even though Japan has been welcoming more immigrants these days, it is still far from multicultural society compared to other countries. Therefore, as guest speaker insisted, the issues and problems of minority are easily ignored or invisible to the masses until minority in a trouble raises voice as a group. Then I would like to seek how Japanese government should make the policy to invite more immigrants.

First, I would like to demonstrate general information about immigrants in Japan. According to the statistic of national census, more than 2 million foreign workers are now in Japan. This number is still low compared to other developed countries such as the U.S. but it is almost increased twice than 10 years ago. 1.6 millions of people are from Asia and Chinese is the major immigrants in 2011. The next biggest number is from South America especially from Brazil. In the total number, almost half of them are women. However, like 75 percent of Philippines immigrants are women, the number of sex rate is quite different from each country. Because more and more immigrants or foreign workers have come to Japan, issues are getting defined.

Second, I would like to analyze what issues immigrants and foreign workers in Japan have. The one of the biggest issue is about an employment. Now, Japan is facing the issue of dwindling birthrate and an aging population. The concern from presence situation is shrinking of the labor force. On top of that, Japan is now in a depression so what enterprises in Japan have needed was the expectation of wage control. Then companies want 20 to 30 years old young simple labors and expected workers to go home before they get old. However, this turning over of young foreign workers cannot solve the issue of decreasing labor force. On the contrast, if a specific age group stays in Japan, Japanese composition of population becomes distorted.

Although if Japan succeeds in receiving numbers of immigrants, they may have hard time get used to living in Japanese society. Because Japanese life style is quite different from others, a friction might be caused and mass of immigrants would make a community by country where someone is from. Once Japanese government promotes to accelerate to receive immigrates, it is hard to stop it even though the situation changes.

Therefore, what I suggest is that Japan should make up the comfortable working environment for elderly people, women and foreign workers who are eager to work. And also, Japan has to break away from winning low cost competition model. Not only young simple foreign labors but also more and more skilled foreign workers should be welcomed. This is the way Japan survives in global economy under globalization.

Non-Governmental Cooperation among Immigrants and Local People

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by Hiroki Matsukura

In class, listening to the talk of Ms. Ishihara, a staff member of the Filipino Migrants Centre in Nagoya, I finally started to think that the only way to perfectly “save” immigrants is the network of host country’s local community. After all, there is no need to say, but the government is too precarious for immigrants to be faithful to and depend on it. We can say that a host developed country, such as Japan, sometimes seems not to be helpful or cooperative to immigrants especially ones without citizenship there. The government does not have an obligation to provide the immigrants with perfect service, such as welfare. Instead, it regulates and controls them. Thus when it does not like them, it will easily arrest them and send back to their home countries. These might be the governments’ opinions about one of the immigration aspects. On the international norm, the governments have to keep their security with their sovereignty and help their own national people in the world anarchy system. So, in the worst cases the governments will think the immigrants as just menace for them. Additionally, the immigrants without citizenship cannot participate in democratic politics system. Thus, they cannot reflect their desires to policies at all.

In such a reality, the supports of local cooperative network must be pragmatically helpful for immigrants. We can pick up three important points about the cooperation. The first one is being not governmental, but private. NGO and NPO are quite effective on this issue. They do not have to think legality, which the government always has to think when it does something, so they can be privately closer and more intimate to immigrants. And, they can take actions more flexibly than governments. That is also a characteristic point. The second point is being local. The local level has most contacts with immigrants, so support from the local can be the most direct and can response fastest to problems. Contra laterally speaking, the level which find most complaints about the existence of immigrant will be the local. Thus, we can understand that coping with problems among the local level is quite effective. At last the third one is both participations of the locals and immigrants. Cooperation between them will bring about their relation of trusting and relief. These points can complement the support for immigrants in short of the governmental help.

What I believe we need to aim at about immigrants issue in the local level is the inclusion of them. The inclusion is not assimilation but not being excluded. Showing the local members that immigrants can introduce advantage into the host local communities, immigrants can be the existence which the local community cannot ignore and exclude. Of course, we can point out the interactive communication, but also the participation of both sides with interactive benefits. Additionally we can think about another potential on this. After achieving the inclusive local network, they can extend the network to inter-community level, or establish a coalition of the cooperative local networks. The local power to intend including the excluded comers will intimately empower immigrants’ position.

Global Citizenship and Identity

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by Eriko Maruyama

As one society is shifting from homogenizing society to multicultural one because of the increase of immigration, the problem of language is always controversial. In the United States, the increase of Hispanic immigrants is very remarkable, so it has been worried that Spanish would replace English. However, the fear was found to be wrong (Portes, A, 2002). The fact is that the migrants have getting to manage English as younger generations grow up. Almost 3rd generation of the migrants cannot speak their mother language but they only can speak English. Thus, the assimilation to English has been proceeding, while unities of mother languages have been getting weak. Does the collapse of language unity lead to the chaotic society?

In response to the tendency of immigrants’ loss of its original culture, the immigrants’ dominant society has launched to set bilingual education to maintain their mother languages. In these bilateral schools, students have subsidiary classes in their mother languages. According to the reading, this dual language education has been successful, and students can handle two languages fluently. Moreover, some school organise this dual language education even for students whose native languages are English. I disagree with this education system because equitable education must be regarded at least in public schools. I suppose that we cannot make agreeable selection of language in the multicultural society. Therefore, I would suggest the education which will make ‘global citizenship’.

One of the authoritative international organizations, Oxfam, defines the global citizen as people who is “aware of the wider world and has a sense of their own role as a world citizen”, “respects and values diversity” and “is outraged by social injustice” (Oxfam Education). It is obviously important to have one common language, which means English, in order to communicate each other and create better society altogether. However, more importantly, we need to welcome the diversity of sense of values and respect them each other. In this context, the compulsory dual language education does not make sense at all. The objective of the dual education system is to preserve the original culture. But in my opinion, it is possible to maintain own original culture even we speak English because what makes society tied is not the language, but the common hope for the peaceful society. We can have two identities; our original culture identity and the identity as global citizen.

I have asked my European friends about their identity. They told me that they have two identities as their origin countries, such as Italian or German, and as the citizen in European Union. They speak different languages but they share the same future goals for the peaceful society. And their sense of identity has been built through the education. Therefore, I believe that it is possible to have more than two identities at the same time and to create diverse, but peaceful society. The lost of linguistic unity in the immigrants’ society does not lead to the chaotic society. It means that people create whole new identities as their original countries’ citizen and as the member of this planet. The common hope is much more important than forcing to speak fixed language. Lastly, I would quote the speech of the President Barack Obama:

“I believe we can keep the promise of our founding, the idea that if you’re willing to work hard, it doesn’t matter who you are or where you come from or what you look like or where you love. It doesn’t matter whether you’re black or white or Hispanic or Asian or Native American or young or old or rich or poor, abled, disabled, gay or straight.” (Guardian.co.uk, 2012, cited in http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/07/barack-obama-speech-full-text)

As President Obama declared, it does not matter what kind of identity we have. The most important thing is that we respect the diversity and go forward for the creation of unified society as a member of global citizens.

Bibliography

Guardian.co.uk (2012), Barack Obama’s victory speech – full text, [online]. Available: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/nov/07/barack-obama-speech-full-text [2012, November 11]

Oxfam Education, What is Global Citizenship?, [online]. Available: https://www.oxfam.org.uk/education/gc/what_and_why/what/ [2012, November 11]

Portes, A (2002) ‘English-only triumphs, but the costs are high’. SAGE Journals, vol. 1, February, pp 10-15.