Category Archives: International Soc

Should the U.S. Still Have to Keep the Gate Locked?

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by Ayaka Nakamura

In the last class discussion, our group mainly talked about how we could determine who shall have a dual citizenship and who shall not. Although there are many existing criteria to allow foreigners to have a visa, such as blood relationship, age, an ability of language, and criminal records, Japan still has not admit a dual citizenship. Then, questions came up to my mind, what do we need to be a citizen of a country? Do we really have to meet the criteria to live in the country? As I had strong interests in one of lecture topics, migration, through “Salsa and Ketchup: Transnational Migrants Straddle Two Worlds,” written by Peggy Levitt, I would like to deepen my knowledge about immigrants in the U.S.

One of interesting findings is that keeping homeland’s culture and language does not really matter to live in the U.S. Although an ability to speak English is necessary to assimilate into natives, Mexicans, the largest immigrant group, seem to have a difficulty to adopt American ways than other groups, according to a research by USA TODAY. In the article, Jacob Vigdor, a Duke University associate professor of public studies and economics, sets up three categories that distinguishes immigrants from U.S. natives: “economic (employment, occupations, education, homeownership); cultural (ability to speak English, marriage to natives, number of child); civic (naturalization, military service),” and discusses Mexicans have the lowest assimilation of any immigrant group.

Kirk Semple in “Moving to the U.S. and Amassing a Fortune, No English Needed.” seems to explain the reason why Mexicans hardly assimilate. Semple talks about Mr. Sanchez, an immigrant from Mexico, who was selling tortilla chips on the road but realized an American dream in the U.S. Mr. Sanchez came to the U.S. as an immigrant to have a successful life and opened a food company, Puebla Foods that earns millions of dollars now. Mr. Sanchez says he cannot speak English because he has not needed to speak English for his success. He targets only Spanish speakers and works with Spanish speakers living in the U.S. Moreover, Semple introduces another example, Mr. Zhang, a Chinese immigrant, who owns a cell-phone accessory company. Mr. Zhang targets Chinese markets in the U.S. and talks that English ability did not matter to establish a company. He says the progress of technology enabled his business to reach a success. He communicates with English speakers through the Internet where numbers of language translating systems are going on. Thus, his lack of ability to speak English did not really matter.

However, to be a U.S. citizen, Mr. Sanchez and Mr. Zhang have to pass the naturalization test that includes English tests. Although the U.S. society allow them to success in business and have wealthy lives, the immigration system cannot give them permissions to be citizens. It seems that the current system does not meet the situation of the U.S. society. I would not say it should be changed and let all of those immigrants to be citizens, but the criteria to judge whether a person is proper to be a citizen might have to be reconsidered. The U.S., the melting pot of the world, would be the first country that accepts an idea of multiple citizenship or global citizenship.

References

Nasser, Haya El. “Study: Some Immigrants Assimilate Faster.” USA TODAY. (May 13, 2008). http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-05-13-assimilation_N.htm?loc=interstitialskip

Semple, Kirk. “Moving to the U.S. and Amassing a Fortune, No English Needed.” New York Times. (November 8, 2011).

Diversity and discrimination

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by Rina Terasaki

The discussion held in the last class reminded me about Japanese government’s policy of foreign residents. So today I would like to choose a topic about immigrants in Japanese society and express what I feel about the system, with telling some stories that I have heard from my  friend. First of all, I feel that Japanese society is quite exclusive about other nationality or cultures. Even though more than two million foreigners are having life here as foreign resident nowadays, it seems to be very ‘Japanese’ in the political scenes. Not similar to those multicultural nations, foreign residents in Japan seems to be treat as ‘outsider’ in invisible way. I even sometimes happen to hear that some people or the government says Japan is a racially homogenous nation. It sounds to be like they do not recognize there is not only one ‘culture’ or forms of people’s life, even sounds they are ignoring those people’s existence.

One of my best friend, who is a Korean resident in Japan (zainichi-Korean), has told me dissatisfaction about the government’s political system. For example, she and her family does pay taxes and pay for whatever same with those who has Japanese nationality, but she has no right to vote for elections. Also has no right to become a national civil servant. I felt there is a big discrimination between Japanese and non-Japanese residents with just a reason of their ‘nationality.’  Even she was born in Japan and spend almost the same lifestyle with me, her rights of participation in government are very little.

Then it reminds me the story I heard in the discussion in last class. Some (or might be many) countries accept dual citizenship, but Japan does not. I came up with a reason: I think Japanese government try not to have people  whose mind is half Japanese and half others. For example, if there are many people that have Japanese citizenship but thoughts are anti-Japanese, then Japan, as a nation, would be ungovernable. Population of Japan is also not that big compared to others, so it might be a crisis when non-Japanese residence includes and give influences to the original thoughts and the norm and might destroy the racial unity in Japan.

To conclude, in my opinion, place where someone was born is just a place, nationality is only for convenience and it should not be an identifiable tool. Sometimes it is needed to think decidedly between nationality and identity. Therefore, people’s action and rights has to be freedom beyond nationality.

Resources:

2012年6月13日公表 法務省 2011年度登録外国人統計 http://www.e-stat.go.jp/SG1/estat/List.do?lid=000001089591

Accommodation to another community

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by Young-im Kim

In this global society, we can easily find immigrants who moved to another country for better living. The first generation tends to maintain their home cultures and languages than the 2nd and the 3rd generation does. The 2nd and 3rd generations who were born and raised in their host country might be naturally socialized by the host country. They may follow the rules and norms of the host country. However, the first generation people were already socialized by their home country. They might experience the moment that they have to choose the norm to follow. They may hesitate to access or resist the host country’s community. Why they tend to keep their identity and what makes us distinct as an individual, culture, and language community? Do we have to have singular identity? and can we decide national characteristics as a stereotype?

I think finding one’s identity is the process of lineation but not just from national characteristics. For example, Japanese people sometimes argue they use indirect communication skills and Westerners tend to be direct. I think it depends on the situation and the standard of “indirect”. Culture cannot be generalized and not just from an inherent. It might be an easy way to understand the culture by means of stereotyping; in fact, I feel the stereotype makes difficult to understand complicated individual.

Furthermore, culture has been changing and dynamic through transnational mobility. However, as me being a foreigner in Japan, Japanese tend to like drawing a distinction between foreigner and Japanese. I studied “Nihonjinron” which means a subject about Japanese. I think no country has researched themselves as a subject. Tricks (2011) also argue Japanese seem unwilling to make changes in their corporate cultures that would allow new ideas to percolate to the top. We do not need to severely classify the identity. Between communities, we have a lot of possibilities not just problems. Sen (2006) mentioned “The artificial diminution of human beings into singular identities can have divisive effects, making the world potentially much more incendiary.” We do not have to exclude other cultures as well as be assimilated by other cultures. I believe global village is made of Mosaic, which is not fixed and solid.

References

Sen,A.(2006). Identity and violence: The illusion of destiny. W.W. Norton & Co.: New York.

Tricks, H. (2011). Summoning the next generation of leaders. In McKinsey & Co. (Ed.) Reimagining Japan: The quest for a future that works. Vixmedia: San Francisco, CA.

Immigrants as Majority – The Case of U.A.E.

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by Akie Kuwano

In the age of globalization, it seems that the concept of nation state is not viable any more. Numbers of different ethnicities now exist in one state, although the amount of foreign-born population varies across the countries. While Japan maintains its foreign population low as 1.7%, U.A.E positions its opposite; according to the census in 2005, nearly 80% of their population is foreign-born. Immigrants are likely to seen as minorities in a country like Japan, however, that is not the case in U.A.E. This essay examines the reason why U.A.E. attracts so many immigrants and the problems they and hosting population face in new country in an aim to provide rather new insight to look at the issues concerning migration.

Firstly, people migrate to U.A.E in search of work. Most of them came from lower-class families of India, Philippines, and surrounding Middle East countries. Those countries suffer from growing population and lack of employment while U.A.E. seeks for the work force to bring forward its development accompanied with the rise of oil price since 1973.

Although its economy has long been supported by those immigrants, U.A.E. is not welcoming foreign labor force in recent years. Out of all the working population in U.A.E., only 9.5% is its own citizens. In other words, almost all the working population is consisted of the immigrants. In an attempt to modify this extraordinary gap, the government has passed the law which demands companies to preferentially employ U.A.E. citizens. The law has also placed Arab immigrants over Non-Arab immigrants, creating the hierarchy even within the immigrant population. Despite of these efforts, the unemployment rate of U.A.E. citizens hasn’t been improved. Because U.A.E. government scatters money earned by its oil export to their own citizens, almost all the citizens are wealthy enough to be highly educated and thus are selective about choosing their occupation.

Regarding these facts and figures listed above, it is important to reconsider the definition of nation and citizenship. Who it is that the national government is responsible of; the immigrants who are mass majority of the population or the citizens who are minority in number? Are citizens who are mostly unemployed still credible of endowments given based on their citizenship? Since Japan is now in need of opening its gate to the world of migration, considering these issues U.A.E. is facing might offer us greater insight of Japan’s future policy in migration.

REFERENCES:

Hoffman M. (2012). Only Immigrants Can Save Japan. The Japan Times. Retrieved October 21, 2012, from http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/fl20121021x3.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+japantimes+%28The+Japan+Times%3A+All+Stories%29

鷹木恵子「U.A.E.の出稼ぎ外国人労働者にみる文化融合と文化摩擦　―ドバイでのインタビュー調査から―」（『国際学レビュー』１号）

「No.985人口問題で不安を抱えるアラブ首長国連邦」中東TODAY　[http://www.tkfd.or.jp/blog/sasaki/2008/04/post_59.html]（最終検索日：2012年10月21日

International Migration

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by Wataru Yukita

International migration has increased in recent years. In Japan, some people say that Japan should accept many immigrants to increase production power because of a decline in working age population. However, is that right? I have a skeptical view for this opinion.

At the beginning, I agree that Japan becomes more tolerance to foreigners. In Japan, many people (especially in Internet) agree to deport illegal immigrant who have worked properly, it is funny in common sense. Giving permanent residency to the foreigners who work seriously in low wage job and raise children born in Japan is a right policy, compared to give preferential treatment to idle Japanese. I think that accepting many immigrants in order to increase economic growth without thinking is the opposite.

First, who is pay cost to accept immigrants? Though there is no problem for company and farmers that simply want cheap labor, local government and autonomy must ensure house for immigrants, education on their children, social welfare and so on. Many local governments confront shortage of revenue. So, could they take measures of these problems? I think that it is very difficult. If many children of immigrants could not get education and they make poor, Japan will face social problems of difference in race like western countries. Immigrants have human right, not machine. Because we accept “human”, we must guarantee life as human beings for everyone. If we wouldn’t do so, our society will collapse in morality. Company and other organization that simply want cheap labor should be criticized.

Second, are there any people who really want to immigrate to Japan? Many developing countries have a problem of decline birth rate and a growing population of elderly people while economic growth. Many workers are in need in these countries as well as Japan. If Japan promotes immigration policy, Can Japan collected many immigrants? I have doubts about this idea.

Finally, multiculturalism is very difficult to achieve. This can be presumed from European countries and United States that have accepted many immigrants. In these countries, immigrant policy is a major issue in election every time. Of course, this is true of presidential election in United States coming soon. Japan, have never experienced of acceptance of immigrants, are not even start these discussion in level in the Member of Parliament.

That is why I disagree to accept many immigrants in Japan. However, we need to discuss this problem for the future in Japan.

Will Japan accept dual citizenship someday?

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by Rina Yoshikawa

Since the word “globalization” has become popular all over the world, many people began to meet new people that have different language or culture each other. Migrating to new countries for better jobs and international marriage are not unusual things anymore and it is easier to move across borders now.

However there are still many problems to live over borders since we do not share all the same laws or rules in the world. Even some policies have completely opposite views between countries. One is how nationality is granted when child is born that depends on whether the country takes “jus soli” or “jus sanguinis”.

I have a friend who is half-Japanese and half-French, born and grown up in France. She owns both citizenships since French law grants nationality based on the child’s place of birth and Japanese law grants nationality according to the child’s blood relations. She is now turning 22 and has to give up one of the citizenship. She is aware that she is comfortable with being as French but is not completely true. Since she was young she has tried to know what Japan is like and studied Japanese to communicate with her relatives living in Japan. It must be hard to choose one from two that both consists one’s self and cannot be changed.

Not only her but there are millions of people in a same situation in Japan. Children cannot choose where to be born. This is just adults’ ego in a society. Japan put too much emphasis on nation’s loyalties that are believed only who owns Japanese blood, are able to behave just like Japanese and looks like Japanese. Other excuses tend to be left away. I feel like this is just we are trying to protect ourselves and stay where we are without any advance or moving backward.

To allow dual citizenship is a big issue that concerns many things which may change Japanese society or even history drastically. It takes few years to adjust between international laws and Japanese ones. However, I think those people in a neutral situation have right to insist on both citizenship just like what they are. We cannot draw a complete line for it. Those cases that hold international matters such as mixed children will be more familiar since globalization develops more and more, and society needs to catch up and make changes as it goes. Japan is not an isolated island anymore.

Does Japanese mono-citizenship policy limit diversity of thoughts and activities?

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by Naoko Yoshida

In the last class, we talked about dual-citizenship. Our group was in the negative side, and we ended up with a conclusion that dual-citizenship can make a big confusion of political regulations, laws, and sanction, and that is why Japanese government does not allow us to have more than one citizenship. However, actually, since all of students from our group personally agree to allow dual-citizenship, we focused more on positive side. One of the topics we discussed at that time was relationship between citizenship, and thought and activities. I believe Japanese policy of mono-citizenship limits diversity of thoughts and activities. In this essay, I will discuss relation between citizenships and thoughts by using an example of a friend of mine.

According to the Japanese Ministry of Justice, everyone who has both Japanese citizenship and foreign citizenship should choose his/her citizenship before he/she becomes 22 year-old or within two years after he/she has got dual-citizenship. Otherwise he/she could lose his/her Japanese citizenship.

During my studying abroad in the US, I made friends with one Japanese-American man. His father was born in America, and his mother was born in Japan and moved to America because of her marriage. Since he is still 19 years old, he is one of the people who have both Japanese citizenship and American citizenship. He told me that he is still wondering whether he will keep having either his Japanese citizenship or his American one. Although his personality seems more like American than Japanese, he has been really proud of himself as Japanese and he really loves Japanese custom. Moreover there seems a much stronger likelihood that he would get Japanese citizenship if he had no dream. His dream is to be in the American military. In order to be in American military, he should have American citizenship. In other words, he should give up on his Japanese citizenship if he makes his dream come true. That is why he is still in wonder if he gets Japanese or American citizenship. Of course, I think one’s citizenship do not greatly influence one’s way of thinking. But if Japanese government allowed us to have dual-citizenship, he would live both as American and Japanese. By not allowing having two citizenships, his thoughts and activities as Japanese would be limited. By knowing that fact, I feel like by mono-citizenship policies, Japanese government limits diversity of thoughts and citizenship’s activities by itself.

In conclusion, Japanese mono-citizenship policy limits the diversity of thoughts and activities of their citizenship. That is why, I agree that Japanese citizenships should be allowed to have dual-citizenship.

Reference

Japanese Ministry of Justice.国籍選択について. Retrieved October 22nd from http://www.moj.go.jp/MINJI/minji06.html.

Identity problem from Dual citizenship

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by Sungryoung Yoon

Dual citizenship is a status in which a person has two citizenships under the law. The number of the countries which allow dual citizenship has been increased by globalization like a lot of immigration. The United States is one of the representative countries which is multicultural country and also allow this system in the world. However Japanese government still doesn’t allow this system today. Japanese government forces people to choose one nationality when people get 22 years old. I think that system of dual citizenship will be one of the ways which helps solving the problem of people’s identity. I guess only one national system in Japan constrict one’s identity who have some roots so I would like to talk about good point of dual citizenship for identity problem. I am going to talk two different styles of people who have some different roots.

First one I will talk here is hafu style. Hafu people naturally get two different roots or more than two different roots from their parents when they were born, and then they grow up with their different roots. It should be so difficult for people who have some roots to choose only one nationality because different roots grow people’s identity naturally. For example, I have one friend whose father is from the United States and mother is from Japan. She was grown up in Japan until 6 years old and then she moved to the United States. She had to choose one nationality when she got 22 years old because of Japanese system even if she speaks both English and Japanese so well and she loves both cultures too. She didn’t want to throw away Japanese nationality if she could because she feels her identity is made by both. She told me when we talked about identity problems. Japanese government forced her to choose only one nationality even if her identity comes from both roots.

Second style is a foreigner living in Japan. I pick one example about Korean who were born in Japan and the United States. I am one of this example because I was born in Japan with Korean nationality. I was grown up in Japan and went to Japanese school and my almost friends were only Japanese before I go to Korea last year. My personality adapted to Japanese society but nationality is Korean. I was so surprised when I met a lot of Korean who were in the United States. They asked me why I do not have dual citizenship and told me Japanese government should give me the chance to choose. I hadn’t thought until then I could choose nationality but if I could have two citizenship, I think something would change to my identity problem.

I know a lot of problems will happen like government problem if we introduce dual citizenship system to Japanese society. However I don’t think it is the best way to force people to choose nationality because identity comes to people so naturally. Dual citizenship will make big helpful for people who have different roots more than bad points.

Is globalization making our world homogenized?

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by Chika Yamamoto

We often hear the word “globalization” these days in everywhere and we actually see and feel all the outcomes of globalization. As we talked in the first class, it is often said that globalization makes our world similar. For example, if you go to the big cities such as New York, London, Vancouver, and Tokyo, there are not so much differences in the buildings, companies, shops there. Big cities always have high buildings and skyscrapers, and we see lots of common international corporations such as Macdonald, Starbucks, Gap, Zara, Louis Viton, Nike and so on. Now we can find sushi restaurants everywhere in the world. All the signs in those big cities are in English even though it’s in non-English-speaking countries. So, people say that the world is getting similar. But, is it really true? Are all the international companies are selling exactly same things? Do people feel that they are in Japan when they are in Macdonald in New York? I think globalization is not making our world homogeneity but is actually making our world more various and diverse.

Here is one of the examples of the variety and diversity resulted from globalization. Sushi is getting really famous and popular food in the world. When I went to Canada, I was surprised at a huge number of sushi restaurants there. I guess there was the same number of sushi restaurants in Toronto and Montreal as the number of convenience stores in Japan. If we explain that you can find sushi restaurants anywhere in the world, it may mean that world is getting same. However, are those sushi sold in Canada same as Japanese sushi? Some restaurants sell the real Japanese sushi like “nigiri sushi”,but it seems common to have “their” sushi. The most common one is California roll that contains avocado and crab mixed with mayonnaise. Not only that, but also they have whole bunch of “their” sushi we’ve never seen in Japan. So, sushi is arranged to fit in that culture.

According to Matsumoto (2002), there are sushi restaurants in New York that serve specific sushi topping for Jewish keeping “Kosher”, the rule of what they can eat and cannot eat. In South America, some people dip sushi in salsa source instead of dipping in soy sauce, which is targeted for Latin people. Thus, sushi has spread all over the world changing the content of sushi and the style in order to fit in that culture and society. I think those sushi are not “Japanese” sushi anymore. People around world get an idea from sushi and they create new types of sushi for people living there. As a result, sushi culture is enriched and now there are various kinds of sushi in the world.

In conclusion, I think globalization enriches cultures in the world. In other words, new types of cultures or way to provide international products are appeared when culture is influenced by other culture or when people try to adopt foreign products or culture. I show only one example, however we can say the same thing about menu of Macdonald or clothes of H&M and Gap. I guess that’s because globalization is always strongly tied to economy, and market place differs in different places. So, naturally it results in varying their culture and their products. And, I think it is really important to have their color or flavor in internationalized cities. Therefore, I believe that developing countries that are going to be like world cities had better take account of this idea and apply this so that they won’t lose their culture and they will develop themselves. I think that is the good way to be globalized.

Reference

Matsumoto Hirotaka (2002). ”お寿司、地球を廻る” Kobun-sha.

Dual Citizenship in Japan

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by Sayaka Umei

Dual citizens are the people who have more than one citizenship. In Japan people have to choose one of them when they are 22 years old but in some countries people do not have to choose it, which is why they can have two citizenships. I think Japan needs to permit the dual citizenship because of two reasons below.

First, people can live better off in the host country if they are permitted to have dual citizenship. I have a friend who has American and Mexican citizenship. He was born in Mexico and moved into America when he was a little. He got the American citizenship because he needed to have been living in America for the rest of his life. When people live in one country, they need citizenship if they need to live contemporary. So they need the rights to live, pay taxes, use the taxes, use the medical care and so on. Moreover they need the protection against the crimes or wars. To be relieved that they can feel protected, they need to have citizenship literally.

Second, they can be proud of having two identities. Other friends of mine who have American citizenship and Japanese citizenship are really proud of their Japanese identity. He has Japanese parents but was born in America. He actually rose in America so he does not have Japanese background, culture, and custom but he is really proud of his Japanese nationality. When I hear their background, I was really glad because even though he does not know Japan so much, his nationalities are both America and Japan. Another friend has both American parents but he was born in Japan because his father is in army. He does not look Asian but he can speak Japanese and he really likes Okinawa where he was born and he love Japan as well. If he was born and grew up in America, he would never think about Japan. I think he will never come back to Japan because he was in Japan just because of his parent. If they are allowed to have dual citizenship, they will never think they are rejected to have Japanese and can be more proud of their nationalities.

Some people say there are some difficulties to have more than one citizenship to live in one country. Usually people do not pay attention at how many citizenship he has but occasionally when they travel around the world, or they want to join the army, dual citizenship is a kind of confusing. However, just Japanese government needs to establish the new law to correct, reduce, or clear these problems. Just they need to take an action to these problems.

Above all, I think Japan needs to admit the dual citizenship so that people who have dual citizenship can live better off and be proud of their nationalities and background.