When moms migrate overseas …

Posted on December 4, 2014 by japansociology

Anonymous student post

As women’s rights in developed nations are slowly inching towards equality, it is practically a necessity for women to contribute to the household income in order to sustain a desirable level of living. Many women strive to pursue high paying careers, leaving them unable to tend to the task of raising their children. Thus, an increasing number of households hire women from third world countries to take care of their children. This has resulted in the Philippines becoming the world’s number one source of outsourced caretakers.

This is a great opportunity for Filipino women to financially support their family. Taking care of
someone else’s child full time requires the women to leave their countries, thus leaving a child without a parent. This has lead the government and the media to vilify these women. They claim that the absence of a parent makes these children a burden to society.

The lack of a parent in early childhood can lead to behavioral issues and have long term effects that
carry into adulthood and can affect the individuals’ self-esteem, feelings of self-worth, and ability to
express feelings; thus also affecting relationships. As a child encounters new experiences, learns, and
grows, there is no doubt that the presence of a parent and proper parenting is detrimental to the proper upbringing of a child. It increases the chances of his ability to fully integrate into society.

One has to wonder how one quantifies the appropriate amount of parenting? How does the lack of a parental figure affect the child, and is the parent actually missing from the child’s life? Does the sacrifice of not being able to touch and feel your child justify the financial gain, stabilizing the families financial situation? This varies from family to family, as it depends on the child’s perceived feeling of abandonment, which depends on the mother’s involvement in the child’s daily life even though they are separated by thousands of miles. The communication between parent and child helps strengthen the emotional bond, thus lessening the perceived loss. The quality of the relationships with the rest of the family also significantly affect the child’s ability to cope with the lack of a parent, as they could help the child understand the sacrifices that had to be made. Also, the fathers coping with the loss of a partner would affect their ability to function as a parent, leaving the child even more confused, with a lot more to process, and without the needed attention and explanations. A child could be completely unaffected if the void would be filled with the necessary support. Thus, the attitude and involvement of the family’s relatives is of great importance and greatly affect the child’s ability to cope with the family’s circumstances.

The links between migration, trafficking, and slavery

Posted on November 11, 2014 by japansociology

Trafficking In Persons Report Map 2010 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

by Alonso Meraz

There are many migrant workers who go to a different country to work and make money and send it home. Some do difficult jobs, but many are choosing to do those jobs in order to make money. But what if someone is being forced to work against their will? What if someone was sent to a different country and forced to do some kind of work that they don’t want to do? Well that is called human trafficking.

Human trafficking can be defined as the trading of people for forced labor, sex slaves, and commercial sexual slavery. Trafficked people are forced into forced labor such as prostitution, sexual pornography, or hard physical labor with little to no pay. Human trafficking can happen to people of either gender and even children. It often occurs in developing countries, but also occurs in developed countries as well. Often people are kidnapped and transported to other countries, and they can also be traded within their own country. According to the organization called “Do something” it is estimated that a slave costs $90.

And there are approximately 30 million slaves who were trafficked on earth today. The human trafficking industry is the third largest crime industry in the world, and can make a profit of $32 billion dollars a year. Many slaves are kidnapped, or tricked and deceived into slave work. Many women are promised a good job, and benefits. Some are offered an education, or something better than the life they are living now. But once they are taken and realize what kind of work they must do, it is difficult and dangerous to escape. They are lied to, and are forced into becoming slaves. Run away teens, homeless, drug addicts, tourists and people living in poverty are common victims of human trafficking.

It is sad to think that such a thing is occurring in the world today. These people are having their lives, their freedom, and rights stolen from them. They have no choice but to obey their owners. Woman are forced to have sex, and perform sexual acts for their owners. And children are forced to work long hours for their owners. Most slaves have no way out, and don’t know how to escape. They may have no where to go, or fear being punished by their owners. Many of them even join the criminal organization and help bring in new slaves in fear that they might be punished if they disobey their owner.

The question is why are these human trafficking organizations still around today?? Why hasn’t anyone put a stop to them? Well there actually are many organizations who are fighting and trying to stop human trafficking. Organizations like, The IOM (International Organization for Migration), are trying to save trafficked humans and put an end to it. There needs to be more awareness of what is going on in the world, and people need to understand the dangers that are out there, and understand how to keep their guard up and recognize human traffickers. I think the more awareness that is raised the less likely it is for someone to be traded into human trafficking.

Doing what you want in precarious times

Posted on May 9, 2014 by japansociology

Note from Editor: Students are reading Anne Allison’s book Precarious Japan, and sharing their thoughts on how their own future plans are impacted by the instability and insecurity that Allison describes.

Anonymous student post

Today, more and more people tend to seek stability and security for their lives, so younger people study hard to go to famous universities and try to get secure jobs. Given the current precariousness of life in Japan, it may be necessary to live in Japan. However, will it really make you happy and comfortable? I don’t think so. The reason is that you cannot always be assured of security and a happy life whatever you get as your job. Also, what makes you happy is not only steadiness. When the whole of the society is not secure and stable, even if you get a secure job, like as a public employee, there is some possibility of failing and losing everything. Now, Japanese society is precarious, and that is why you should do what you really want to do! I know it is difficult to do actually, but it is worth trying because I believe that the current precariousness of Japan means the turn of Japanese society.

For the reasons mentioned above, although my dream is not a stable job, I would like to get the job.

I have had my dream since I was in junior high school. In the future, I would like to work for people and with people in developing countries. They have suffered from poverty, wars, or something difficult. We have to pay more attention to those serious problems and struggle with them to improve and solve more positively. In my case, the first time to recognize those obviously was when I was a junior high school student. In English class, I opened a page of my English textbook and saw a well-known picture. The picture’s name is “The Vulture and The Starving Child” taken by Kevin Carter in Sudan. I was shocked by the picture and I couldn’t concentrate on the lesson at all. It was not until I saw the picture that I recognized what poverty was in developing countries and how people were in those countries. After that I became to think I should something for those people and be interested in some jobs for people who suffer around the world vaguely. Now I would like to be involved in international cooperation as a Japanese and a member of a Japanese agency. Although the current Japan is in unstable and dangerous situation, it doesn’t matter to me. I want to live strongly for not my stable life but my dream.

Globalization through Social Media, Any Dangers?

Posted on December 28, 2013 by japansociology

English: Infographic on how Social Media are being used, and how everything is changed by them. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

by Ji Soo Kim

The time when globalization was done ‘one-way’ by television, radio, films and newspapers has passed. Social media, which refers to interaction among people in which they create, share, and exchange information and ideas in virtual communities and networks, has developed and extended to every part of our living. Through social media, such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, etc., I can share, agree, or ‘like’ the news and ideas shared around all over the world and shape my own beliefs through the exercises. It became my daily routine to check the ‘Newsfeeds’ when I wake up in the morning, and ‘Like’ friends’ posts.

The advantages of globalization through social media are countless. We can participate creatively and actively to share our own opinions in media. Free communication discloses different information, and benefit from its speed and variety. Then, here comes the question. Did everyone benefit from the expansion of social media use? Can it be explained only as benefits to our society?

My criticism by answering this question is that globalization through social media leads to selected globalization. Globalization through Social Network Services (SNS) sets a barrier to the poor, the elderly, and is unilateral globalization from the West.

As Facebook is ranked as the most used SNS, I will explain my opinion with using Facebook statistics. Facebook users reached 1.11 billion in March 2013, which is a huge number. It seems like significant proportion of population is communicating through Facebook. Let’s look at the details. (The statistics are from Wikipedia and are based on the end of 2012.) Can we say social media is a true medium in which everyone can freely communicate? 52.9% of the US population utilizes Facebook, while 5.2% of Indian population uses it. In India, due to poverty, Internet users account for 11.37% out of the entire population. This means that the other 88.93% do not have any idea what is happening on the internet world, and thus are excluded from a world which only the rich can afford. Looking at other less developed countries, the situation is not different. Facebook users constitute 8.9% in Bangladesh, 3.9% in Nigeria and 4.2% in Pakistan. These countries are more isolated from the world because they do not have access to Facebook.

It is not only the poverty that restricts people from online communities. Since internet availability is more difficult compared to televisions or radio, and is harder to use, people aging 50 or more suffer from adopting it to daily life. I asked 13 friends, aged 21~23, whether their parents have Facebook accounts. Only 2 responded ‘yes,’ saying that one of their parents has an account. A father of my friend, Younghun Lee (51) answered, “It seems complicated. I have enough people to talk to in real life world. I get annoyed when my son stares into smartphone checking new stuff on Facebook on dinner table. If I want to check news, I turn on TV, If I want to chat with people, I do in face-to-face.” To many, SNS is complicated compared to what we have been using so far, TV, radio, and newspapers. Also, for teenagers, or young adults, social media could be a special zone where you could be free from parents, and express your feelings, but for the parents, it is a zone that sets them far apart from the children and the world.

Reaching my final point, social media was developed mostly in the US. Although Facebook now became a ‘global’ online community, Western citizens still consist the majority of Facebook users, and are the ones that lead online globalization. Developed Asian countries such as Japan show that only 13.5% of the population uses Facebook. South Korea’s Facebook users also remain 20.95%. Statistics support that Western countries use SNS more than other countries. The other countries in Asia and Africa are following the ‘trend’ slowly, trying to catch up with the rest of the Western world. Globalization occurs in Facebook, but unfairly. It is not an intercommunicating globalization, but rather globalization from the US and Europe to other countries.

Social media is considered to be one of the greatest benefits new technology had brought to humanity. That is why the dangers and disadvantages of it is underestimated and left ignored. Disadvantages must not be hidden under the shadow of the advantages because the bigger the dangers grow, the fiercer the dangers become. The online globalization through SNS draws a line between people who can freely use new technology, internet, and those who cannot. We are the young generation who are included in online community, but those excluded cannot have their voices heard to us because they do not have means to share their voice. Those who cannot afford to gain access to internet, find using SNS complicated feel isolated for being unable to participate in the new world. Also, while true globalization is resulted from multilateral interactions, currently, it is done unilaterally from West to the rest of the world. Such dangers SNS has brought to us must not be overlooked, but thought carefully to be examined thoroughly by us, the young generation.