Tag Archives: immigration

Immigration and the U.S.

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by Ayaka Kondo

The problem of illegal immigrants has troubled the U.S for a long time, but now the U.S has very strong social and economic ties with them, and it can be asserted the influence of illegal immigrants become so important that it cannot be ignored.  However, the situation over immigration gradually takes different color compared to the past; the number of immigrants from Asia and Mexico continues to go down recently.

It is said that the number of immigrants from China dropped by 87,000 to 70,863 from 2006 to 2010. Moreover, from the data of Pew Hispanic Center, the number of Mexican immigrants used to grow rapidly from the 1970s to 2000s, but since 2007, Mexican immigrants have been decreasing every year. Nevertheless the effect which Hispanic immigrants can give is thought to be still much stronger in the U.S because about 11 million people stay in the U.S illegally and more than 60% of illegal immigrants are Hispanics, mainly Mexicans, and most of them engaged in jobs such as agricultural industry, food service industry and cleaning service industry. In the long run, this tendency will probably give a great impact on American society.

Then, what makes the number of immigrants decrease? The U.S. might become less attractive to immigrants than it used to be in following two points: increasing discontent against immigrants and the depression in the U.S. First, it seems that anti-immigration movement gradually spread out every part of the U.S. For example, in Arizona, near the border between the U.S and Mexico, the state law to crack down on illegal immigrants was enacted in 2010 by conservative people. They have been regarded as those who disturb the peace of the U.S or can be a burden for American citizen, while they contribute to American economy as farmers or low-income workers. Obama announced that it can foster racial discrimination and order an injunction, but Arizona still maintains that stance, and to make matters worse, similar tendency can be seen in the other 23 states.

Now, immigrants are indispensable part of the U.S and they play an important role in American society from perspective of economy and politics, and how make them stay in the U.S might be a significant issue in the near future. Therefore, the government of the U.S has to look for a solution to make its nations and immigrants cooperate although it will be the hardest way.

References

Huhou Imin ga Gensho Bei Keizai heno Eikyou ha?, [Illegal Immigrants Decrease in the U.S and How Does It Affect American Economy?], retrieved from http://www.nandemo-america.com/mobile/?p=23313

NHK Online, 2012, Huhou Imin no Wakamono ni Zairyuu Shikaku, [The Status of Residence for Young Illegal Immigrants], retrieved from http://www.nhk.or.jp/worldwave/marugoto/2012/08/0817.html

Yasui. A, 2012, Nikkei Business Online, Keikikoutai de Beikoku deha Mekishiko Imin ga Ryuunyuuchou ni, [The Decrease of Mexican Immigrants in the U.S Due to The Depression], retrieved from http://business.nikkeibp.co.jp/article/money/20120518/232294/

The Wall Street News, 2011, Amerikan Dori-mu no Syuuen? Chuugoku Kara no Imin ga Gensho, [The End of American Dream? Immigrants From China Decreased], retrieved from http://wstreetnews.com/2011/11/16/アメリカン・ドリームの終焉？%E3%80%80中国に引き上げ/

Undocumented Families in Japan

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by Ryoma Kagawa

In 2009, a 13-year-old Filipino girl who was living in Japan was separated from her parents because they had come to Japan in an illegal manner of fake passports. After arriving in Japan, they had lived for about a decade and the girl knew the Japanese culture better than the Philippine culture; for example, she spoke Japanese as well as the Japanese do. However, the arrest of her mother uncovered their secret, and the girl was made to decide whether she would go to the Philippines with her family or she would keep staying in Japan while her family would go back, which she took the former and the family was separated.

If a family in Japan has been found that they have come illegally and their children were very small and had no choice but to follow their parents on their arrival, what should  be done? There are many arguments among the Japanese whether the government should force such undocumented families to return their own countries, allow those children to keep staying, or some other opinions. In my opinion, the government should allow the parents to keep staying with their children until they are 18 years old and then force the parents to return.

The first reason is that the separation of parents has a big influence on their children when they are adolescent. Adolescent children are usually unstable in minds and the role of parents is of great importance here. In the case of the Filipino girl above, on the day of departure, she missed her parents very much and wanted them to stay with her; they also understood her feelings and knew well that she still needed them because she was young. I think that children who grow up through adolescence without parents might behave badly and it will result in bad effects on society. The second reason is that it is a matter of human rights. For instance, children may suffer from mental illness due to the lack of parents nearby, and it may become difficult for them to be educated. I think that the example describes the violation of their human rights by the government.

While the Japanese government should restrict the entry of people in illegal ways from the point of views such as national security, I believe that it should give more consideration to undocumented families who have already come and lived in Japan from the point of views such as influences on society and human rights.

References

Schoolgirl told to choose: Country or parents. (2009, April 13). CNN. Retrieved June 24, 2013, from http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/04/13/japan.philippines.calderon/index.html#cnnSTCText

 

How to change undocumented immigrants’ situation in the U.S.

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by Reina Doi

There are many undocumented immigrants in the U.S who demand a better life. They travel beyond the border, sometimes with fake passports, so a situation that many children do not recognize that they are undocumented until they are needed to turn in paper in some case is often happened. According to this fact, U.S. government decided to the plan Dream Act that admire undocumented immigrants to legal immigrants. This project seems good, and good step to adopt immigrants. However I think it is not enough to care of undocumented immigrants. Therefore I would like to point out the thing that U.S. should rethink.

First, it seems problem that only child will have a chance to get legal state. Of course, children had no choice to go to the U.S., so they should be prior, but adult had no choice to immigrate U.S. as well, because they face to leave their home country to support their family. Therefore I felt so weird when I heard about Dream Act for the first time (It does not mean I disagree with the Dream Act). I just wondered why government would allow only children. There are a reason that adult should have legal state. First of all, adult who is working has more opportunity that paper is needed, so they need paper to get guarantee from the government. In addition, they are almost working, so there are lots of care is needed about health, so working undocumented immigrants should have a benefit of legal state.

Through these reason, I would like to add that working undocumented immigrants also admire as a legal immigrants. It is needless to say that immigrants have to pass some terms. For example, they have no record a crime, good carrier at a working place and seems contribute U.S. society. Thus, if government admire like this suggestion, the situation that undocumented immigrants face will be better to live.

In conclusion, I think Dream Act will be good sample as a supporting immigrants project if it would success. In addition, I think many countries follow this model.

In Japan, there are children who face to leave Japan because of they are undocumented like Noriko. However, I think Noriko was no choice whether she came to Japan or not. so it seems there are no claim for children. If Dream Act will work, and improve some point I suggest before that adult should have more chance to get legal state,too, then this model will success to contribute getting better life for immigrants. Therefore I expect U.S. find solution that immigrants live with no fair, and if that projects will realize, many countries would imitate Dream Act, include Japan as well.

DREAM Act a solution for undocumented immigrants

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by Yurika Chiba

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Mexican Americans were 10.8% of the population of the United States in 2011. There is a huge number of immigrants from Mexico in the U.S. because the distance is very close between Mexico and the U.S. In addition to Mexican immigrants, America has more than 50,000,000 immigrants. However, it is a fact that America has also a lot of “undocumented immigrants.” One of the reasons is that the pay in America is better than that in their home countries. But, why are they “undocumented”? In America, it is hard for foreigners to get VISA.

ALBS JAPAN explains that the American government does not want to increase the number of immigrants because it thinks that undocumented immigrants cause American economy a great loss. In addition, America pays careful attention to immigration after 9.11 attacks. I think that the system of immigration intake in America has a problem to increase the number of undocumented immigrants.

Of course, they are illegal immigrants because they do not have the permission to get into America. However, some undocumented immigrants are doing jobs which American citizens do not want to like the 3Ds: Dirty, Dangerous and Difficult. In fact, their workings sustain the American economy even though some American citizens discriminate against them. It is clear that a lot of undocumented immigrants have a hard time in America.

How about their children, called “undocumented children”? They do not have their own passport. They can’t prove their nationality and can’t work legally. It is difficult for them to get their own driver licenses. Before they graduate from the high school, they can take the education. However, entering the university is difficult for them because most state university do not accept their entrance and they do not have enough money to enter the private university. That is why college-going rate of undocumented immigrants is really low. I watched the video about Jose Antonio Vargas whose parents are undocumented immigrants during the class. He hadn’t known he was an undocumented immigrant until he was 16 years old. After that, he has lived in America with hiding his citizenship. He is talented. But, he could not do an internship because he did not have American citizenship. In other word, he missed a lot of chances to do what he wanted. I think these children should be given the equal opportunity to live in America because they are innocent.

In order to help these children, the American government has suggested the “DREAM Act”, the idea of giving the right of living in America. Recently, the president of America, Obama, promotes this bill. It provides permanent residency to undocumented children. For example, the condition of application is given to people who enter into America until 16 years old and have lived in there for more than 5 years. Even though there are some more conditions to apply it, this bill is really beneficial to undocumented children. However, it has not passed yet in the U.S. If it does, undocumented immigrants who contribute to America would increase more and more. I think that this bill will give advantages to both American government and undocumented children.

On the other hand, opponents against DREAM Act insist that undocumented immigrants should get the green card by the legal process. They also explain that the opportunities of having green card should be equal to legal immigrants. However, in my opinion, undocumented immigrants do not have equal opportunities from the beginning. For undocumented immigrants, having the green card is much harder than other immigrants. I think DREAM Act has very important role to correct the gap between undocumented children and documented children because they did not do wrong at all.

In conclusion, the problem of undocumented immigrants in America should be solved as soon as possible. I do not mean that American government has to force undocumented immigrants to away from the U.S. Rather, American government should consider the policy which these immigrants can live in there at ease. As one of the solution, DREAM Act needs to pass for undocumented children. If undocumented children can have the right of permanent residency, next generation can live in America as American citizens. I believe that it would lead to a positive outcome for undocumented immigrants.

 

References

U.S. Census Bureau:

Retrieving June 23, 2013 from

http://factfinder2.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?src=bkmk

ALBS JAPAN: Retrieving June 24, 2013 from http://www.usavisa.jp/howto/faq_visa07.html

NYT, Mexican Data Show Migration to U.S. in Decline: Retrieving June 24, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/us/15immig.html?pagewanted=all

NYT, My Life as an Undocumented Immigrant: Retrieving June 24, 2013 from http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/magazine/my-life-as-an-undocumented-immigrant.html?pagewanted=all

Transnational Migration and Limitations

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by Miho Tanaka

The activities of transnational migration are expanding every day and the immigrants’ social interactions and their relationship with their host countries is changing.

Since many African American’s diaspora started around seventeenth century, immigration to the U.S. and transnational migration accompanied with it has continued. Irish, Jews, Armenians and Greeks have settled in the U.S. as well as African Americans. Nowadays more and more immigrants arrive in the U.S. from mainly Asia and Latin America and seek job opportunity there. Each government of their host lands are trying to making ties with them in order to benefit from their immigration activity beyond borders. Levitt considers this phenomenon as long-distance nationalism that emerged from this current mainstream of globalization, whose processes tend to be de-linked from specific national territories (Levitt, 2001, p.202). On the basis of the changes of immigration in the U.S., Levitt addresses how policymakers should challenge these changes (Levitt, 2004).

I consider that the U.S. is one of the epitomes of immigrant issue in the world. A lot of people and ethnic groups have migrated to the country but the country also has many problems. Though Mexicans, Dominicans, El Salvadorans and the other immigrants can have strong ties with their host countries but non-immigrants do not have any connection with the other countries and they are losing jobs. Low-skilled people in the country may have their jobs taken by immigrants. However immigrants have some issues as well; for example some of them gradually lose relationships with their home countries, and if they assimilate to U.S. society culturally, economically and socially they willing to live and settle to the U.S. In addition the second generation often find itself as American citizens; therefore long-distance nationalism would be meaningless for them.

And most importantly the issue of racism is still large in U.S. society, and the U.S. society still allows domination by European Americans and sustains racism toward minority ethnic groups. At Western Michigan University, I took an Africana studies class and a social work class, which dealt with cultural and racial issues in the U.S. Through both classes I mainly learned how African American is racially discriminated in the society.

I suppose my way of thinking is similar to colorism but those whose skin color is dark tend to be targeted as an object of discrimination. Even if they transmigrated for such a long time they still cannot assimilate into their societies and their social status is threatened by newcomer of immigrants. From the perspective I found out a limitation of transnationalism, since the U.S. itself also has a lot of unemployed people. The problem would not be solved unless people change their racial tensions based on the skin color or appearance.

Reference

Levitt, P. (2001). Transnational migration: Taking stock and future directions. In Global Networks. 1, 3, 195-216.

Levitt, P. (2004). Transnational migrants: When “home” means more than one country. Retrieved on June 6, 2013, from  http://www.migrationinformation.org/feature/display.cfm?id=261

Japanese History: 100 Years of Solitude on Fantasy Island?

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by Robert Moorehead

“It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” Audre Lorde

Repeatedly in the past few weeks, some of the worst parts of 20th-century Japanese history have been in the news. Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto has repeated comments he’s made over the years, including denying that women were forced into sexual servitude by the Japanese state during the war. Just yesterday, Lower House representative Nariaki Nakayama joined the party by saying “We need to raise our voices and tell the world that (females) were not forcibly taken away.”

These comments have been widely criticized for their fictional view of Japanese history, but how well do people in Japan understand that history? If there’s hope for the future, then present-day university students would show a deeper, more accurate grasp, right?

One of my classes has been discussing the experiences of refugees, including whether Japan should accept more of them. In recent years, Japan has granted refugee status to only about 0.05% of applicants, for a total of about 10-30 people per year. In contrast, other developed countries have accepted tens of thousand of refugees per year. Japan has ratified the UN Convention on Refugees, and as one of the wealthiest and most populous nations in the world, Japan could be a stronger member of the international community by lending aid to more of the world’s most needy.

However, many students disagreed, and their disagreements show a clear pattern in describing Japan as a special, unique place that cannot be compared with anywhere else. In this version of Japan, there are no foreigners, only Japanese—and all Japanese share the same ethnicity and language. (Well, some say that there are Ainu, but their existence does not refute the dominant narrative.)

How could Japan sustain this monoracial, monoethnic, homogeneous space? Geography. As a series of islands, Japan was inaccessible to the rest of the world. Precisely how the inhabitants of the Japanese islands got here is unclear, because if they used boats, then couldn’t other people have also used boats to travel here? Was there an ancient land bridge that later collapsed, standing the islands in the middle of the ocean? Were the original inhabitants amazing swimmers who made the journey from the Korean peninsula?

The Japanese people have been united through a shared “island mentality” (shimaguni konjō) that instructed them to love each other and to love being Japanese. This mentality prevents Japanese from accepting others into their club. Also, the fact that Japan has always been so homogeneous means that Japanese have no experience living near non-Japanese, and are not familiar with dealing with such people.

I’ve tried to remind my students that in the first half of the 20th century, Japan was the head of a colonial empire that spanned much of Asia and the Pacific Islands. Millions of people from throughout the empire lived on the Japanese mainland, held Japanese citizenship, and voted in Japanese elections. One student later acknowledged that his grandmother told him that as a child many of her friends were Korean.

Notions of Japanese identity in this era justified Japan’s dominance by emphasizing ties between Japan and its Asian neighbors. One government propaganda slogan professed Japanese unity with its Asian brothers and sisters as “do-so, do-shu” (Same origin, same race). The idea of Japan as a homogeneous nation is a postwar idea to reunite a defeated nation after the collapse of its empire.

These facts of Japanese history are absent from students’ narratives. Instead, they act as if nothing happened in Japan between the Meiji Restoration in the 1860s and the Tokyo Olympics in 1964—100 years of solitude on Fantasy Island. It’s as if Gabriel García Márquez and Mr. Roarke were both Japanese and had 127 million love children.

But somehow their fantastical islands have a few million non-fantastical people, and there are other people whose islands became part of the fantasy more recently—and many of whom are unhappy about this. And many people who pass as fantasy people are, in fact, of non-fantastical ancestry. And let’s not forget the hundreds of thousands of fantastical return migrants, who also brought their slightly less fantastical Latin American family members.

Students express concerns over the challenges of integrating immigrants, refugees, and other foreigners into Japanese society. Those are valid concerns, but their solution is to close the door and to isolate Japan from the rest of the world. Is that a solution? Japan does have a neighbor that is much more isolated and that is largely closed to foreigners—North Korea. But is that the model they want to follow?

In an attempt to get students to rethink the issues, I read Dr. Seuss’s classic story Green Eggs and Ham, which challenges readers to get past their dislike of the unfamiliar. Green eggs and ham are delicious, after all.

Japan’s economic success has come from being embedded in the global economy, and continued success in the 21st century requires accepting not only people’s money, but the people themselves. We’re not scary. We’re green eggs and ham. Try us, you might like us.

Reconsideration of the Japanese Policy about Refugees

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by Ryuhei Sugiyama

Today japan has a very strict rule about accepting refugees. According to the Ministry of Justice, there were only 21 people who were admitted as refugees in 2011, nevertheless 1867 people applied refugees screenings, and most of them who rejected their applications made a protest to the judgments (Ministry of Justice, 2012). In other words, most of the people who cannot be refugees are not guaranteed their safe lives in Japan. Compared with the U.S., about 90-thousand people are admitted as refuges each year (Refugee Assistance Headquarters, 2008). In this way, the number of reception of refugees in Japan is one of the lowest among the developed countries. This is because the strict rule of Japan toward people who pursued aid from Japan.

Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act is the standard to judge whether the person is admitted as refugee or not. This act is very severe and it has some problems. Frist, the standard has a lack of balance. Japanese government asks for people to present many documents. However, most of them run away for their lives from their countries, so they cannot have any documents to present their states. In addition, there are lacks of systems of interpreting, thus people who want to do the application for refugee states cannot get enough information. Second, people whose applications are denied are ordered to get away from Japan. They cannot get any protections or legal status if their applications are denied, and are treated as illegal residents. Therefore, the government deports them. If they refuse to leave Japan, they will be imprisoned.

In this way, Japan copes with people who want to be refugees very seriously. However, is this treatment of Japan humanitarian? These people ask Japan for help because there is no place for them to return. If they return to their countries, they will get political, economic, or sometimes physical abuses from their governments. International society has an obligation to protect human rights of all of people around the world. Japan is a member of international society, and has a big influence as one of the developed countries. Therefore, Japan also has an obligation to protect people who ask for help. It is clear that Japan abandons this obligation, and the treatment is inhumane. At this point, Japan should admit more refugees and the act that refuses their helps should be revised.

References

The number of people who were admitted as refugees in 2011. The Ministry of Justice. Retrieved May 29, 2013 from  http://www.moj.go.jp/nyuukokukanri/kouhou/nyuukokukanri03_00085.html

The Reception of Refugees in Japan. Refugee Assistance Headquarters. Retrieved May 29, 2013 from http://www.rhq.gr.jp/japanese/know/ukeire.htm

Japan should become a leader of global society

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by Kazuki Ando

The ratio of refugees’ acceptance is very low in Japan. This data shows that Japan doesn’t accept refugee in some reason. The reasons why Japan doesn’t accept are that Japan is academic career-based society and Japan has large population despite small country. However Japan should accept more refugees.

First, to protect human rights is much more superior than not accept refugee. While most developed country tends to accept refugee, Japan doesn’t. To accept more refugees is possible to change the view of Japan from other country. To become a leader of international society like the U.S. and countries in Europe. Some Asian countries like Singapore accepted refugees are succeeded as well. In fact, it takes much time to make up some supports for refugee because Japanese have stereotypes, and then they regard as “gaijin”. I think it is not big deal if much time passed in order to change because Japan took much time to change into democracy. Besides some multicultural countries can make structures for refugee, so Japan also can do. This is good opportunity to change into multicultural and to contribute international society.

Second, to accept refugee doesn’t have any demerits. Some people say that to accept refugee has some demerits for Japanese society in terms of public safety and employment rate. According to metropolitan police department, the criminal rate of foreigner is quite fewer than that of Japanese. I think the public safety in Japan don’t become bad. Next, now employment rate is very low in Japan, so we can see the news that university student is hard to get a better job. Now Japan has this serious situation, thus Japan can’t afford to accept refugee in terms of employment rate. I don’t agree with that opinion because what refugee work in Japan brings good effect to Japanese society. For example, development of economy, rise of quality of products and so on. Refugee has strong will to work in Japan in order to live in Japan. If they don’t work hard, they can’t live in Japan because Japanese government did not give them enough treatment to live. In addition, Japan has some under populated areas and Japan is declining birth rate and an ageing population society, so Japan needs more workers to prevent such a problem. To accept more refugees is going to be a development of economy for Japan.

To sum up, Japan should accept more refugees to become leader in global society and to gain the development of Japanese economy. It must be necessary of much time, so Japan should gradually change the way of thinking about “gaijin” and make enough supports for refugee to live in Japan.

Language education against emigrants in Japan

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by Minori Takada

Today, in the world (especially in multicultural countries), the education of the language for the emigrant becomes the problem. Therefore, I report the actual situation of the Japanese education for emigrants in Japan, and in the end I would like to make a suggestion “what we need” for its improvement.

As you know, Japan shows severe posture for immigration intake, and the ratio of foreigner residing in Japan is remarkably lower than other countries. According to OECD, the ratio of the foreigner among the total population in Japan was 1.7% in 2009.

Many of them came to Japan as “emigrants” to get job. And some of them get married after having a job in Japan and get a child, so the linguistic education for the child of the emigrant often becomes the problem in Japan.

To say it plainly, the Japanese education for the children of emigrants is not enough. We can understand this situation from looking at this chart. （Economic and Social Research Institute Cabinet Office Tokyo, Japan. 2012）

Citizenship School attendance (%) Students who go on to high school (%)
Korea 99.8% 93.0%
China 99.4% 85.7%
Philippine 98.1% 59.7%
Brazil 98.1% 42.2%
U.S. 94.3% 87.7%
U.K. 99.5% 98.1%

This is the percentage of students who go on to a higher stage of education.

There are six nationalities’ data, Korea, China, Philippine, Brazil, U.S. and U.K. Here is the average percentage of schools that are compulsory education, and all of them show high numbers. However, percentages of students who go on to a high school greatly falls. This is why that they cannot keep up with classes, because some of children cannot understand Japanese well.

Why does such a result appear? I checked what kind of linguistic education for emigrants is done in Japan.

According to the Agency for Cultural Affairs research, the number of the facilities that teach Japanese to immigrants was 1,832 in 2011. And in addition, more than 70% are accounted by public facilities. And there are four main supports that are done by the Japanese government.

  • Financial support for the administration of the Japanese classroom.
  • Working-out of the research expense about the Japanese education.
  • Maintenance of the teaching materials about the Japanese education.
  • Holding of the Japanese education meeting for the study.

From this, we can understand that “support” by the Japanese government is only basically financial or superficial things.

Then, what kinds of policies do countries (where a lot of emigrants succeed in their linguistic education) perform?

I nominated Germany for an example, because it is said that Germany resembles Japan.

The biggest difference is that there is an enforcement of the native language education at government level. This is called as “intensive teaching methods”, and children can use only German all the time when they are at school. And in addition, German government holds special measures against children who do not have enough skills to speak and write.

“The education for the emigrant” is established in a school law clearly in Germany, and it may be said that such an education is accomplished well.

In conclusion, based on these things, I point out a refinement of the linguistic education for the emigrant in Japan.

I think the government should be concerned with support more directly. The government should perform not only the support that indirect and financial, but also a more concrete support.

And to plan an opportunity to learn Japanese for as a public thing, as the agency for cultural affairs says, it is necessary to calculate numbers from the results of conventional various educational fronts and accumulation of future data, and research about the language use situation of the foreigner and the Japanese ability.

References

移民統合における言語教育の役割 ―ドイツの事例を中心に― （金箱秀俊 pp.50-76. 2010. 国立国会図書館調査）

日本における外国人の定住化についての 社会階層論による分析 ‐職業達成と世代間移動に焦点をあてて‐ （是川夕 2012. ESRI Discussion Paper Series No.283）

文化庁 海外における移民に対する言語教育www.bunka.go.jp/publish/bunkachou_geppou/2011_08/special/special_04.html

文化庁 世界、日本、地域から見る日本語教育www.bunka.go.jp/publish/bunkachou_geppou/2011_08/special/special_01.html

The Atlas for Emigration: emigration-atlas.net/society/emigration.html

Chinese immigrants in New Zealand: A case of educational optimism?

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by Yuriko Otsuka

New Zealand is not only known for sheep and agriculture, but it is also known as a country which has a lot of immigrants. The population of New Zealand was about 4,252,277 people in 2010, and in that, the Chinese immigrants were about 85,477 people, which placed them as second among the immigrant nationalities in New Zealand (Peoplemovin, 2010). I stayed in New Zealand for a year since I had an opportunity to study abroad, and when I interacted with my Chinese friends, they told me about their life in China. Their parents had high expectation of their child’s grades, and told me that one of the reasons they came to New Zealand as an exchange student is to avoid the pressures from their parents; especially their mother. Chinese mothers, parents are way strict compared to ordinary Japanese moms and dads.

Tiffany (2007) indicated the reason why Chinese parents encourage their children’s education even though they are out of their home country by saying, high achievement and university degree will eventually lead their child to have a good job, and having a good job “represent the access to financial, professional and life success”. From that we could see that Chinese parents are really strict to their children’s education because they think it is good for their child in the long run. In “Chinese immigrants children’s first year of schooling: an investigation of Chinese immigrant parents’ perspective”, Li (as cited in Tiffany, 2007) said that “Although these [Chinese] families have resided in the new country for several years, they still connect themselves to their motherland and indigenous Chinese cultural values”. These ideas and actions make people call the Chinese mothers “tiger moms”, being strict in order for their children to have high academic achievement.

Considering about tiger moms, people may think becoming like them will enhance their child’s academic achievement, due to the results of Chinese immigrants ranking at the top in the classes in New Zealand. However, we should know that being strict and encouraging children do not mean that the child will achieve high academic scores. Colleen (as cited in Heather and Lois, n.d.) find that 87% of the Chinese students had high expectation towards getting good grades from their parents in New Zealand. However, only 37% said they are achieving their parents’ expectation. From this it is not 100 percent sure whether having a tiger mom is a guarantee of their children to achieve high academic expectation.

Not only having a guarantee of a child having a high academic achievement, but there are some problems of tiger moms in New Zealand. For instance, there is a possibility of a clash between the child and the parent. Similar to the Japanese society, I think the Chinese always makes their child to do work instead of letting them have a break time. I think being in to the slow life in New Zealand may make the Chinese immigrants think whether it is necessary to work this hard? Since I experienced the slow life in New Zealand, I felt like that. Acculturating to the host country will let people know another type of the society where the environment might be the opposite of the motherland. I think it is a good thing to have good grades, and parents to interfere their child’s education. However, interfering too much does not mean that the child will achieve high academic expectations. Furthermore, does not mean that children will become happy by having a tiger mom and achieved high academic expectations.

References

Kao, Grace, & Marta Tienda. (1995). Optimism and achievement: The educational performance of the immigrant youth. Social Science Quarterly, 76, 4.

Kavan, Heather & Lois Wilkinson. (n.d.). Dialogues with dragons: Assisting Chinese students’ academic achievement. Retrieved from http://www.massey.ac.nz/massey/fms/Colleges/College%20of%20Business/Communication%20and%20Journalism/Staff/Staff%20research%20files/hkavan_Dialoguing%20with%20dragons.pdf

Peoplemovin. (2010). Migration flows across the world. Retrieved from http://peoplemov.in/