Should America do what Japan is doing Immigrants worry as Japan discourages foreign workers?
Maria Fransiska, a young, hard-working nurse from Indonesia, is just the kind of worker Japan would seem to need to replenish its aging work force. But Fransiska, 26, is having to fight to stay. To extend her three-year stint at a hospital outside Tokyo, she must pass a standardized nursing exam administered in Japanese, a test so difficult that only three of the 600 nurses brought here from Indonesia and the Philippines since 2007 have passed. So Fransiska spends 8 hours in Japanese language drills, on top of her day job at the hospital. Her dictionary is dog-eared from countless queries, but she is determined: Her starting salary of $2,400 (Rs.107,040) a month was 10 times what she could earn back home, and if she fails, she will never be allowed to return to Japan on the same programme again. “I think I have something to contribute here,†Fransiska said during a recent visit, spooning mouthfuls of rice and vegetables into the mouth of Heiichi Matsumaru, an 80-year-old patient recovering from a stroke. “If I could, I would stay here long-term, but it is not so easy.†Despite facing an imminent labour shortage as its population ages, Japan has done little to open itself up to immigration. In fact, as Fransiska and many others have discovered, the government is doing the opposite, actively encouraging both foreign workers and foreign graduates of its universities and professional schools to return home while protecting tiny interest groups—in the case of Fransiska, a local nursing association afraid that an influx of foreign nurses would lower industry salaries. http://www.livemint.com/2011/01/03233810/Immigrants-worry-as-Japan-disc.html?atype=tp
Immigration - 4 Answers
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1 :
No - the US is not built on the same principles as Japan. Japan is a country that identifies itself by its homogeneous race, communal culture that sneers at individualism, and a closed society that is always suspicious of outsiders. The US is none of these things - and ought never to be. Plus, Japan is going to pay dearly for this demographic catastrophe waiting to happen - their population is projected to drop to barely 1/3 of its present number by the 22nd Century.
2 :
Yes. I know many people think that language "diversity" is a good thing. I also know many people that think they can drive just as well after a few drinks as they can cold sober. A national language is critical to the security of the United States. I'm not saying we shouldn't learn foreign languages, but that every citizen of the United States should be fluent in English, and that only English should be used in tests and official documents of the United States. I expect criticism. But, think on this: language is SO DIVISIVE it is what was used by God at the Tower of Babel to scatter humanity!!! Seems to have worked pretty good too. I really don't give a @#$% how "politically correct" it is. If the United States is to remain strong and unified we MUST adopt an official language!
3 :
If you think they are calling us racists and xenophobes now, just imagine if we did adopt the Japanese approach! Rod's answer makes perfect sense and I couldn't agree more.
4 :
No. US and Japan are different. And I don't understand this concept of labor shortage considering their unemployment rates. College graduates are having a hard time finding work. How is encouraging immigration going to remedy that? BTW, Japan has problems with illegal immigrants too. They have Chinese as their primary illegal immigrants. For America, we should not discourage immigration as long as it's legal.
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