Noriko Calderon allowed to stay in Japan (for now)
November 27th, 2008 by James
UPDATE: Noriko has been granted special residency.
An update on the case of Noriko Calderon, a girl born in Japan who was facing deportation because her parents are illegal immigrants (video from TBS):
Japanese immigration authorities have decided that they need more time to consider the Calderon family’s situation, so their permission to stay in Japan has been extended until January 14th.
On that day, the government will announce one of three possible outcomes:
- The granting of special residency to Noriko and/or her parents
- Deportation of Noriko and her parents
- Another delay in the deadline so the government can continue to ponder the case
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
Do you think the Japanese government should grant special residency to illegal immigrants that have children in Japan?
[hat tip to the Overthinker]
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They’re illegal and this case’s not special at all
there should be no doubt that the family’d have to be deported
The girl is born in Japan, now I know shes not a citizen by Japanese laws, but there should at least be some kind of possiblity for her (not her parents) to get a permanent visa, or something like a greencard.
Anytime the children know nothing but Japan, they should at least allow the children residency. This is the perfect example of why you can’t just kick people out.
I really feel for these people. As an American who lived in Japan and got married there and had a normal life, it is a bizarre feeling that people could say it wasn’t my home. It was my home. It was bizarre coming back to America too, since it didn’t feel like home anymore.
When I go to Japan, there are two messages at the airport. One that says “Welcome to Japan” and the other that says 「おかえりなさい」. I’ve always wondered which one applies to me.
So, even if her parents are illegal, that poor girl IS Japanese. You can’t take that out of her no matter what. All she knows is Japan.
I just don’t understand how people can be so worried about immigration in this day and age. We are really all in this together.
Why the hell didn’t they find out sooner? Have they been living there illegally for over a decade while the girl grew up? She’s been enrolled in Japanese public schools too, and nowhere in the buerocracy did anyone notice she’s not supposed to be there? I think that if they’ve managed to mess up and let this girl be born and grow up illegally in Japan, then they should have no option but to let her stay. Sure her parents might have been in the wrong staying in Japan in the first place, but it is the government who will have done a disservice to this girl by waiting so long to deport them.
In general, I think Japan is way too stingy with its permanent residency and citizenship stuff. Living here to study now, I see that Japan has a very anti immigration culture. In the west, America and Britain, English speakers in general, I find, are often accused of being racist and nationalist and unsympathetic to immigrants and foreigners.
But here I am beginning to get the impression that the only reason these sorts of thoughts exist is that we already have a lot of freedom for immigrants and foreigners to stand up and say that they’re being mistreated. Here, the whole country is not sympathetic to foreigners of any sort, and only sees foreign culture between a weird sort of looking glass. Here the immigrants and foreigners are even more maligned than in the West, they just don’t have a big voice to say anything about it.
Japan needs to open up and embrace foreign culture.
Maybe then we could get some freakin’ proper pizza out here.
No country has a policy to embrace immigrants entirely for humanitarian purpose.
Anti-immigration sentiments are high, perhaps higher in Europe and America and Britain probably because there are much more immigrants out there.
Zainichi Koreans voice is strong in Japan.
What is needed for other immigrants like Americans and Brits is to make a group to speak up based on the facts but childish ‘human right activism’ based on Japanophobia and fancy theory won’t help;rather it aggravate the relation.
“But here I am beginning to get the impression that the only reason these sorts of thoughts exist is that we already have a lot of freedom for immigrants and foreigners to stand up and say that they’re being mistreated.”
Ah yes, this explains why Debito is regularly arrested and tortured by the secret police, why his site is always banned, and why he was refused Japanese citizenship and told to get out. No, wait….
And please, unless you’re from Italy, preferably Naples, don’t even talk about “decent pizza”…. And for that matter, have you seen the joke that passes for sushi in most places in the “West”?
There’s actually a name for it.
from Wikipedia.
Come to think of it, North Korean media is very quiet on human rights abuses in North Korea….
If they feel the parents need to be punished then send them back and let the girl go to a boarding school in Japan.
For most guys her it sounds perfectly normal to send back the parents but let the girl stay in Japan.
What about if the girl doesn’t want to be separated from her parents? This solution would tear apart a family and in the end punish the girl.
Exceptions can always be made and they should be made here, too. At the end of the day, who really cares if one “illegal” family more or less.
Myself, I’m a big fan of jus soli – that those who are born on the soil of a country are a citizen of that country. Also, what Jeshii said.
Yes, until you have illegal immigrants coming across the border while 9 months pregnant, because they know if the kid is born in Country X it is automatically a citizen, and since a citizen cannot be deported the baby stays, but you can’t keep the baby and throw the mother out so the mother stays, and then in turn the father (if he isn’t already in the country) gets a free ticket to enter too, and then their families….
This is the problem facing the US. They have effectively lost their ability in these situations to control immigration. The human, compassionate, gut-level reaction is “make the kid a citizen and let them stay”. But that’s not dealing with the practical realities of the situation. Most countries do not share the “by virtue of the fact that the fruit of your loins popped out on our shores, we award him/her citizenship, even though he/she has absolutely no connection to our country other than the chance circumstance that your water broke here” mentality.
And thank goodness for that. Citizenship shouldn’t be reduced to a door prize.
Jus soli won’t solve the problem.
As I showed on another thread, similar problems arise.
Canada
U.S.
And even in cases where parents are allowed to stay,
Do you think that that is a solution?
In case of Japan, according to the video(1:33), if the parents work hard for long years and the child is over a junior high-school student, there are many cases where the parents and children are granted special residence qualification. Calderons are on borderline.
For other cases, stereo has provided the useful links below.
Ponta, that is not jus soli he was not born there. Moved at age 1 or whatever, but not born there.
Right, he was not born there but there are similar problems in a country with jus soli.
The situation of those moved in very early time of life are about the same as that of those who were born there,imo. And there are similar problems for them, soli juli or not.
The social or personal problems they face may be similar, but their legal situation is totally different. Jus soli means if you were born there you can stay there. In this case, jus soli *would* solve the problem. Noriko was born in Japan.
Actually, I agree. It is just that the focus is different.
You are saying that those born on the land is legally protected in a soli juli state. I agree.
I am saying even in a country like that children legally protected have to go through tragic separations and children born moved in early age will be treated just as those in a jus sanguinis state
Here is the list of Teijusha visas granted to illegal immigrants.
http://www.moj.go.jp/NYUKAN/nyukan25.html
Case 2,3,and 16 in Heisei 18 are similar to Noriko’s case.
I feel as if I have a unique outlook on this issue, both as a product of illegal immigration and having it happen so close to me. I’ve seen both the good and bad parts of it.
First, I am a product of illegal immigration. My great-grandfather stowed away on a ship from Dublin, Ireland to New York in 1900. He was only 6 at the time. From New York he traveled to Utah and lived there with family until he was able to take the Naturalization Test. He did so at the very first opportunity he could. After that he worked until he had enough to bring his mother here. She came here through legal immigration. Granted, my great-grandfather was an illegal when he came here. But, he didn’t try to take the easy way out through Jus soli or Jus sanguinis (Although he did marry an American, that was well after he already had American citizenship).
Secondly, I’ve seen the bad side of Illegal immigration. My neighbors are illegal immigrants. I’ve lived in this house for 14 years now and my neighbors have lived next door for 12. When they first moved in they consisted of a mother, father, 2 boys, and 2 girls. I went to school with one of the boys and that is where I learned that he and his family all had crossed the border illegally. They had bought the house outright by having their cousins lend them the money (no going through banks and loans) and were going to repay them by working in the fields. During the summer the entire family worked the fields and during the rest of the year they worked doing odd jobs. After a year the parents had another child. Eventually as the children grew up and turned 18, they each in turn went back to Mexico and brought back a wife/husband. Almost all the time their partner/themselves were pregnant by the time the returned. Each one had an “anchor baby” here not only ensuring that they got to stay here but that their wife/husband would too. And so despite being here far longer than the Naturalization Test requires they all took the far simpler route. None of them left the home afterward (15 people in total). Recently they purchased a farm on the outskirts of our town and have divided the people living here into each of the houses. The mother and father and their child and the younger girls and their spouses/children now live there while the older boys and their families live next to me.
When such things happen here I can only hope that it serves as a warning to other countries not to allow Jus soli.
How is this a warning?
As I think I said on a related thread, Japan needs young people. I hope Noriko will have a happy and successful life in Japan.
But at the same time I cannot help feeling angry at her parents. They broke the law and used her as a pawn. They should be deported.
The earth from seem from the space has no borders. Man has created borders, barbed wired fences, walls, prejudice. May God have mercy on you and bless you with a heart of flesh. Japan has been blessed as a country and can be a blessed place for people from all parts of the world, and be an example of welcoming country, human country – Japan can be a World Leader by giving good examples of humanity. May God bless Japan as a generous and merciful country, the world is in need of solidarity and genuine kindness.
Deporting someone as punishment for breaking the law is a fair argument in cases like this, but one thing no-one has mentioned is the business(es)
that profited from hiring these illegal workers. Why are they not being punished? It’s unfair to only punish the workers. When I worked in Japan I always had to show documentation to prove I was legally required to work. Due to not living in Japan I don’t have access to the Japanese mass media but it seems this element has not been considered in the public debate..