Noriko Calderon’s parents leave Japan
Sarah and Arlan Calderon, illegal immigrants from the Philippines who had hoped the Japanese government would grand them residency visas because their daughter was born in Japan, left the country yesterday after losing their fight against a deportation order:
Meanwhile, Noriko, who has been entrusted to the care of Sarah’s younger sister, said that she is anxious about her life as a whole and school “because it is my first time living apart from my parents.”
“I won’t be able to eat the delicious food my mother cooks,” she said, adding that her parents are “irreplaceable.”
“But it’s not like we’re never going to see each other,” said the teenager, who recently became a second-year student at a junior high school in Warabi, Saitama Prefecture. “I hope I can show them (the next time we meet) that I do my best.”
Earlier in the day, relatives and Arlan’s colleagues gathered at the family’s home in Warabi to bid farewell to the couple.
“We will be waiting for you (to come back),” said construction worker Yasuhisa Nagashima, one of Arlan’s colleagues, adding that it would not be “goodbye.”
Arlan hugged each of his colleagues and thanked them for their kindness.
“Noriko is here, so I hope we can return to her side as soon as possible,” Arlan said, adding that he hoped the day would come when the family would “be able to live quietly together in Japan.”
A fund set up to help provide money for Noriko’s living and educational expenses has already raised 1.58 million yen.
Update: CNN’s Kyung Lah has filed a report about the story:
Noriko Calderon, wearing her school uniform, was being forced to make one of the most wrenching choices of her young life: To stay in the country of her birth rather than join her parents being deported to the Philippines.
The scene was the emotional climax to a story a decade and a half in the making — one that has tugged at heartstrings in Japan, but ultimately failed to sway to an unyielding bureaucracy that activists say violates human rights.
Seeing as the Japanese government didn’t immediately deport them in 2006 and let them remain in the country and plead their case until a special exception was made to permit Noriko to stay in Japan, I hardly see how it is fair to declare that the bureaucracy was “unyielding.” Lah also uses the headline “Schoolgirl told to choose: Country or parents,” when it is clearly Noriko’s parents who had to make the decision of whether to bring their child back to the Philippines.
[hat tip to Keeping Pace in Japan]
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Good riddance!
We don’t want them here either.
I thank God for Japan that has been a blessed country which blesses many countries. Thanks to God because my father came as an immigrant to Brazil. The earth seem from the space has no borders, let´s make the world a place of peace and love and solidarity to all to live in freedom.
Rated-R, that’s a bit harsh isn’t it?
Regardless of what you think about the Calderons or their actions, you can’t argue that they were _harming_ society (or you) by being here.
I’m glad the girl got to stay in Japan. At least she’ll be able to complete her education and live a somewhat normal life. It would’ve been a shame if she’d been deported. How could she have even gone to school in the Philippines if she speaks no Tagalog?
also how could she survive in a country that crappy? The very same reason her parents left that country in the first place.
Also please note, I am from Malaysia and have been to philipines so I’m not being a racist or anything. But I know what kind of hardship they will have to go through.
We survived here in the Philippines with the poverty and even though we all view Japan as one of the most prosperous country in the world, that’s no excuse for opportunist Filipinos to stay ILLEGALLY there. Knowing Japan and their strict laws (been there as a tourist) I didn’t expect Japan would grant them residence because that would be a very bad precedent and like they said, will undermine their immigration laws if they took exception.
It’s a shame what the parents did. Seeing Japan as their home country and denouncing Philippines as their true homeland when they just entered there illegally and work. Their daughter is just a victim here.
And dA, you ask us how could she survived here in a country so crappy. Sure our country is poor but getting past poverty it all depends on the people. We started from almost nothing and now we are fairly affluent. And I don’t thing those couple with all the years illegaly working there are deprived of a headstart and opportunities to make good here.
That “crappy country” is the only country she’s ever known. She has a lot of support from friends and local people so it’s not as terrible for her as it could be, although it does seem quite harsh.
I’m sure she has changed her opinion of her home country since the action to force her out started.
When I said that crappy country, I was referring to Philipines, not Japan
残念だな。もうすかして、できるを誰だ。
this does happen though in many instance and they did break law.
True – that CNN report makes it appear as though they just jumped on the issue, when it’s been going on for over two years; notice how the stress “gainfully employed” when he couldn’t be… not with an illegal entry.
I feel bad their daughter has been put in this situation but the blame lies with them, and they know it – they took a gamble coming into the country without a valid work visa, and now, it’s not paying off. They should be prepared for consequences as such.
I agree that it was wrong to have broken immigration laws, and unfortunately, the parents now have to suffer the consequences of having broken the law. It’s terribly sad, however, that their daughter will now have to be without her parents during her teen years. This wasn’t Noriko’s fault, and I feel for her. If anything, the parents piss me off for taking such a gamble. They had to know that something like this may happen sooner or later. Why didn’t they care about how this might affect their daughter?
True that she may well be much better off with the opportunity to stay and finish her education in Japan, but I doubt she’s thinking much about that right now. I hope that the home of the relative she is staying with is at least stable and enough of a comfort to help her get through this tough time.
It’s unyielding because it’s a bureaucracy that cares only about laws and not about persons. And it’s not only a parent’s decision, it’s a family decision. Something i suppose they decided talking between the three of them. If you don’t care about what your children thinks
, i feel sorry for your children. Noriko’s parents seem to value her opinion.
Justice trumps compassion once more! Huzzah! Long live cold-hard justice in a world where people do bad things because, “there’s no law against it”, and don’t do good things because there is a law against it!
CNNひでぇ～ｗ
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has committed to extend “humanitarian assistance” to a Filipino couple who were asked to leave Japan due to illegal staying, a diplomatic source said.
“The DFA officials expressed readiness to send humanitarian assistance to the Filipino couple and their daughter should they decide to go back to the Philippines,” the source said. Japan threatened to deport Arlan and Sarah Calderon who were discovered to have entered Japan with fake passports almost 17 years ago.
The assistance, the source said, includes services provided by the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) to help the child adjust in her new home, he said.
The source said the Philippine government couldn’t give in to the couple’s request to remain in Japan because it would only send the wrong signal to the international community. “What can we do? They’re asking to stay in Japan. Does it mean that they don’t want to stay in the Philippines?” he asked.
The signal that the Calderon family is giving to the world is “Phillippines suck”.
http://mb.com.ph/node/198570
Yeah, it’s SOOOOOO easy. All you have to do is slip into the country, give birth to a child, and enroll them in 7 years of primary school education while working jobs under the table. I can already see illegal family-planning criminal rings starting to emerge!
Yes, that’s a clear signal and we all felt bad denouncing his homeland for YEN. I felt really bad that watching them in the news insisting “being japanese” even when they got back here, speaking only in nihongo and speaking exclusively to Japanese media.
And the government planning to help these japanese wannabes, that’s pure sucks.
Philippines is not that bad, I have relatives here who married Japanese and the japanese father allowed her daughter and son to grow up here.
Is CNN’s report correct？
Have the parents already asked for the special landing permission?
They can probably come into Japan to see their daughter,but probably difficult to get working permit.
You know it’s just ain’t fair,because we are allowing so many Zainichi Koreans coming here illegaly and get special status and give them opportunity and some may even become Japanese national and 22nd richiest man in the country and also decorated by Orders of the Sacred Treasure by emperor,but you get kicked out if you are Phillipino?
http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/韓昌祐
Kyung Lah should think twice about using “unyielding bureaucracy”.
Again, what a load of crock. I feel badly for Noriko who has to live with the consequences of her parents’ actions. However, the situation is not as dire as the media makes it out to be. She’ll be living with her aunt, that’s not exactly the same as being orphaned or being thrown out onto the street. And secondly, this whole mess would not have started if the parents didn’t use Noriko as pawn to continue their illegal stay in Japan. The fact that Noriko does not speak Filipino is not an issue either since there are a number of excellent Japanese schools complete with, whoa, wait for it, kids who only speak Japanese! I wish Noriko the best of luck and hope that this is the last we hear of the reprehensible parents.
so, Noriko is paying for her parents failed gamble. Fine, I’m glad she at least managed to stay. Deporting her would probably mean a death penalty
Why did they leave their daughter? Is that a ploy to regain entry in Japan? They should have taken the child and let her live the Filipino way. After all, she IS a Filipino. She can speak Japanese and might probably look Japanese, but the blood running through her veins are 100% Pinoy. Come on, girl! Be proud of your heritage! Life goes on, whether you’re in the Philippines, or Japan.
Fucking Japanese…. That’s all I can say. My heart goes out to that girl and her family. Unbelievable.
How about “F’in’ illegal immigrants” – that is about all that REALLY can or needs to be said.
What I don’t like in this situation is that the parents let their child believed that she is pure Japanese. The fact that the kid only speaks Japanese is one of the main reasons why they are separated (in my own opinion).
If the girl can speak Filipino even just a little bit, she can go with her parents to the Philippines.
I really don’t like it when Filipinos who live in other countries who speak Filipino would raise their children not knowing any Filipino at all.
Looking at the video of the protestors, the question that hasn’t been asked yet is, would these conservative protesters have the balls to do this to a 13-year-old girl if she were Japanese? Somehow I doubt it. I think they’re expecting to get away with their (in my view heartless) invective just because Noriko’s foreign.
Well,if she were a Japanese,then there is no problem in the first place,No?
But yes,these “protesters” has no heart nor guts.
I thank God for Japan that has been a blessed country which blesses many countries. Thanks to God because my father came as an immigrant to Brazil. The earth seem from the space has no borders, let´s make the world a place of peace and love and solidarity to all to live in freedom. Japan will become a World Leader by giving example of a generous country, human driven country. Acts of love and solidarity will be never forgiven. Japan will play a new role as a leader in a changing world by opening its doors to the world in hunger and poverty. Japan is more than technology, Japan has good brains and good hearts, hearts of flesh. Japan will be known as a country of kindness and mercy and deep concern for building a new world, for making the earth a better place to live for now and the future.
I feel sorry for Noriko for suffering for her parents bad gamble. I am more angry at the parents for choosing such a stupid path.