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Arresting illegal immigrants in Japan

Two clips from an Japanese TV show that followed around police officers in Kanagawa as they arrested illegal immigrants:

It is interesting to note that the first clip ends with the revelation that the two illegal immigrants had a child in Japan who is now attending elementary school. This would mean that the child is undocumented and will be treated as an illegal alien and deported along with her parents. This report aired a couple months ago, and I haven’t seen any news stories about the child. It would seem she was probably deported without any major dispute. I’m guessing it was because she is considerably younger than Noriko Calderon and probably didn’t enjoy the level of community support that locals gave to the Calderon family.

The second clip is about a raid on an apartment rented through an illegal broker service. An Asahi article about brokers that rent apartments for illegal immigrants can be found archived on Debito.org (the Asahi does not maintain a public archive of its web articles).

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31 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - October 5, 2009 at 8:44 am

Categories: Foreigners in Japan Tags: crime, illegal immigration

http://dimesfornickels.wordpress.com/ William George

I find the approach to dealing with illegal immigration to be fairly ass-backwards. A lot of money and manpower are being wasted in hunting down, deporting, and seeking ways to keep them from arriving in the first place. And it never prevents them from finding a way back in.

It would make more sense to target the businesses and citizens who employ them. The people who create the demand the illegal immigrants fill.

But even that is a wasted opportunity. These illegal immigrants show that there is a willing body of workers who will happily take on the low skill, low paying, and low respect jobs the locals normally wont. It should be made easier for them to get guest worker status, and more difficult/unattractive for employers to hire illegals.

radical pikachu

What makes you sink that they are doing “low skill, low paying, and low respect jobs” ? I did not watch it all, but second illegal lived in decent western style house. I observe that these Asian communities are pretty entrepreneurial.

http://dimesfornickels.wordpress.com/ William George

Are you claiming they’re arriving wealthy and just not bothering with the paperwork? Or, is it the old conservative saw that illegals are all in organized crime?

Perhaps some are, but most are not.

Thalia

I hate discrimination but just want to answer to your question if illegals are all in organized crime? I would say yes” because I went to Japan 21 years ago as a contract worker for 6 months in a year. Every six months that I finished my contract I waited one year to process again another legal papers to come back again and again. Then after 4 years of being as a contract worker, I met my husband and we got married after 2 years of dating and seeing each other. After that our first child was born they gave me three months visa, then six months, one year and so on. After a couple of years they gave me permanent visa then after ten years I decided to ask for citizenship but since it was difficult to process the papers we stop processing it. To raise a family with two kids and have a decent life here in Japan or wherever country like USA, France, UK etc. it’s not as easy as what those other poor countries think. They just believe those luxuries that they saw on tv, internet or news that they read and heard about. But no one wants to face the reality or maybe they have don’t have enough knowledge about of how hard people who lives on the place they are been dreaming about, is also suffering more than you could even imagine. I am not racist as what might others think but I just want those people to know and realize that we are all facing the same crisis time so why we cannot just appreciate each day we live and be happy that when you wake up you are still breathing and you’re family is safe and in a good health. It’s not because you cannot have like same as the others you will steal or you will hurt or kill someone. You have to work hard to achieve what you want in life, work five times more than the others. If veer someday you might have a chance to enter on someones property or foreign country we must follow their rules and never insist yours and always pay respect those people of that land for giving you a chance. For the sake of my family especially my kids and I really want to be a part of this country, I waited for the right time to get my citizen and it took many years to have it. I love this country more than my homeland and I am proud to be a Japanese and whatever happens I am willing to die on this place. I hope those who wants to enter in other rich country (as what they think) they are dreaming of they must love that country not just suck it and throw away when it becomes useless.

Ahmed

i am asian national & working in gulf for about 4 years, i totally disagree what you have said in above blog, if you really felt this that life is really hard in abroad that why dont you leave japan at first place, why you keep on trying again and again for getting your visa extend. You might not be able to give an answer but i do….reason is people are going for undeveloped countries towards developed countries to raise their living standard & to remove shame which they are feeling while holding passport for undeveloped countries…I can provide a practical examples from my life, people from USA or ENGLAND who were working as a plumber or dish cleaner coming here in gulf and becoming project managers etc & all that crap…although they dont possess any of qualities, skills or whatever required for being on that place..people praising them as their God’s….its just bullshit and stop giving it to people….its all about power of passport which anyone wants to have..dont have much time to waste writing for you details…as anyone can see your paragraph is more bigger than mine….how much time you have in leisure to waste in such kinda things…so stop spreading bull shitssssssssssssssss…..
Ahmed

i am asian national & working in gulf for about 4 years, i totally disagree what you have said in above blog, if you really felt this that life is really hard in abroad that why dont you leave japan at first place, why you keep on trying again and again for getting your visa extend. You might not be able to give an answer but i do….reason is people are going for undeveloped countries towards developed countries to raise their living standard & to remove shame which they are feeling while holding passport for undeveloped countries…I can provide a practical examples from my life, people from USA or ENGLAND who were working as a plumber or dish cleaner coming here in gulf and becoming project managers etc & all that crap…although they dont possess any of qualities, skills or whatever required for being on that place..people praising them as their God’s….its just bullshit and stop giving it to people….its all about power of passport which anyone wants to have..dont have much time to waste writing for you details…as anyone can see your paragraph is more bigger than mine….how much time you have in leisure to waste in such kinda things…so stop spreading bull shitssssssssssssssss…..

Ajapa

William George,

It would make more sense to target the businesses and citizens who employ them. The people who create the demand the illegal immigrants fill.

You assume there is no effort made for that? The above TV show tells us only a part of this issue. Anyway, the reality can be more complicated. There might be an illegal broker service to make an illegal immigrants look more legal, a business involved in forgery and camouflage. Then, brokers can also help them to find a job since they may know many possible employers for those suspicious immigrant workers, who often employ illegal workers at the risk of closing their business. Thus, it might be far easier and more effective to hunt brokers and inspect their cellphone than visiting many companies and asking if they employ illegal workers. Also note that the typical people, who create the demand the illegal immigrants fill, are said to be running a small and medium-sized factory. The total number of such factories and enterprises are, in my opinion, far greater than that of illegal immigration broker organizations.

But even that is a wasted opportunity. These illegal immigrants show that there is a willing body of workers who will happily take on the low skill, low paying, and low respect jobs the locals normally wont.

Illegal brokers often presume on illegal immigrant’s weakness and demand an absurd payment. It’s sometimes not just an illegal immigrant issue but also an issue of a human rights violation.

It should be made easier for them to get guest worker status, and more difficult/unattractive for employers to hire illegals.

I don’t know what “guest worker status” exactly means here. Does it mean legal status of short stay worker with a wage under the minimum wage and restricted rights and duties? If so, I can say nothing as I can’t infer the effects of it at all.
pixel_bomber

It does seem like this is an incredibly ineffective use of man power. What did they have like 8 officers to arrest one family? The thing I found most strange about this report to me is that it’s obviously meant as some way to show how the Japanese police are tackling the problem of illegal immigrants. I’m not really sure what they are going for by showing this story. These officers seem about as useful as the team they had rescuing a cat on a roof a couple days ago. I would much rather see them busting a factory or one of the brokers. Going after the people they did in this clip has almost no measurable impact on illegal immigrants.

Granted my access to Japanese news is pretty limited but it would be much more interesting to see a story on why the immigrants are here and what they are doing for Japan. Are they a serious problem or are they in fact helpful.

I’m not trying to say it is not important to punish people who break the law. Just strange that this is news worthy at all.

Ajapa

The title on the top-left corner says:

A beautiful female police detective for international investigation
Uncovering the secrets of foreigners with Pekingese

It rather shows a ridiculous aspect of Japanese TV.

The Overthinker

Mandarin, please, not Pekingese. A Pekingese is a little fluffy dog.
Ajapa

Ah, it’s my mistake. Thank you for correction, The Overthinker.

I don’t know where this clip was taken from. But I think an incredibly ineffective use of man power is not a matter in this TV show. A beautiful woman, who is fluent in Mandarin, is spotlighted here, so it would be better if she led an army of hundreds of machos with a little fluffy dog, a Pekingese, to arrest a man who can speak Mandarin.

Maybe, late night news shows and NHK treat this issue more seriously? I’m sleepy now…
longus dickus

overthinker is wrong. Pekingnese is mandarin dialect from Beijing.
Ajapa

No wrongness, at least, in respect of disambiguity and common usage, unless the TV producer indeed meant Chinese dialect of Beijing. There seems to be no word for denoting “Standard Chinese” or “Standard Mandarin” in Japanese, so it is possible that TV persons have simply used the word “北京語” (Pekin-Go) for that. If we use Pekingnese as “Uncovering the secrets of foreigners with Pekingese“, then it may attract many “Weird Japan” freaks who want to know the secrets of foreigners uncovered by a Japanese woman with (well-trained) Pekingese dogs. While even those “Weird Japan” freaks will not expect that Mandarin oranges are usefull in uncovering the secrets of foreigners.

yakiniku

i know a filipina gir_an illegal immigrant in japan… she had a bad attitude and she’s always hurt my friend… kindly help me for that… her name is LYZA RANGAS! please help us! shes working in a pub..

anti

Japan will have to take in immigrants like it or not, you already see in Tokyo that lots of Chinese are working in combinis and places like Matsuya. I think Japan is right to have regulations and not just open up the border to anyone. I would like to see Japan taking a softer approach towards illegal immigrants who have children. Growing up in Europe I was constantly taught that multi culturalism is a good thing, while it might have its flaws I would be happy to see a more multi cultural Japan.

longus dickus

dude…

1: legal immigrants is not a same like illegal immigrants. dont drop them into the same pot.

2: Japan have immigration regulations.

3: If Japan will show mercy to illigal immigrants with children then illigal imigrinats will start to use children like a ticket to the japanese id.

4: i dont know in wich Europe you growed up but there is no “multi-culturalism” in this world. there are always only one culture with different forign influences or without them.

aside that todays EU is about multi-nationality but with integration of immigrans into own nation absolutly without to let them to live in their own world excluded from the local minority or even to let them expand own nationality inside of own nations..

(god hell i hate hacking and stalking idiots pretending they know the world becuz they can hack everywhere)

anti

You sound like one of those people in US who wear these long robes with pointed hats setting fires on people´s lawns. I´ve always thought they were very bright and modern. Progressive people they are.

Dickus says. ” I ain’t no racist and I sure done learned all about socialism after watchin’ them electric pictures on the Fox News.”

longus dickus

im sure you are the racist here.

The Overthinker

“aside that todays EU is about multi-nationality but with integration of immigrans into own nation absolutly without to let them to live in their own world excluded from the local minority or even to let them expand own nationality inside of own nations..”

Can you rewrite that in English please? I have no idea what you mean. I am sure that English is not your native language, but it makes it very hard to follow what I am sure, given your screen name, is an eloquent and erudite argument.

longus dickus

is English your native language?

kate

Multicultural societies do exist BUT not if you choose to ignore them.The only places I’ve seen evidence of this is New Zealand, parts of America, parts of Canada, Australia
Definitely New Zealand.

I don’t really see any evidence of it in Europe though. Take France for instance. There are a lot of immigrants there but the majority prefer them to be “French”. Other cultures aren’t really celebrated there, more like tolerated. At least that was my impression. There is a lot of racism in Europe.

longus dickus

tell me one thing how can i ignore something what doesnt exist?

–The only places I’ve seen evidence of this is New Zealand, parts of America, parts of Canada, Australia
The only places I’ve seen evidence of this is New Zealand, parts of America, parts of Canada, Australia–

all countries with own culture wich were/are influenced by forign cultures.

–Take France for instance.There are a lot of immigrants there but the majority prefer them to be “French”.–

but they are french! immigrants wich are integrated into french nation are not immigrants anymore they are citizens of France.

–Other cultures aren’t really celebrated there, more like tolerated.–

you mean french don want to live like in Britain, Algir or Italy? aside you should understand tolerance of forign cultures is not the racism.

whyt you all here misundrstood is that multicultarism means all cultures are are not compatible and not interacting with each others. what brings the exlusive existence of culturaly life inside of the pouplation groups(ethnics, getthos, gangs) that is not the truth. the reality is that multiculturalism means you let the people to found own ethnical, cultural, economical and educational basement wich is not a basement of your own country.

such policy is very explosive and dangerous because it ignores the interaction and split cultural life into groups based on the racism and ethnicaly background of the whole population.

Eroket

yo Longus… if you are going to crack on somebody for bad English, clean up your own… you are the one who sounds non-native

longus dickus

whateva yo say master 50 centsa!

togu

feel sorry for some of them who want to earn money and support their family, relatives back at home. US doesn’t raid illegal immigrants, but ofcourse they deport ppl who has actual criminal records in the states.

longus dickus

yeahhh. they wasted so much money and time for smuglers and illigal existence instead to try it by legal immigration.

HamachiMan

What? The US authorities regularly raid places that are suspected to employ illegals, just happened recently in some meat packing place I believe (have to look it up).
under employed

I do think she should be deported along with her parents. She belongs with her family.

Besides here in california, illegals are out of control. Probably the same in parts of japan but i doubt its anything like california. I saw probably 8 illegals for every one real american working stiff.

No wonder I can’t get any job for almost a year and now work almost as cheap as an illegal. Sure, flood your country with cheap labor and you or members of your family will find yourself jobless for sure.

Isn’t your gov’t suppose to protect its legal citizens both foreign born and natural. Get tough, start with big fines for those who hire illegals and take their licences to do business.

just feed up.
Ano

Hey “Under Employed”

Whatever a individuals views on immigration and illegal immigrants are, I’d like to point out the reason why our country has completely deteriorated probably has a whole lot let to do with the “Brown People” and a whole lot more with us fighting endless wars for the last 10+ years (and still going) along with our own bloated bureaucracy.

Not to mention how we have completely shut down our factories and “Goods Manufactured In The US” since the Corporations are completely free to ship jobs overseas.

You know it’s really embarrassing that when the Representative from China arrived recently to speak with our President, he had to point out, “During that stimulus package you really should have specified that the Companies could only accept the package if they created new jobs in your country, instead of sending the money to ours.”

It’s really stupid corrupt mistakes like that which is costing us everything we once took for granted. Not the “War On Drugs”, “War On Terrorism”, “War On Immigration”, or any other War we can manage to stir up.

We’d be bombing the moon if we could.
Elaine

For those illegal immigrants we should get a legal visa before entering other country, you must understand that nothings is easy in this world and work very hard to reach your dream. And if ever someday you might have a chance to enter on someones property or foreign country we must follow their rules and never insist yours like insisting your own religion and wearing clothes that is not appropriate in that place, it doesn’t look and sound smart at all. No one wants discrimination right? Then we should work five times more than the people who was born on that land we should study their language, culture and tradition and respect it. We will never have this kind of topic that media are and humans that are making fun of then they will say “poor those guys that has been deported”. People who are just make pity on those illegal immigrants but doesn’t even think about that if you let those guys to get inside as easy as that, they will all leave their own country and will attack any country that richer than them. Who will take responsible on that? Who will feed those guys? Is there anyone think or even visualize that? They doing revolution and they are asking for democracy because they just want to get out from the place where they are. See what is happening lately to Lampedusa floating of thousands illegal immigrants asking for foods and shelter, HUMAN RIGHTS ???? They think everything is just coming from the sky. They
Wwwwwyyert

Were I can denounce illegal workers in Japan?…

Arresting illegal immigrants in Japan

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