the real world of international migration (or: a theory of comparative o

read this. a glimpse of the real moral issues today. Compare the situation
in say, Cuba, on the basis of US State Department  or Amnesty International
documents

http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1998_hrp_report/cuba.html
http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/irf_rpt/1999/irf_cuba99.htm
l
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aireport/ar99/amr25.htm

with, say the far more serious situation of human rights in China

http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/1998_hrp_report/china.html
http://www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/irf_rpt/1999/irf_china99.ht
ml
http://www.amnesty.org/ailib/aireport/ar99/asa17.htm


and you will arrive at a theory of comparative outcries...


Arno Tausch





> ----------
> Von:  center@cis.org[SMTP:center@cis.org]
> Gesendet:     Dienstag, 18. Januar 2000 21:42
> An:   CISNEWS@cis.org
> Betreff:      Overseas immigration news
> 
> 
> [For CISNEWS subscribers: Eight items --
> 
> * Canada: Teenage girls face return to China;
> * Dominican Rep.: Boat full of migrants sinks;
> * Italy: Over 170 illegal immigrants drown in '99;
> * Japan: Prime Minister urged to increase immigration;
> * Japan: Foreigners stage sit-in over visa demands;
> * Japan: Thai workers to care for elderly;
> * Australia: Gov't to host migration and humanitarian program;
> * New Zealand: Overstayer claiming Maori "citizenship" deported.
> 
> -- Mark Krikorian]
> 
> 
> Migrants facing return to China
> By Kelley Teahen
> London (Ontario) Free Press, January 18, 2000
> 
> Immigration officials will press for deportation of 10 illegal Chinese
> migrants found in a van near Walpole Island early this month.
> 
> The 10 teenage girls, in custody since their discovery Jan. 5, are to
> appear at immigration hearings in Windsor today and tomorrow and may ask
> for refugee status at that time, said Marc Bourgeois, an immigration case
> officer.
> 
> "The hearings will go one of two ways: either they do or don't make
> refugee
> claims. If they do, any removal order will not come into effect until the
> refugee claims have been disposed of."
> 
> But if no refugee claims are made, Bourgeois will recommend proceeding
> with
> a deportation order, in which the girls would be sent back to Fujian
> province in China, their stated home, "as soon as we can carry it out."
> 
> The case has trained a spotlight on cross-border human smuggling into the
> U.S. from Southwestern Ontario and on Walpole, a native reserve along the
> St. Clair River on the Michigan-Ontario border.
> 
> Four Walpole residents have been convicted in the U.S. and seven others
> charged since last spring, U.S. officials have said. They contend a
> smuggling ring may be operating through the area from China to New York
> City.
> 
> Two other Walpole residents have been charged on the Canadian side with
> aiding the 10 migrants police intercepted Jan. 5.
> 
> The case adjudicator for the 10 girls intercepted Jan. 5 has the option to
> consider a departure order, which would give the migrants 30 days to leave
> Canada on their own, "but I certainly won't be recommending that,"
> Bourgeois said.
> 
> No new evidence verifying the girls' identity or route from Fujian to
> Walpole has been uncovered since the girls first appeared at a Windsor
> immigration hearing Jan. 10, he said.
> 
> They were found without passports, travel papers, ID or money on them.
> 
> Four of the girls, who originally said they were 18, will appear in
> Windsor
> today. The other six are scheduled for a hearing tomorrow.
> 
> All 10 also will have detention hearings when they appear, to review if
> they'll remain in custody.
> 
> Three of the first four, who now say they're 16 or 17 years old, are being
> held at a young offenders' unit in Brampton while the fourth, who now says
> she's 15, was transferred to join the two youngest migrants at Renaissance
> House in Windsor, a facility for young offenders under age 16.
> 
> Sungee John, president of Windsor Women Working With Immigrant Women, has
> met with the three girls staying in Windsor and has monitored the
> conditions of the other seven by telephone.
> 
> "They are still very frightened and very unsure of what comes next.
> They've
> had lots of questions about the refugee process."
> 
> Asked if the girls had a well-founded fear of persecution in China --
> which
> would give them a basis for a refugee claim -- John said the girls "have a
> fear for their safety, and have a general fear, but I can't comment beyond
> that."
> 
> John said Bluewater Youth Centre near Goderich, where four of the girls
> ages 16 or 17 are being held, has hired a translator, but no translator
> has
> been provided for the three in Brampton.
> 
> In the last week, she's fielded many calls from Windsor residents anxious
> to help the girls "in any way." Asked if anyone was volunteering to act as
> guarantors, which might allow the girls out of custody if appearances at
> future hearings are guaranteed, John said there's been discussion, but no
> offer will be made without consulting the girls' lawyer.
> 
> Nine girls claim they arrived in Canada by boat and one by air. But none
> will give details about where or when, except to say they'd been in Canada
> only a few days before they were discovered.
> 
> 
> ********
> ********
> 
> Dominican Migrant Boat Sinks
> January 17, 2000
> 
> SANTO DOMINGO, Dominican Republic (AP) -- A boat carrying 40 migrants
> trying to illegally reach Puerto Rico sank off the Dominican coast,
> killing
> at least eight people, the Dominican navy said Monday.
> 
> Twenty-one people survived the sinking, and U.S. Coast Guard aircraft and
> Dominican navy ships were searching for 11 others just off Bavaro, 90
> miles
> east of Santo Domingo. In a prepared statement, the navy said it had
> arrested the trip's organizer, a man it identified only as William.
> 
> The migrants' 40-foot wooden boat had left the town of Sabana de la Mar
> before it lost one of two small motors and sank in rough weather off
> Bavaro, Dominican navy Lt. Holguin Terrero said.
> 
> Dozens of Dominicans die each year while trying to reach Puerto Rico, a
> U.S. territory 75 miles to the east. From Puerto Rico, many Dominican
> migrants hope to make their way to the U.S. mainland.
> 
> 
> ********
> ********
> 
> Over 170 illegal immigrants drowned off Italy's coast last year
> Agence France Presse, January 18, 2000
> 
> ROME (AFP) -- More than 170 illegal would-be immigrants died in the
> Adriatic Sea last year trying to reach the Italian coast, the Italian news
> agency ANSA reported Tuesday.
> 
> In the worst such incident, more than 100 gypsies were believed to have
> died on the night of August 15 off the Montenegrin coast.
> 
> ANSA said 40 bodies were washed ashore on the coast of the Yugoslav
> republic in the following days, but witnesses said many more passengers
> were on the boat when it sank.
> 
> On the night of December 30 a rubber dinghy carrying 59 people capsized in
> the Strait of Otranto which separates Italy from the Balkans.
> 
> The incident was confirmed by Italian authorities Monday after an
> investigation.
> 
> Last year turned out to be more deadly than 1997 when more than 90 people
> died trying to reach Italy. Eighty-six illegal immigrants died in a single
> Albanian shipwreck on March 28 of that year.
> 
> 
> ********
> ********
> 
> Japanese urged to improve English skills, let in immigrants
> Shigemi Sato
> Agence France Presse, January 18, 2000
> 
> TOKYO (AFP) -- Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi was urged by a top panel
> Tuesday
> to make Japan more "global" by promoting English as a common language and
> accepting more immigrants.
> 
> It warned against Japan's lack of "global literacy", or English skills as
> well as mastery of information-technology tools such as computers and the
> Internet, which would be the "key to survival on the global stage."
> 
> "In the long term, national debate on whether to make English an official
> second language will be needed," the 16-member panel, including
> journalists, academics and artists, said in a report, titled The Frontier
> Within.
> 
> The Prime Minister's Commission on Japan's Goals in the 21st Century said
> the Japanese ranked the lowest in Asia in English proficiency, citing 1998
> data on a widely used US format for testing of English as a foreign
> language, known as TOEFL.
> 
> "This is particularly serious for a country like Japan that depends on
> external trade and exchange for its national livelihood," the report said.
> "People have long complained that Japan has long been regarded a
> 'faceless'
> country on the international scene."
> 
> Japan once debated the possibility of adopting English as an official
> language when it was occupied by the US-led allied powers after its defeat
> in World War II.
> 
> The debate has been flaring anew as the country struggles on the path of
> "globalisation" as the only Asian country among the elite club of the
> "Group-of-Eight" major powers.
> 
> Only a few Japanese political or business leaders have mastered English,
> including Finance Minister Kiichi Miyazawa and the late Sony Corp.
> co-founder Akio Morita.
> 
> An ossified teaching method, focusing too much on grammar and reading, has
> been blamed on the shortcomings in smooth and practical communications in
> English.
> 
> The panel said it was necessary to set the "concrete objective of all
> citizens acquiring a working knowledge of English by the time they take
> their place in society as adults."
> 
> It also called it helpful to improve training and objective assessement of
> English teachers, expand the number of foreign teachers in English and
> contract quality language schools to handle English classes.
> 
> "At the very least, the central government, local governments, and other
> public bodies must be required to produce their publications, home pages,
> and so on in both Japanese and English," the report said.
> 
> The panel, led by Hayao Kawai, head of the International Research Center
> for Japanese Studies, also called for gradual change to Japan's
> immigration
> policy and take steps to encourage foreigners to live and work in Japan.
> 
> It said 1.2 percent of Japan's total resident population consists of
> foreigners but the ratio is by no means high compared with that in other
> industrial nations.
> 
> "We should set up an explicit immigration and permanent-residence system
> to
> encourage foreigners who can be expected to contribute to the development
> of Japanese society to move in and possibly take up permanent residence
> here," the report said.
> 
> 
> ********
> ********
> 
> Foreigners stage sit-in over visa demands
> Japan Times, Jan. 18, 2000
> 
> Thirty foreigners who have overstayed their visas and asked the justice
> minister to give them special permission to stay in Japan, staged a
> five-hour sit-in in front of the ministry Tuesday, demanding that more
> consideration be made of their human rights and family circumstances in
> judging whether to grant them visas.
> 
> The participants -- Iranians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Chinese --
> visited the Tokyo Regional Immigration Bureau to request amnesty last
> year,
> reasoning that they had established a living foundation or were raising
> their children here.
> 
> They have been under the scrutiny of the ministry to judge whether they
> are
> eligible for the minister's special permission, which has rarely been
> granted to foreigners without Japanese relatives.
> 
> According to lawyers supporting the group of foreigners, the ministry
> finished their screening, a process which usually takes more than a year,
> within 79 days. It is likely that the results of their amnesty appeals
> will
> be concluded within the month, they said.
> 
> Prior to the sit-in, the lawyers petitioned the Japan Federation of Bar
> Associations to ask the ministry to include in its screening the
> foreigners' human rights and family circumstances when considering the
> granting of visas.
> 
> 
> ********
> ********
> 
> Thai workers wanted as helpers for Japan's aged
> By MAYUMI NEGISHI Staff writer
> Japan Times, Jan. 18, 2000
> 
> It's a little before 7 a.m. in Kikuno Anno's home, and it's time to clean.
> 
> While leaning on the walls, the chair or the dresser for support, she
> wipes
> dust from mirrors, tables and shelves. It's slow going, and takes over an
> hour. But Anno, 76, winces only once -- bending down to pick up a broom
> hurts her back -- and says at the end, "Everything I can still do, I want
> to do."
> 
> Anno lives alone. Her friends, worrying of slips and falls, say they wish
> someone could come once in a while to help. But in Utsunomiya, Tochigi
> Prefecture, as in other parts of Japan, there is a shortage of helpers,
> and
> Anno does not think she can afford such relief anyway.
> 
> But foreign workers may be able to provide low-cost and accessible help
> for
> the elderly who are not bedridden and do not qualify for full benefits
> under April's Nursing Care Insurance Law, say organizers of the new Asia
> Nikkeijin Relief Center, established last week in Tokyo's Toshima Ward.
> 
> With support from the Thai government, the center is preparing to train
> and
> send Thais of Japanese descent to work in Japanese homes in April. The
> center is now launching a three-month training program at Thailand's
> Bangkok General Hospital to accredit participants as class-2 home helpers
> in Japan. Class-2 helpers are required to go through 105 hours of training
> and are qualified to dress and wash senior citizens.
> 
> "Who's to say this person should qualify for full insurance benefits and
> this other person doesn't?" says organizer Toru Saito. "There are so many
> gray areas -- nursing care should be affordable to everyone."
> 
> The numbers spell out the need for such a program, he says.
> 
> While only 170,000 home helpers are now registered, the number needed to
> support at-home nursing care is estimated to grow to 580,000 by 2010,
> according to the Health and Welfare Ministry. But so long as the pay
> remains low, with one 1998 survey showing 70 percent of home helpers
> earning less than 160,000 yen for more than 26 days' work, the ministry's
> target to double the current number of home helpers in five years is
> unlikely to be achieved, Saito says.
> 
> "Nursing someone is hard work -- often dirty work -- with low pay," said
> Saito, who is also chairman for Bright International, a labor union for
> foreign workers.
> 
> Studying to become a home helper has become popular, due to the recession,
> or with many wanting to volunteer part-time, he said. "But how many home
> helpers will actually remain one, two, three years from now?"
> 
> The center plans to place 20 to 30 Thai workers in Japanese homes in April
> and to eventually train 100 workers a month by year's end. The center,
> which is applying for recognition as a nonprofit organization, is
> considering hourly rates of 1,500 yen per worker, with possible subsidies
> from local governments.
> 
> Health ministry officials maintain that Japanese nationals will be able to
> fill in the shortage, but the figures state otherwise.
> 
> The ministry estimates that the 2.8 million senior citizens requiring some
> form of nursing care now will almost double to some 5.2 million by 2025.
> At
> the same time, the size of Japan's work force is set to fall, beginning
> 2005, and will be shrinking at a rate of 400,000 a year by 2025, according
> to the Economic Planning Agency.
> 
> "It doesn't matter if nursing care workers are foreign or Japanese, so
> long
> as the helper can overcome the language barrier," said Toshihiro Wada,
> director of Komorebi, a group home for the elderly with senile dementia in
> Tokyo's Adachi Ward.
> 
> The reason the relief center is targeting "nikkei" workers -- people of
> Japanese descent -- lies in Japan's immigration policies.
> 
> Because nursing care is classified as unskilled labor, the Justice
> Ministry
> does not yet issue visas to foreigners who want to work as home helpers in
> Japan.
> 
> The workers will therefore apply for so-called nikkei visas, which grant
> residency in Japan, so that they can work first as housekeepers for the
> elderly, while receiving further nursing training along with lessons in
> Japanese language and customs.
> 
> After the program becomes more established, the center plans to place the
> workers officially as home helpers and to eventually open the door for all
> foreigners.
> 
> "We want to first hammer home the message that foreign workers can do the
> work thoroughly and well," said Saito. "We need to take this step by
> step."
> 
> But placing the workers as housekeepers first is misleading, warns Junko
> Nonaka, who authored a book on selecting nursing care services.
> 
> "Troubles arise from blurring the boundaries between housekeepers and
> professional home helpers," Nonaka said.
> 
> Misunderstandings are common, often because helpers think they are
> helping,
> while the household treats them as employees who can be ordered to cook
> and
> clean.
> 
> The center is negotiating with local governments to create a model in
> April, where foreign workers will work at four homes a day, two hours per
> home, to help bathe and change senior residents.
> 
> The idea seems good to Anno, who suffered a hernia while caring for her
> husband for almost 20 years, before he died two years ago.
> 
> "One person is a large burden to carry just by yourself," said Anno.
> "Maybe
> we need to make it easier to admit we need help."
> 
> To contact the center, call (03) 3983-7778.
> 
> 
> 
> ********
> ********
> 
> Darwin to host migration and humanitarian meeting
> Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Janaury 18, 2000
> 
> A meeting will be held in Darwin early next month, to discuss the
> formulation of the Federal Government's migration and humanitarian
> programs
> for the next financial year.
> 
> Immigration Minister Phillip Ruddock will be at the meeting on February 2.
> 
> The Immigration Department says the meeting will be a chance to discuss
> the
> size and composition of the migration and humanitarian programs, and the
> operation of the individual entry categories.
> 
> Although it is called a public meeting, those people who want to attend
> will have to register with the Immigration Department by next Monday.
> 
> 
> ********
> ********
> 
> Overstayer deported after appeal fails 
> The Press (Christchurch), January 18, 2000 
> 
> AUCKLAND -- An overstayer who signed up as a "citizen of the Maori
> sovereign nation" has been deported back to Kiribati.
> 
> Yesterday 30-year-old Terubea Ruben had his appeal against deportation
> rejected in the High Court in Auckland.
> 
> Ruben was the first foreigner claiming citizenship under the scheme
> dreamed
> up by the Confederation of United Tribes of New Zealand to be thrown out
> of
> the country.
> 
> In October last year the group was offering Maori citizenship for around
> $1000, claiming it would prevent Pacific Islands overstayers being
> deported.
> 
> It was not known how much Ruben paid.
> 
> One of the architects of the scheme, Dan Davis, the self-styled minister
> of
> immigration of the government of Aotearoa, said outside the court that he
> believed Ruben was entitled to stay.
> 
> Ruben, who was granted a three- month visitor's permit in November 1998,
> was served with a removal order on July 26 last year.
> 
> While Ruben was told he had 42 days to appeal to the Removal Review
> Authority, he never lodged any application with the authority.
> 
> Instead, the day after being served with the notice, Ruben swore an oath
> of
> allegiance to the Confederation of United Tribes of New Zealand.
> 
> The confederation took up Ruben's case and wrote to the former Minister of
> Immigration, Tuariki Delamere, seeking a "stay of execution".
> 
> With six days to go before the 42-day deadline ran out, Mr Delamere told
> the confederation that the proper body for Ruben to appeal to was the
> Removal Review Authority.
> 
> He said there was nothing exceptional to warrant his intervention. Any
> humanitarian aspects would be considered by the Immigration Service prior
> to removal.
> 
> Ruben's lawyer, Joeli Baledrokadroka, told the court that the letter from
> the confederation to the Minister should be regarded as an appeal to the
> Removal Review Authority.
> 
> He wanted Ruben's deportation delayed until his appeal was heard by the
> authority.
> 
> But Justice Williams said that, not only had no appeal been filed with the
> authority, the grounds set out in the papers before the court fell well
> short of what was required by statute.
> 
> A Hamilton immigration officer, Murray Gardiner, who interviewed Ruben,
> said in an affidavit it appeared the confederation was claiming it had
> some
> sort of sovereignty apart from that of the elected government of New
> Zealand, enabling its members to escape the provisions of the Immigration
> Act.
> 
> "The New Zealand Immigration Service does not accept this submission ... I
> considered that the applicant's membership of the Sovereign Independent
> Maori Nation had no legal standing and thus was not taken into account,"
> he
> said.
> 
>