http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO0903/S00522.htm
International Student Trial a Travesty of Justice
Thursday, 26 March 2009, 12:57 pm
Press Release: The Refugee Action Collective
Media Release: Human Rights Advocates label International Student Trial a Travesty of Justice
Thursday March 26, 2009
Ian Rintoul, Refugee Action Coalition
mobile 0417 275 713
The trial and conviction of Megumi Ogawa, a Japanese international PhD student, in the Queensland District Court has been labeled a travesty by refugee and human rights advocates.
Ms Ogawa was convicted in the Brisbane District Court on Thursday, 19 March of four counts of using a carriage service to harass and make threats to kill. She is scheduled to be sentenced on Friday 27 March at 10.00am.
"The system has failed Megumi Ogawa," said Ian Rintoul, a spokesperson for the Refugee Action Coalition, "This trial should never have taken place. Megumi has been pursued relentlessly by Australian authorities. Her victimization has taken a severe toll on her health, her studies and her career since she came to Australia as an international student This trial is just the latest in a long list of injustices and denial of Megumi’s human and civil rights. We are shocked that the judge has added to the list by charging her with contempt of court."
"The serious questions of Megumi’s mental health and concerns about her ability to represent herself in court have been brushed aside. There is a dark cloud over what rights anyone who is mentally ill can expect before the courts."
"Megumi has been fighting for justice since 2002, when Melbourne University wrongfully cancelled her enrolment and the Department of Immigration subsequently cancelled her student visa. She spent ten weeks in Villawood detention centre, threatened with deportation in 2006 and now faces deportation again," said Ian Rintoul.
Megumi’s case has the hallmarks of the system failure, abuse of process and suspicious collaboration between government departments reminiscent of the treatment of Cornelia Rau and Mohammed Haneef.
A letter obtained under Freedom of Information, written by the person who was to be the lead escort in Megumi’s removal from Villawood in 2006, refers to Megumi having "upset a few of the top brass in NatO [National Office] & they want her out…’.
After her deportation was stopped and she was released from Villawood, Federal Police proceeded with charges against her. This was three months after the alleged events!
"Just as in the case of Mohammed Haneef, there is evidence that the Department of Immigration colluded with the Federal Police and the Department of Public Prosecutions to continue their pursuit of Megumi. When it became clear that Megumi would be released from Villawood, a further FOI document details that a representative of the Immigration department contacted the Department of Public Prosecutions to ‘recommend that DPP pursue the current prosecution and consider pursuing the outstanding matters,’ " Rintoul continued.
"In December 2006, the Federal Court found that Megumi had been the victim of circumstances and requested then Minister of Immigration, Amanda Vanstone to use her public interest powers to correct the injustice.
"Despite requests from the Commonwealth Ombudsman, the Department of Immigration has obstructed justice by refusing to make reports to the Ministerial Intervention Unit. Successive Ministers for Immigration have failed to act to rectify the Department’s past mistakes.
An appeal will be launched against Megumi’s conviction. We are urging the present Immigration Minister Chris Evans to urgently intervene to grant permanent residence and avoid any further miscarriage of justice."
Showing posts with label immigration. Show all posts
Showing posts with label immigration. Show all posts
21 April 2009
19 July 2008
Call for ONE MILLION foreign students in higher education in Japan
Note: The Japan HEO Blog is currently in a 'hold' status, perhaps appropriate for the summer doldrums and the swell of work at the end of a university term (which is at the end of July).
In August-September, if I have successfully moved my office in early August, you can reasonably expect a finish to the three-part series on the demographic decline of Japan vis-a-vis university enrollments, as well as the 10-part series on 'Why English fails'. About the latter series, I am currently working on reason number 6, in which universities will face some harsh criticism. About the former, the article on 'demographic decline', that has been completed but requires some harsh, critical editing of its own before it is fit for publication.
Call for ONE MILLION foreign students in higher education in Japan
Japan Times published an article in June that was titled, 'Fukuda gets report on boosting immigrants'.
Basically, the plan (really a set of group-written suggestions marred by inconsistency and lack of coherence) calls for the government of Japan to stabilize the current population by increasing immigration to the extent that immigrants would comprise around 10% of the population by the year 2060. Japan's population is said to have peaked at somewhere between 127-8 million, with the total number of males already registering declines. Given the extremely low birth rate of around 1.3, demographic decline (without expansive immigration) is being predicted as inevitable.
Taking a cue from Australia apparently, some Japanese policy advisers who have the attention of the currently unpopular prime minister hope to use the overly large university system as a tool to manage immigration, and vice versa. That is, they are calling for a near ten-fold increase in the number of foreign students in further and higher education, from the currently stagnant 120,000 or so, to a world-beating level of 1 million by the year 2025.
This could help many universities, colleges and polytechnics which are facing stagnant or declining enrollments annually in the face of ever smaller high school graduate cohorts. In the long term, it is hoped apparently that many highly educated and skilled immigrants would stay in Japan, as, for example, many Chinese do once they go to Australia for graduate and professional degrees.
However, a few issues are glaring in their omission.
First, the Japanese university system is simply not prepared to teach, train or involve in research large numbers of Asian students (or any other foreign national) in any language except Japanese. Talk of using English to teach classes and whole programs in English is mostly just empty talk--so far. But this might just be what would be required if 1 out of 3 students are going to be non-Japanese (unless Japan could also increase its ability to teach Japanese to non-natives to the level required for university study). A related problem is that most Asian students are not prepared to study abroad in English--and Japan would be the last place on earth most would consider going to in order to improve their English!
Second, the current higher education system already produces a surplus of graduates (most Japanese of course) who are supposed to be skilled at the level of a technician, engineer, or the Japanese equivalent of a 'liberal arts' major (who for years swelled the ranks of the ever-swelling civil servant corps and academia--many of whom were also civil servants in the national and public university systems). Post-Koizumi, however, the civil servant corps is as stagnant as university enrollments, and academia's declining need for professors (especially male ones) is a direct reflection of those stagnant university enrollments as well as the fiscal move to privatize and streamline national and public universities.
But Japanese employers are hoping for an influx of cheap, exploitable, unskilled labor willing to accept physical labor and harsh working conditions that most Japanese would balk at. Perhaps there is one main area on which the expressed desires for skilled, educated foreign immigrants and the 'needs' of the current job market of Japan's capitalist political economy will converge. That would be medicine, specifically nursing. Japan's numerous hospitals need nurses to help take care of the aging population, and they will needs many more in the next 50 years. Again, however, it must be pointed out that language difficulties and cultural differences could cause many more problems than Japanese policy makers have anticipated.
Two key excerpts follow, an then a link to the full article at Japan Times.
Key quote 1
>>Members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party submitted a bold report Friday to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, calling for Japan to increase its foreign residents to up to 10 percent of the nation's population in the next 50 years.<<end of excerpt
Key quote 2
>>Suggestions in the newest proposal include forming a plan to have 1 million foreign students in Japan by 2025, nurturing talent through education and professional training, and providing opportunities to live and work in Japan.<<end of excerpt
Fukuda gets report on boosting immigrants
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080621a2.html
In August-September, if I have successfully moved my office in early August, you can reasonably expect a finish to the three-part series on the demographic decline of Japan vis-a-vis university enrollments, as well as the 10-part series on 'Why English fails'. About the latter series, I am currently working on reason number 6, in which universities will face some harsh criticism. About the former, the article on 'demographic decline', that has been completed but requires some harsh, critical editing of its own before it is fit for publication.
Call for ONE MILLION foreign students in higher education in Japan
Japan Times published an article in June that was titled, 'Fukuda gets report on boosting immigrants'.
Basically, the plan (really a set of group-written suggestions marred by inconsistency and lack of coherence) calls for the government of Japan to stabilize the current population by increasing immigration to the extent that immigrants would comprise around 10% of the population by the year 2060. Japan's population is said to have peaked at somewhere between 127-8 million, with the total number of males already registering declines. Given the extremely low birth rate of around 1.3, demographic decline (without expansive immigration) is being predicted as inevitable.
Taking a cue from Australia apparently, some Japanese policy advisers who have the attention of the currently unpopular prime minister hope to use the overly large university system as a tool to manage immigration, and vice versa. That is, they are calling for a near ten-fold increase in the number of foreign students in further and higher education, from the currently stagnant 120,000 or so, to a world-beating level of 1 million by the year 2025.
This could help many universities, colleges and polytechnics which are facing stagnant or declining enrollments annually in the face of ever smaller high school graduate cohorts. In the long term, it is hoped apparently that many highly educated and skilled immigrants would stay in Japan, as, for example, many Chinese do once they go to Australia for graduate and professional degrees.
However, a few issues are glaring in their omission.
First, the Japanese university system is simply not prepared to teach, train or involve in research large numbers of Asian students (or any other foreign national) in any language except Japanese. Talk of using English to teach classes and whole programs in English is mostly just empty talk--so far. But this might just be what would be required if 1 out of 3 students are going to be non-Japanese (unless Japan could also increase its ability to teach Japanese to non-natives to the level required for university study). A related problem is that most Asian students are not prepared to study abroad in English--and Japan would be the last place on earth most would consider going to in order to improve their English!
Second, the current higher education system already produces a surplus of graduates (most Japanese of course) who are supposed to be skilled at the level of a technician, engineer, or the Japanese equivalent of a 'liberal arts' major (who for years swelled the ranks of the ever-swelling civil servant corps and academia--many of whom were also civil servants in the national and public university systems). Post-Koizumi, however, the civil servant corps is as stagnant as university enrollments, and academia's declining need for professors (especially male ones) is a direct reflection of those stagnant university enrollments as well as the fiscal move to privatize and streamline national and public universities.
But Japanese employers are hoping for an influx of cheap, exploitable, unskilled labor willing to accept physical labor and harsh working conditions that most Japanese would balk at. Perhaps there is one main area on which the expressed desires for skilled, educated foreign immigrants and the 'needs' of the current job market of Japan's capitalist political economy will converge. That would be medicine, specifically nursing. Japan's numerous hospitals need nurses to help take care of the aging population, and they will needs many more in the next 50 years. Again, however, it must be pointed out that language difficulties and cultural differences could cause many more problems than Japanese policy makers have anticipated.
Two key excerpts follow, an then a link to the full article at Japan Times.
Key quote 1
>>Members of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party submitted a bold report Friday to Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda, calling for Japan to increase its foreign residents to up to 10 percent of the nation's population in the next 50 years.<<end of excerpt
Key quote 2
>>Suggestions in the newest proposal include forming a plan to have 1 million foreign students in Japan by 2025, nurturing talent through education and professional training, and providing opportunities to live and work in Japan.<<end of excerpt
Fukuda gets report on boosting immigrants
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080621a2.html
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