Some time ago we told you that Japan was opening its doors a tiny crack to third country resettlement of refugees and based on this article in the Asia Daily News it apparently is trying to anticipate problems ahead by making sure refugees learn Japanese and Japanese culture in at least 6 months of lessons, if not longer!
Although the government has said it will allow a very limited number of Myanmar refugees currently living in Thailand to resettle in Japan on a trial basis from fiscal 2010, details of the resettlement assistance program remain unclear.
One major complication when resettling such refugees is the relatively brief time allocated for Japanese language education–generally as little as six months.
We don’t even require that. English lessons are available, but I don’t believe they are required at all. Our experience has been that as soon as the men, especially the men, get jobs they quit going to any class. Can you even imagine refugees being required to take lessons about our culture! Actually I had an English teacher tell me that it was great when the men left class because it gave her a chance to tell the women that in America any money they earned was theirs! And, that they didn’t have to wear that hijab either.
Back to my story from Japan.
The government announced on Dec. 18 the Cabinet’s decision to extend on a trial basis the third-country resettlement scheme to Myanmar refugees in Thailand for three years from fiscal 2010, with a view to accepting 30 people each year.
A whole 30 refugees a year! We took 18,139 Myanmar refugees in FY2008 alone.
Here is what the Japanese have in place already.
The Foundation for the Welfare and Education of Asian People, a government-funded nonprofit organization based in Minato Ward, Tokyo, has been undertaking educational activities for both convention and Indochinese refugees.
The foundation’s Refugee Assistance Headquarters (RHQ) offers refugees 572 45-minute Japanese language lessons as well as 120 “life in Japan” lessons, which also are 45 minutes each, with a view to having them acquire basic Japanese speaking and writing skills.
But, they fear it will not be adequate.
It seems virtually impossible for a refugee to acquire adequate Japanese language proficiency to cope with life in Japan simply by taking a six-month course.
We need to be doing this—-requiring at least 6 months of English and American culture lessons.