Japan pays foreign workers to leave and never come back.

Sam where are you?

RG09, be scared.

 

No one points a gun at them to leave. They are 'encouraged' to do so with a big incentive. I don't know the living cost in Brazil, but in all likelihood, the incentive will probably bring them a decent life in the near future after they are back there.

Don't make it out like it's an international scandal.

 

They are being bribed to leave during a time of economic hardship. That's not pointing a gun at them but its not exactly a friendly parting in the best interests of the immigrants.

[rquoter]Under the emergency program, introduced this month, the country’s Brazilian and other Latin American guest workers are offered $3,000 toward air fare, plus $2,000 for each dependent — attractive lump sums for many immigrants here. Workers who leave have been told they can pocket any amount left over.[/rquoter]

Also they aren't giving them a windfall of cash. I haven't checked air fares from Japan to Brazil but I'm guessing $3,000 isn't going to go too far especially including moving expenses. Also while the cost of living in Brazil is much less than Japan unless they are going to live in a favela a few grand isn't going to go that far either.

 

I should remind some people that Japan is not America. Their culture is important to them and if they want to maintaining the culture w/out infringing on their humanitarian rights, then that is prerogative.

You can call it whatever you want, but they are not being forced to leave.

 

if they want to maintain their culture - negative population growth is a good way to keep that from happening.

 

Who knows what happens within the cultural event horizon, after population has collapsed to a singularity? I must guide my spaceship there!

 

Wait - now that desperate family has two options instead of one. They can either try to better their situation in Japan, or take the money and try to better their situation elsewhere.

Before, they only had the first option. How are they worse off? If the family is that desperate for the $3000, then maybe it's a good option for them. If they are not and like living in Japan, then they can choose to ignore it and nothing will change for them.

This is basically the country equivalent of a company offering workers voluntary early retirement to cull an overly large workforce. I think it's a stupid thing for Japan to do for all the reasons cited in this thread, but it's only a positive for the workers themselves. They now have one more option than they had a week ago.

 

We actually agree on something

 

Yeah, I am pretty sure this argument has been raised similarly by other white supremacists.
Would a program that encourage black students to attend black only colleges be ok in any sense? Totally voluntary but not giving them money to attend mixed race colleges though. See?

 

Based on your second statement, it's not really a bribe because there's no financial benefit from it. It basically sounds like a "there aren't jobs here, but if you feel you have better options in Brazil, we'll pay for you to move back there." Again, this is only a plus for unemployed immigrants who are jobless. They currently may not be able to afford to go back home looking for jobs because of all the costs you cited, so they are stuck unemployed in Japan. Now they have that extra option if they feel opportunities are better in Latin America.

 

The point you are skipping over is they can never come back to Japan. Japan is offering this as a bribe but IMO not much of one.

 

Yes, on the face, the poor immigrant family has more options, BUT only for short term . The carrot comes with the stick, and the catch is you can't come back. WHY? WHY?
Do you have a good reason to explain, for argument sake, that those ethnic Latino Japanese can't come back to Japan to seek work even if the economy recovers? Do you still think this is act of helping everybody, or on board with me that this is taking advantage of immigrant workers' hardship to kick them out of the country?

 

Oh absolutely - but that's the voluntary tradeoff you're making. The country isn't just going to give away money for free if there's no benefit to the country - the idea is to create a win-win situation for the country and the immigrants. If the people would just come back a year from now when economic conditions improve, that doesn't help Japan out. Again, it's the exact same situation as a company offering voluntary early retirement - the people can't come back to the company when conditions improve for the company. It gets to hire new, younger employees at lower wages to better manage its costs.

 

I doubt they would be able to come back anyways. I bet they were paid to come there in the first place.

I think the motivation is "we brought you here to work, the work has dried up and you have no job anymore. You can go back now if you want to."

 

Right - that's the completely voluntary agreement they are offering. If you want to stay in Japan, by all means do so - but then the gov't won't give you money.

Because that's the tradeoff Japan wants. I already said I think it's stupid and shortsighted from Japan's perspective.

It doesn't kick them out of the country unless they want to be kicked out of the country. If I'm a jobless immigrant, last week I was simply unemployed. Now the gov't says they will give me $x if I want to leave and never come back. Please tell me how exactly I am worse off today than I was last week.

 

Not only do I have more options today than a week ago, but if others do decide they have better opportunities in Brazil or elsewhere (growing economies) and choose to leave, that reduces the workforce in Japan, which offers me a better opportunity to find a job there too due to less competition.

 

You only focus on the $3000 giveaway. Why is the "trade off" OK? Those people were granted special visa to stay, and the message being sent is that you are not welcome to stay and leave forever, and this is from the Japanese government. Stupidity doesn't describe it.

 

And BTW, never come back here.

 

Japan will need workers again sometime, but they cannot tell them "Just go there until we call you back. They need to understand that the most probably situation is once they leave they are gone for good.

Also once they leave they are giving up the awesome (for consumers) japanese healthcare right? That sucks.

 

Which company offers such severance package?
And don't confuse employment with one's right to stay under the visa.