Japan Gives Immigrants Money....to go home

Some of you may have read this story in the BBC about the Japanese government paying immigrants of Japanese decent to go back to their homes in Latin America. I read this story yesterday in either the Japan Times or Japan Today, and attached to the article was a comment section for people to voice their opinions. One common thread in the comments was that it was just another example of the Japanese government descriminating against foreigners. I for one wish that the government would pass a law outlawing blatant descrimination e.g. not being able to rent an apartment because I am foreign, but this is a little more complex than it may appear on the surface.

Japan's labor system prides itself on providing permanent jobs for its Japanese employees. This means that when it is time to trim fat during a recession, it is the temporary workers (usually foreign) that lose their jobs. The problem is compounded by the fact that the employer provides housing, thus creating a situation where one day you are working, and the next you are on the street. Having lots of people living on the street is not good regardless of their nationality.

So, the Japanese invented a way of getting rid of this problem by exporting laborers back to their country, right? Well, this is actually more of a common practice than one my think. Spain started doing this in July of last year to give agriculture jobs back to Spanish people. Malaysia has a tendency to round up Indonesians and send them home without a cash bonus, although it is more lax on these measures when there is a need for more labor (as in 2005).

I haven't drawn any correlations on the numbers, but I'm willing to bet that countries expel more immigrants when times are rough than they do during boom periods. It is quite interesting that the Japanese have chosen this method to send immigrants back home, but it isn't just another case of Japanese descrimination; they are emulating practices of other countries' attempts to stabilize the labor market. They target it at immigrants because Japan can't send Japanese home to some place that isn't Japan. Though, immigrants of non-Japanese decent will be sent home without the money putting Japan somewhere between Spain and Malaysia in their policy.