Japan. The editors of the Wall Street Journal take note of Japan’s advice to Britain:
Tokyo released a 15-page open letter Sept. 2 on Britain’s exit from the European Union, relaying the concerns of Japanese investors in Britain. For skilled workers, it requested that freedom of movement for EU citizens be maintained and the treatment of non-EU migrants liberalized. “In order to ensure stable staffing for business operations in the UK, the requirements for obtaining and extending visas need to be relaxed, especially for intracompany transferees,†the report said.
“With regard to unskilled workers,†Japan said, “Japanese businesses rely on inexpensive labor from Eastern Europe in the manufacturing and agricultural industries in the U.K. If their access to such labor were restricted, staff shortages and increased labor costs could be reflected in such firms’ product prices.â€
Sage advice for Britain, but the case for freer immigration is even stronger for Japan. The country suffers severe labor shortages in the construction, restaurant and health-care industries because few Japanese want to take these low-paying and difficult jobs.
To place that in some perspective, fewer than 2% of Japanese residents are immigrants compared with 13% in Britain and over 13% here in the United States. Of Japan’s immigrants about 60,000 are there illegally. We deport more than that every month.
So, here’s my modest proposal for the Japanese. They should accept all of the Middle Eastern asylum-seekers over the period of the next year. They could use the help.
Most Japanese illegal migrants are from Korea and the Phillipines, so their culture is reasonably compatible with Japan’s.
The Japanese are far too smart to borrow trouble. Islam is virtually non-existent there.
We could do with some of that wisdom when it comes to that particular subject.
Japanese culture is somewhat less like South Korea’s than Germany’s is like France’s. And it’s almost nothing like Filipino culture.
Basically, I don’t much care what Japan’s cultural problems are and I think that they should tolerate our practices as we tolerate theirs.
The Japanese aren’t the only people guilty of this. Several Jewish billionaires are quite happy with Israel building a wall and maintaining strict immigration controls, but are open borders advocates for the US. (Some of them have dual citizenship, so yes, it actually matters. And no, I’m not going to look them up because it’s a boring topic.) But hey, if you notice THAT it probably means you have a thing for cartoon frogs, so….
For that matter, we could just look to our Mexican neighbors to the south, who insist the US maintain open borders while (attempting) to maintain strict immigration controls for their own country.
Hypocrisy abounds on this issue. Note how the people hot and heavy for relocating Muslim “refugess” to the US want them all put in the communities of people that don’t want the refugees. I propose the next few hundred thousand Muslim “refugees” be put in places like Georgetown, Silicon Valley, Owing Mills MD, Westchester County NY, Beverly Hills, Jackson Hole, and, if Hillary wins the election, in a tent city on the South Lawn of the White House – or even the Lincoln Bedroom! I’m sure the Secret Service won’t have any objections, as all refugees have been thoroughly vetted.