Lesson 14 - Immigration

Migration

Migration is the movement of people from one place to another, usually a different country. The movement into a country is called immigration, and movement away is called emigration. As it is necessary to leave one country to arrive in another, every migrant is both an emigrant (from their home country) and an immigrant (to their new country). In a particular country, the number of immigrants minus the number of emigrants is called the net migration. As the net migration in most developed countries is positive (more people coming than going), it is common in these countries for people and the media to focus on immigration.

Opposition to immigration

In all times in history where large migrations have happened, at least some of the local population are opposed to immigration. Some people have argued that anti-immigration sentiment was one of the reasons the UK voted to leave the EU, and that Donald Trump was elected president of the US. Opposition to immigration has been rising in the EU with the recent large numbers of immigrants coming from Africa and the Middle East, and Australia have created island camps to keep potential immigrants away from the mainland until the government can decide whether or not to allow them in to the country.

The reasons people give for anti-immigration sentiments are varied, some based on facts and others on fictions. One of the most common arguments against immigration is that immigrants will take jobs away from the local population. There are only a certain number of jobs in the economy, and if there are more people, there must be more unemployment. This argument has been proven to be false many times. It does not work because it takes an overly simplistic view of the economy. In reality the number of jobs in an economy is not fixed. If, for example, you have more people shopping at the local supermarket, the supermarket earns more money, and might need to hire extra staff. However, there is some evidence that immigration has a small effect on wages, meaning people might earn less money if there is high immigration. Also, as discussed in Lesson 12, many developing countries have aging populations and need immigrant workers to keep the same size workforce.

Another completely false argument is that immigrants cost the country money by receiving welfare from the government. However, as most immigrants are of working age (i.e. not children or retired pensioners) as a group they pay more in taxes than they receive in welfare. A related and more realistic argument is that immigrants put pressure on local services, such as schools and hospitals. Again, this may be true in some situations and false in others. For example, in the UK, immigration has meant more students in schools. On the other hand, there is a higher percentage of immigrants working in hospitals in the UK than the percentage of the whole population, so UK hospitals would be under more pressure without immigrants.  People also argue that immigrants cause more crime. Although this might be true in some situations it is certainly false in others. The final argument that is used against immigrants is that they change the culture of a country. Although this is certainly true, it can be argued whether or not this is a bad thing. In addition, technology changes culture at a much faster rate than immigration.

Economic migrants and refugees

One important distinction to be made when talking about immigration is between economic migrants and refugees. An economic migrant is someone who chooses to leave their home country because they believe they have better economic opportunities living abroad. A refugee is someone who runs away from their home country, because they fear for their life or their freedom. For example, many refugees leave countries where there are wars, such as Syria and Yemen currently. People may also escape from countries where the government imprisons people for their political beliefs, such as Iran or Cuba. Although Japan has signed a UN agreement to accept refugees, in reality it only accepts 0.1% of people who apply for refugee status.

Lesson 14 Reading

Article 14a - People voted to leave EU because they feared immigration
Article 14b - Trump's wall isn't going to stem the flow
Article 14c - Japan had 20,000 applications for asylum
Article 14d - Japan toughens screening rules for refugees
Article 14e - Suicide revives concerns about Japan immigration detention

Lesson 13 - Urbanisation

Urbanisation

Urbanisation is the movement of people from rural areas (the countryside) to urban areas (cities), measured as a percentage or a ratio. For most of human history only a small minority of people lived in cities (less than 20%). The major historical event that changed this was the industrial revolution, starting in the UK in the 18th century. New technology meant less farmers could produce the same amount of food, so people started to move to cites looking for work in the new factories. Public transport like trains allowed cities to get bigger and still be accessible to workers. Since the middle of the 20th century, urbanisation has spread from Europe and America to the rest of the world. In 2007 the global population passed 50% living in cities for the first time in history.

Rural flight

Seen from the perspective of the countryside, we can also talk about rural flight. This is the same thing as urbanisation, just thinking more about the effects on the places people leave rather than where they go to. Rural flight is often seen as a problem, as more young people move away from an area, local services and businesses lose money. When these businesses start closing, this makes it harder for the remaining people to live in the area. This can eventually lead to ghost towns, where all the population moves away. Local governments in many rural areas are creating programs to encourage people to stay, worried that the local culture (and their jobs) might be lost.

Positive effects of urbanisation

It may seem obvious that cities pollute the environment. If we imagine the difference between Tokyo and Shirakawago in Gifu, it is clear which is more natural. However, in many cases urbanisaton is actually good for the environment. By keeping the same number of people in a smaller area, the effect they have on the environment is actually lower. People can walk or use public transport rather than drive, and goods need less transportation to reach their customers. Likewise things like electricity and water cause less disruption to the environment when they are travelling over a smaller environment. Perhaps the biggest effect urbanisation has on the environment though is simply by people taking up less space. The more people live closer together, the more space there is for natural habitats where animals and plants can live. As the world population increases, it may be necessary for an even higher percentage of people to live in even bigger cities, and allow the countryside to exist without human interference.



Lesson 13 Reading

Article 13a - Ageing villages of northern Finland
Article 13b - Rural America Is Aging and Shrinking
Article 13c - Nigeria, China, India to account for 35% growth
Article 13d - Two-Thirds of World’s Population Will Live in Cities by 2050
Article 13e - Free cow offer fails to attract Japanese to the countryside

Lesson 12 - The aging population

Life expectancy

Life expectancy is the number of years the average person in a population lives. For most of human history life expectancy was somewhere around 35-40 years. This does not mean that almost nobody lived to the age of 50, this is an average number. In other words, very high rates of infant mortality (children who die before their 1st birthday) balanced out the people who lived until 70 or 80.

Today, life expectancy world wide is over 70 years, and over 80 in developed countries such as Japan, the US and Western European countries. What has changed? In the 1800s a French scientist called Lois Pasteur created the Germ Theory of Disease, which said that many diseases are caused by micro-organisms such as bacteria and viruses. This understanding lead to modern medicine, in particular vaccines which protect against viruses and antibiotics which allow people to have surgery without getting bacterial infections.

Infant mortality rate and population growth

It is probably not surprising to learn that in places where the infant mortality rate is higher, the average number of children women have is also higher. Very simply if you want 2 children but you expect half of your children not to reach their 1st birthday, it makes sense to have 4 children. However, in reality people are not so calculating. What usually happens is that as the infant mortality rate decreases, people continue to have large numbers of children, causing population growth. Only when the infant mortality rate drops below 5% people start having on average 2 children. This has now happened in most of the world, except Sub-Saharan Africa (Africa south of the Sahara desert). This is why some people argue that the only way to stop the world population growing out of control is to improve healthcare in Sub-Saharan Africa to reduce the infant mortality rate.

Aging populations

In countries other than Sub-Saharan Africa, in particular in developed countries, the birth rate has already dropped. For the first time in history we have a large number of people living past their 70th birthday, without an increasing number of children being born. This leads to a new problem. The ratio between the working population and the retired population is changing, meaning more people needing healthcare but fewer people to care for them, and more people receiving pensions but fewer people paying taxes. In Europe and America these problems have been offset by immigration, although this has upset some people in the pre-existing population. In Asian countries like Japan, China and South Korea however, levels of immigration are not high enough to compensate for the declining birth-rates.

Lesson 12 Reading

Article 12a - Singapore
Article 12b - Canada
Article 12c - Malaysia
Article 12d - China
Article 12e - South Korea
Article 12f - EXTRA - world

Lesson 11 - Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation

Sexual orientation, or sexuality, describes which sex or sexes a person is attracted to (remember the difference between sex and gender). The sexual orientation we are probably most familiar with is heterosexuality (hetero- means "different"), people who are attracted to the opposite sex. The opposite of this, being attracted to the same sex, is called homosexuality (homo- means "same"). In addition you may have heard heterosexual people called straight, homosexual people (usually men) called gay, and women lesbian. People attracted to both men and women are called bisexual (the same bi- as in "bicycle", meaning "two").

The demographics of sexuality

Demographics is the statistics of a society. For example, the number of people above or below a certain age, the percentage of people without a job, and the average income of the population are all part of demographics. We can also talk about a demographic (singular) to mean a certain section of the society. For example, you would all belong to the "female, 18-20, in further education" demographic.

When talking about sexuality or sexual orientation, it is common to talk about Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) people as a single demographic. It might seem strange to include transgender, which is not a sexual orientation, in this demographic. However, both transgender and non-heterosexual people are often the target of similar discrimination (as we will discuss below) and therefore are often grouped together.

Finding what percentage of a population is LGBT can be difficult for several reasons. One is that due to the discrimination this demographic faces and pressure to conform to societal norms some LGBT might be embarrassed or afraid to admit their sexuality, to researchers or even to themselves. Another is the definition of what it actually means to be homosexual. Does having a single homosexual experience or partner in your life mean that you automatically count as being bisexual? A significant number of people who have had such an experience still consider themselves to be heterosexual. Because of such difficulties, estimates for the percentage of LGBT worldwide can vary dramatically, from as low as 1% and as high as 10%. The most recent data for Japan found that 7.6% of people aged 20 to 59 were LGBT.

Discrimination towards LGBT people

Discrimination towards LGBT people is known as homophobia. Although it is likely that the most common form of discrimination in the world is sexism (women make up just over half of the world's population), some of the most extreme discrimination is towards LGBT people. In the US LGBT people are the most common victims of hate crimes. One reason for this is religion. The Bible says that it is "an abomination" for men to lie together, and homosexuality is banned in Islam. Although it is sometimes difficult to separate from religious views, conservative attitudes towards the family can also contribute towards homophobia. Another reason may be fear of one's own hidden desires. As mentioned above, more people have had gay experiences than admit to being gay. Studies have found that straight men are more homophobic towards gay men, and straight women more homophobic towards lesbians, than the other way around. This study found that homophobic men are more aroused by gay porn. And in the US, there seems to be a continual stream of politicians and Christian leaders who are very publicly homophobic, and then are found out to be secretly gay.

Causes of sexuality

Although it is not clear exactly why some people are gay, the idea promoted by some homophobic groups that being gay is a "lifestyle choice" (like joining a gym or deciding to get your nose pierced) is not accepted by any serious academics. In the past some groups offered therapy to "cure" gay people. Such conversion therapies are unsuccessful and potentially very dangerous.

Because of this some people talk about the "gay gene". Although there is almost certainly not a single gene which decides sexuality, this is a way of suggesting sexuality is determined by your DNA. However, studies of identical twins (who have 100% the same DNA) have found that when one twin is gay, the other is straight more than 50% of the time. This shows that sexuality is not decided 100% by DNA. Another interesting finding is that in families with several brothers, younger brothers are more likely to be gay. This is thought to be because of changing levels of hormones in the mother's body after carrying several male babies.

Lesson 11 Reading

Article 11a - NHK tries to clear up LGBT misconceptions
Article 11b - Japanese man seeks damages after death of same-sex partner
Article 11c - Japan’s Only Openly Gay Lawmaker Says Same-Sex Marriage Will Take Years
Article 11d - China’s LGBT people came out as a protest against an online ban on gay content
Article 11e - property heiress becomes accidental LGBT champion

Lesson 9 - Social mobility

Social mobility

Social mobility is the change in the social position of a person or group. It may seem obvious that a person cannot change their race or ethnicity, and while sex change operations do exist, transsexuals are discriminated against more than either men or women. However, even with these groups it is possible that the social position of the entire group can change. For example, before 1865 it was legal to own black people as slaves in some US states. While black people still suffer discrimination, and are certainly a disadvantaged group in the US, it would be hard to argue that the abolition of slavery did not improve the social position of black people at least a little.

Intragenerational mobility and 

This is how an individual's social position changes during their lifetime (intra- means "inside" or "within"). For example, if you get a promotion or change to a job that has a higher social status, your social position increases. Alternately losing your job can result in downwards social mobility. In general people will earn more money as they progress through their career, but this is not always going to be the case.

Intergenerational mobility

This is a change in social position from one generation to the next (inter- meaning "between", think "international"). This is defined by your social position now, compared to that of your parents when they were your age. In general, we might expect that intergenerational mobility will usually be positive, that is, people will generally be in a better situation than their parents, due to advances in medicine and technology. However, both in the UK and the US, millennials (people born after 1981) are in a worse situation than their parents were at the same age. This is thought to be due to the financial crisis which started in late 2007.

Absolute and relative mobility

Mobility can also be described in absolute and relative terms. If your wage has increased by 5%, then you are doing better in absolute terms. However, if the average national wage has increased by 10% during the same time period, you are actually worse off, relative to the rest of society. A similar situation can happen intergenerationally due to inflation. Inflation is when the value of a country's currency decreases in value. In general, most countries experience some level of inflation the majority of the time. Ask your parents or your grandparents, and they will tell you they could buy more with 1000 yen when they were young than you can now. Until 1953, people still used 1 rin coins, worth 1/1000th of 1 yen (i.e. 1000 rin = 1 yen). This means that your 1500 yen today can be worth less than 1000 yen in the past. Therefore, when people compare wages and prices between different times in history, they will talk about wages adjusted for inflation.

Social status

Money is not the only way of judging social position. Some jobs carry more status (i.e. we respect people who do those jobs) than others, even if the pay is the same. For example, religious leaders often command a large amount of respect, and therefore influence (i.e. people listen to what they say) despite having a job that is not known for paying a lot of money. This said, some religious leaders have a huge amount of money, despite telling people that money is not important! Another good example of a job where the level of respect outweighs the money earned is teaching. When I first learned Japanese, I read that 先生 was used for "people who earn a lot of money, and teachers"!

Lesson 7 - Race and ethnicity

Race and ethnicity

In addition to gender and social class, race and ethnicity are further ways of categorising people in society into groups. As with the other way of categorising groups, very often one group holds more power than others, which can lead to discrimination towards the less powerful groups.

Race

Race is a way of categorising people based on the way they look. The traditional categories of race are Caucasoid (white), Negroid (black) and Mongoloid (Asian and Native American). However, both Negroid and Mongoloid are now considered offensive, so it's best to avoid using these words! We can also see one of the big problems with the idea of race immediately. These groupings fail to account for all types of people. For example, people from Greece are white, but they are very similar to people from Turkey. People from Turkey are similar to people from Saudi Arabia, who are similar to people from Afghanistan, who are similar to people from Pakistan, who are similar to people from India. So, are Indian people "white"?

The problem is that there is no obvious way to say where the line is between one race and another. In fact, many scientists argue that race does not exist, biologically at least. This does not mean the idea of race can be ignored. Although race may not be real biologically it is definitely real sociologically. People do see others as being different, and treat them differently, based on factors such as skin colour. For example, race was used as an excuse for slavery in the US until 1865. Sociologically, race can be defined as categorisation based on physical traits society thinks are important. So, the colour of a person's skin, or the shape of their eyes might be used to categorise them as a particular race. However, there may be no genetic basis for these groups. For example, people in Africa and the native Aborigines from Australia are considered "black" because of their skin colour, but they have no more genes in common than either group does with white European people. Likewise, there is some evidence that North East Asians (Japanese, Korean, Chinese etc.) and South East Asians (Thai, Vietnamese etc.) are two very different groups of people, despite having eyes which, to Europeans at least, look similar.

Ethnicity

While race is based on biological traits and differences in physical appearance, ethnicity is based on culture. Groups like the Ainu in Japan would be considered a separate ethnicity. Ethnicity includes the country you or your parents come from, the language you speak, your religion and and cultural traditions. Everybody has at least one ethnicity (you could have more if your parents are from different ethnic backgrounds). So if we talk about ethnic food, we just mean food which is from a different culture to our own. From a European or American perspective, Japanese food is just as ethnic as Thai or Vietnamese food.

Racial and ethnic discrimination

Unfortunately discrimination based on race and ethnicity is common around the world. Racial discrimination is called racism. We do not have an equivalent word for ethnic discrimination, although xenophobia (from Greek xeno - strange, and phobia - fear) is used to refer to discrimination based on the country somebody is from. In the UK and US recently there has been an increase in discrimination towards Muslim people, which has been called Islamophobia.

Discrimination can be in the forms of explicit or implicit biases. An explicit bias is when a person is aware that they discriminate against another group. Although this might have been very common during the days of slavery in the US, most people today would not admit to discriminating, and would probably be very upset if you said they were racist! However, implicit biases are still common. The study mentioned when talking about workplace discrimination is one example of implicit bias. Other studies have shown people see a black man as more of a threat than a white man, even if they do not see themselves as having any racial bias.

Lesson 8 reading

Article 8a - Japan's hidden caste of untouchables
Article 8b - Indian Castes and Feudal Japanese Classes
Article 8c - Under ‘Abenomics,’ rich thrive but middle class on precipice
Article 8d - ‘Freeters’: free by name, nature

Lesson 8 - Caste and class systems

Social strata

The word strata means layer, and is often used in geology to talk about layers of rock which build up over millions of years. We talk of social strata, or social hierarchy, to describe the different levels of society. These levels are usually determined by how much power, money or respect different groups of people have (very often these three things come together!)

All societies have some kind of stratification, even those who say they do not. For example, communism is a political belief that everyone should be equal. However, in every communist country (such as the USSR) there is still a hierarchy, with political leaders and party members above non-party members, and farmers considered better than business people and academics.

Usually the higher up the social hierarchy you go, the fewer people there are at each level, which is why you often see hierarchies shown as a pyramid.

Types of social hierarchy

The two most common types of social hierarchy are caste and class systems. The main difference between these two systems is that caste systems are more fixed, in a class system there is more social mobility.

Caste systems

In a caste system a social stratum is for life. People are born and die in the same caste. They are only allowed to marry people in their own caste, and most often your caste determines the jobs you can do. Although South Asian countries such as India still have a form of caste system in place, caste systems are mostly historical. The social systems throughout Europe in the middle ages were caste systems, as was Japan during the Edo period.

 European Caste System













Class systems

Most countries in the modern world have class, rather than caste, systems. A class system is usually divided into upper, middle and lower, often called working, class. These classes are mostly based on money, although in the UK the upper class are people who have inherited their money and have titles such as Lord or Sir in their names. The middle class is often divided into upper middle class and lower middle class, the upper middle class being truly rich, company presidents etc., while lower middle class are normal business people, doctors, teachers etc. Another division often used in modern societies is between "blue collar" and "white collar" jobs. Blue collar workers are people doing manual labour other than farming. Jobs such as construction, manufacturing and car maintenance are typical blue collar jobs. White collar jobs are low level office jobs, such as sales, call center work and administration.

Although in class systems it is possible to move between one class and another, it is not necessarily easy. In general, the children of people with more money live longer, are healthier, do better at school and earn more money when they are older. In the US, the biggest predictor of whether or not a child will graduate from collage is their parents' income.

Lesson 9 reading

Article 9a - Japan racism survey reveals one in three foreigners experience discrimination
Article 9b - Can Language Save Communities Under Threat From A Globalised World?
Article 9c - Picturing Okinawa: The black and white of cultural identity
Article 9d - Why Japan should consider banning blackface
Article 9e - Japan’s resident Koreans endure a climate of hate