Biden calls US ally Japan ‘xenophobic’ along with Russia and China
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/02/politics/biden-japan-xenophobic-us-ally/index.htmlOpen linkView original on lemmy.ml133
Comments77https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/02/politics/biden-japan-xenophobic-us-ally/index.htmlOpen linkView original on lemmy.ml
Oh, well that's true enough. Japan is crazy anti immigration despite that being a solution to their low birth rate.
Yeah but then they'd have ethnically mixed nationally Japanese people, and they don't want that (especially considering they've intentionally done it to other countries they've occupied and colonized as a form of Japanization, like Korea).
I can't speak to Russia or China, but Japan has a history of xenophobia going back CENTURIES. It's not exactly a newsflash.
True, also: from what I understand, Korea has been historically worse.
Just looked it up, looks like a nosedive!
Even still, it's a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.
That pot better be careful around police...
What are the effective rates of immigration for the involved countries ?
Not enough people know about the time when we invaded Canada and raped all their women
Immigration absolutely helps the US economy, because it parasitically siphons all the skilled workers out of other countries that it underdevelops and hoards their labor for itself.
People think remittances help underdeveloped countries, but labor is the superior of capital, losing that skilled labor is never worth the paltry sums that get sent back home. It's just another shape that imperialism takes.
In Canada we heavily base immigration on education. So we're siphoning off the best educated of other countries. I mean this is just fucking those countries.
That's truly one of the worst things about brain drain / educated people moving to the imperial core countries for the high salaries. Global south countries really need educated young people helping to solve their own problems, and Canada and the US rip out their heart and soul.
At least in tech / programming, a good chunk of us are devoting most of our labor time to not just wasteful things, but actively harmful things, like trying to get people to click on ads, or increasing viral engagement.
I mean tbf (at least in my case as an Egyptian) it's not just the high salaries. Maybe Egypt is an extreme case but this country just has no future. The regime isn't just dictatorial; it's also dumb. There's almost no money going to scientific research, the system as a whole was outdated 50 years ago, the military is monopolizing everything and undercutting the market because they can use
slaveconscript labor and don't pay taxes, etc etc. I'm firmly of the opinion that this is at least partially caused by Britain's unwillingness to fully decolonize in the 1920s and their godawful decolonization in the 1950s, but the fact remains that these countries have a duty to their people that they're not fulfilling, and that's why brain drain happens.As a living example of said brain drain, salaries were near the bottom of my priority list when I made the decision. I was more concerned about living somewhere where I don't need to worry about being arrested because I said my opinion on the internet (or even just complained about prices) or because I do my prayers at the mosque (I was actually told by my mother to not go to the mosque all the time because I might get arrested. It's that bad). Below that were things like a sane administration that actually cares about things being even just barely functional, a decent education system and academia and the ability to have confidence that the country will actually exist in 20 years. Living in a wildly different country (especially as a Muslim in Japan as is my case (halal food is a pain to get here)) is such a pain you couldn't pay me to do it, but it's hard to turn down actually getting to have a future.
What I wanna say is that it's not just the Global South being undercut by the West; many Global South countries are failing at fulfilling their responsibility towards their constituents, and that's why they're leaving. Now how much the West was involved in creating this situation is another story, but you can't reduce it to just high salaries. Global South governments, as a rule, aren't interesting in solving their own problems. That's why the problem solvers go solve Western rich people's problems.
Egypt is also a useful case study, because the US props up its shitty government. That's also part of how the Global South is underdeveloped, it's a multifaceted machine that sucks out everyone who can help make the country better and gives support and resources to the people making it worse. It's not just legacy from the 20's and 50's, this is an ongoing problem that is created by imperialism.
Also when a Global South government tries to solve its problems, such as through nationalizing resources or land reform, the US buries them under sanctions and attempts to make a regime change. This, too, is part of how imperialism underdevelops the Global South.
I mean that's the whole point of the US higher education system, excepting the Republicans (with the help of Democrats) broke the parts of our immigration system that is supposed to take advantage of educating the world.
Did you just say people moving to the US for a better life are a part of imperialism?
Don't misunderstand, the people moving to the US are blameless. Imperialism works by siphoning up all of the skilled labor around the world for itself in order to make life better for people within the imperial core, and this is part of how the imperial nations underdevelop other countries. People get educations in their home countries (often at the government's expense) and then they take that education out of the country to put it to use in the US (or France or Canada etc). They're just going where the jobs are, though, that's not their fault at all.
Except where there's little opportunity to utilize the highly skilled labor. They are going abroad anyway to find job opportunities befitting of their skill set and the highest bidder. Doesn't matter if the US or EU took them, they're leaving because the local opportunity doesn't exist.
Yes, and the people who could develop that local opportunity aren't there. They all leave as soon as they can.
That's why I said they're underdeveloped countries. They're not "developing" in truth, but are being kept from becoming developed. How do you think that happens? In part it happens because of the IMF giving predatory loans and then imposing austerity on the people when the government can't pay their loans back, but it also happens because labor is the superior of capital and these countries are losing skilled labor.
I am not blaming them for leaving their countries. I am blaming underdevelopment, which is a product of imperialism.
Why am I seeing multiple news reports today about Joe Biden where they remove context to polarize his comments further? This feels, to me, like a new media trend
Propaganda?
It doesn’t need to be propaganda, just maximizing clicks will do that for you organically.
Yes. Foreign or domestic. Who knows?
CNN is owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, an American company.
The post, not the site.
Every news article posted here and across all platforms is public relations, or propaganda. You need / must understand this. There are 1200 stories, graphics, and videos posted per day, just from the Wash. Post. source
Every story is curated in some way as it filters here. Users decide what they deem worthy of posting.
It’s all propaganda, unless it’s my side. /s
This is on .ml
Oh man, I almost never check. It sure is.
About all 3 tbh. China and russia are literally in the middle of committing genocides. Doesnt get much more xenophobic than that lol
He's not wrong but also I believe there's a saying in English about stones and glass houses.
Even the most bigoted parts of the US are nowhere near as xenophobic as Japan. Housing discrimination based on race is still perfectly acceptable over there, many people will refuse to rent to foreigners.
Do you think there isn't housing discrimination happening in the US?
Black families often have their homes appraised for less than white family homes.
Housing applications often get denied if the person has a non white last name.
Hell, the last time I was looking around for a room to rent I got asked multiple times over the phone. "You're white right?"
At least some governments in Japan appear to disagree:
https://jobsinjapan.com/living-in-japan-guide/housing-discrimination-challenges-faced-by-foreigners-in-japan/
And the article itself seems to contradict with those statements...
Xeno Biden doesn't care.
I mean he's not wrong, but where does he expect China to get immigrants from? They're 20% of the world.
He's also cherry picking data. It's a weird flex.
The proportion of immigrants in the US isn't exactly high compared to somewhere like Canada.
I mean the US is 15% immigrants, or about 50 million people. I know we like to shit on the US but that's a ridiculously big number.
In terms of raw numbers thee US has a huge population so it has more of everything, whether that's immigrants or murderers or doctors or pedophiles.
In perms of the percentage of its population tho, 15% is somewhere in the middle of the pack, well behind countries like Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Switzerland etc.
Boasting that you have more immigration than random countries like Japan is just odd.
He's not boasting; he's saying that immigration would do a lot to solve their problems; and he's correct. I hate Biden's guts but he's correct here. For context Japan is a notoriously xenophobic country and currently sits at a 2%. They're not "a random country".
I mean people deciding to come to your country isn't proportional to your population, or really related at all. It'd be like expecting China to have the same 15% as the US (for context that'd be about 250 million people). That's just not how that works.
I agree he specifically called out Japan to contrast with the US because its immigration was weaker.
Are you saying fewer people decide to come to the US than to those other countries?
Seems unlikely. Pretty sure the US could let in a lot more immigrants if it wanted to.
I mean yes that's the case for everyone. I'm saying the number of people applying to immigration to the US isn't four times that of Germany, for example, so even if they accept people according to the exact same criteria Germany will have a bigger percentage.
Are you sure? I'd expect the number applying to the US would be hundreds of times higher than the number applying to New Zealand.
I don't especially love or hate Biden btw, I mean I can't stand US foriegn policy on the Gaza Genocide but it's not like their other mainstream politicians wouldn't have done more or less the same. It's a real pity the US hadn't been able to elect someone like Bernie Sanders.
As neat as Japan sounds and as much as I’d like to be there, I mean, he’s not wrong
I watch YouTubers who moved to and live there talk about how they’re just indefinitely treated like a tourist
Pretty much every country in the world where citizenship, nationality, and ethnicity are the same thing you find xenophobia.
I think "extremely ethnocentric" is a more fair description/criticism of Japan. Close to 98% of their population is ethnically homogeneous, so it kinda makes sense.
You'd be wrong
Lmfao
I don't live in Japan. But, I don't see the issue with Japan being 'xenophobic'.
Xenophobia is a bad thing, so being xenophobic is bad too. 👍
Wait Biden actually said something true?
Broken clocks and all that - but this one only has one hand working at this point. We're always counting down to midnight, for some reason.
FFS. In a site where "news" = "stupid shit that happens in the US", can something named "world news" exclude the US? Please? Does it need to be called "non US news"?
I know other countries are mentioned here. But it's just the ramblings of dementia.
As always, more projection
Lol what?
The US is one of the most xenophobic countries in the world.
Japan is notably more xenophobic. No matter how long you live in Japan, even if you manage to get full citizenship (which even celebrities who have lived there for decades struggle with), you are never considered "Japanese" by the native-born Japanese people.
The USA on the other hand is comparatively easy to become a citizen of and has laws banning discrimination based on race and national origin for employers. A citizen is a citizen is a citizen. The only job in the entire country that requires you be born as a citizen is the POTUS.
It's pretty damn hard to become a citizen in the US, and there are several studies showing that even legal immigrants from non-white countries with citizenship will face discrimination for their entire time in the US. Let's not forget how we treat people at the border either. There's significant evidence of genocidal treatment of immigrants at the Southern border, like forced sterilization
Right, but in Japan it's legal for businesses to racially descriminate against both potential customers and potential hires. During the height of the COVID pandemic, many businesses had "No Foreigners allowed" signs due to the perception that COVID was spread by foreigners. In the US there's lots of controversy over racism, but in Japan you don't hear about it because it's generally the accepted status quo.
In Japan, it has until recently been a legal requirement for trans people to undergo sterilization in order for their gender to be legally recognized (which is also a legal requirement for trans people to adopt children there).
To be clear, I'm not saying the US is not xenophobic. What I am saying is that from an American perspective, Japan is even more so.
most?
Don't get out much, eh? Xenophobia is present all throughout the world in different amounts, it has its roots in any insulated human nature. The US is far from the worst on Earth though, despite whatever cherry-picked propaganda one may read. We just do have some, particularly in more interior regions.
I don't hear about other countries doing forced sterilization on immigrants.
Yeah I'm not clicking on that. Assuming it's about the ICE facility allegations from 2020 though. And yeah, Trump is a monster. Make no mistake, the US could go fully fascist if we let it, there are certainly xenophobic elements within the country. It's not a majority opinion though.
"majority opinion" doesn't matter, government actions do. Regardless of the majority opinion, what has occurred and other things that continue to occur are irreparably destroying lives and killing people.
If all government actions from any point in time are what matter, and not the democratic opinions of the populace or the actions of the current government, then I'd say the worst was Mongolia under Genghis Khan.
This is emphatically wrong on every level. You're calling an entire country and it's inhabitants xenophobic, yet you're referring to the actions of a far-right figure we not only voted out of office, but never voted to put in in the first place (he lost the popular vote.)
You're ironically very xenophobic - even if you are American. Because most Americans are welcoming as part of our culture. To be against that is not only wrong, it's also very unfounded.
Have you ever actually been outside the US?
I'd argue they've ever never been inside it, or they live in some crazy, far-right city.
It's really not. Not to sound like I'm erasing racism in the US, but the reason you hear about it is because it's tested and contested so much. It's almost always way worse in more homogeneous nations.
Its really not and I challenge you to provide stats that say otherwise. Of course its one of the countries with the most racial tension, but that comes along with being one of the most racially diverse.
Does forced sterilization lend any credibility to that statement?
It's the second largest multi-ethnic democracy on Earth.
Man no. Just... No.
What do you mean by this? I live in the US on the Mexico border and we are extremely welcoming.
Stop getting your facts from Fox News.
People are allowing perfect be the enemy of good. We could treat migrants better and improve the visa pipeline, but once they acclimate they are just another person.
I don't think you know what that word means.
https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/frequently-requested-statistics-immigrants-and-immigration-united-states-2024#:~:text=How%20many%20U.S.%20residents%20are,or%2020%20percent)%20from%202010.
Mr. “Super-predators” and “kill their women and children”?
Ironic