Kurds in Kawaguchi apply for refugee status in Turkey during the farming off-season, return home during the farming season
“Chain of immigration” and “immigration” due to blood-related group ties: the real reason why Japanese Kurds head to Kawaguchi③ It is said that there is a specific cycle for refugee status applications by the Kurdish minority group of Turkey who are concentrated in Kawaguchi City, Saitama Prefecture. The number of people coming to Japan and applications increases sharply every autumn, and a certain number of them withdraw their applications by the following summer and return to Turkey. The background to this is thought to be the cycle of busy and off-seasons in farming, such as livestock farming, a livelihood in their home country. A boy was herding sheep in the grasslands of the western Adıyaman province in southern Turkey. There used to be about 300 households and 2,000 people in this area who made their living by raising sheep and goats. They were originally nomads, but later migrated to two villages several tens of kilometers apart and settled there. These are two of the four or five villages with the highest number of refugee applicants in Japan. This family’s existence is the reason why 80% of asylum applicants come from the three southern provinces in which these villages are located. When we visited one of the two villages, an old man we met told us, “We come from that clan. The villagers from the two villages can be traced back to four families,” he said. The ties of blood relatives connected by a common ancestor appear to be the reason for the “chain of immigration” that occurs when one person arrives in Japan, followed by family and acquaintances from the same village, relying on those who arrived earlier. According to immigration officials, the number of Kurdish refugee applicants increases sharply every year around October and November, when winter arrives and farming and livestock farming is in the off-season. The number of people returning home increases the following year around May and June when the grazing season begins. Of the approximately 2,400 people who applied for Turkish citizenship last year, nearly 700 people, or one-third of the total, had already returned to their home countries by around June this year. An immigration official said, “Before summer comes, they say that their problem has been resolved, and withdraw their refugee applications and return to their home countries. In the fall, the same person comes to Japan, says “there’s been another problem,” and applies for refugee status. It is believed that this is to find work during the agricultural off-season, similar to the migrant workers from the Tohoku region in the past. According to sources, there are several families living in the Kawaguchi area, including those from two villages who came to Japan in the early 1990s. A hierarchy has also developed in which families who came to Japan earlier and started a demolition business employ Kurds and Turks who came later. For details, see source Yahoo!News Sankei 2024/11/27.
I see. Did he abuse the refugee application system and stay in Japan? In the first place, it is the Japanese government’s fault for making an agreement with an untrustworthy developing country like Turkey allowing 90-day visa-free stays. There is almost no benefit to the Japanese side.
Of course it’s hated in every country, and through corporate political groups, they’re making a big fuss about it being “discrimination”, because it’s a business opportunity.
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