Internet provides a lot of information but it tends to be shallow. Useful information can be found in specialized data base but most of people do not use them. Libraries provide much more comprehensive information but not many people use it for blogging.
Nationalism and Immigration Policy: North and South
Richard Sigurdson
Department of Political Studies
University of Manitoba
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3T 5V5 CanadaConclusion
In general, the North is continually brought closer to the South in terms of both freer trade and more direct flows of migrants, mainly from the South to the North. But while trade remains fairly open and western governments have negotiated various agreements to keep it so, migration is heavily restricted and regulated. Immigration rules and procedures have become less discriminatory and policies of multiculturalism or other means of accommodating culturally diverse people have been put in place throughout the North. But there continues to be a strong resentment of more open immigration policies by citizens in the North, regardless of the economic factors (most of which support the call for greater flows of immigrants). The principal reason that immigration remains such a highly controversial issue appears to be the continued strength of nationalist thought and sentiment among citizens of the Northern countries.
The main concerns with immigration continue to revolve around the fundamental role of the nation-state in providing security, maintaining sovereignty, ascribing citizenship, promoting identity, and providing a sense of belonging in a sociocultural sense. As long as nationalism remains strong, countries will resist opening the doors too wide to those who may challenge the majority understanding of the community and its national image.
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Post-National Politics in Japan?:
The Immigrant Right to Vote
Choong Hoon Lee
Department of Political Science
New School for Social Research, NY.“We do not think of aliens, legal or illegal, as being ‘disenfranchised,’ because we assume that voting must be based on nation-state citizenship. We do not even think of aliens having politics. They are here mainly for their physical survival
and our convenience: to work as janitors, domestics, nannies and drivers. They are here to scrape by, not govern. They inhabit Aristotle’s realm of private necessity rather than the space of public deliberation. We don’t pause to question the prevailing exclusion of aliens; they are meant to be ruled, not to share in
ruling (Raskin 1993, 433: cited from Varsanyi 2005). “Human rights/civil rights
• Protection of life, liberty, and property
• Due process of law
• Rights of association in economy, civil society, and cultural life
• Freedom of speech and opinion
Social rights • Collective bargaining and trade unions
• Old age pensions
• Unemployment benefits
• Health care
• Housing/child care/educational subsides
Cultural rights
• Schooling in own language
• Cultural and art subsidies
Political rights
• Run for, hold, and vote for office at all levels (local, regional, and national)
• Establish political, civil, and cultural associations
• Military service