A little bit of perspective for fingerprinted foreigners
The fuss about long term foreigners having to join the foreigners’ queue at immigration (?) and have their fingerprints taken and pose for a photo…
…seems to be dying down. Almost ignored in Japan is the fact that the British government is about to not only do something much worse to foreigners, but has managed to choose something that could piss off a whole bunch of TEFL teachers too.
Gordon Brown’s Bruisers are considering introducing compulsory language tests for partners of British citizens who want to get into the country on a fiance or spouse visa- meaning that if I marry someone with an English level that the British government doesn’t approve of, they could decide to not let them in the country and so basically break up my marriage if there is some reason (sick parent, own business) why I can’t leave the country too. And what they are going to do if I marry someone blind, deaf or otherwise disabled I shudder to think- or maybe that is part of the plan of preserving the British gene pool (Surely not?? Have they looked at a beach full of British people recently??)
If the Japanese introduce the same system there could be a whole load of pidgin English couples roaming the world unable ever to visit their parents together.
*Thanks to An Englishman in Osaka blog for the photo (meaning, thanks for not having complained yet that I nicked it without permission).