Monday, April 30, 2012

A message from volunteer


Hello,
My name is Theo. I am coming to APFS as a volunteer since April 2012.
I want to study about the migrations to Japan, so I came here as an exchange student. Spending time, talking, working together with the people of APFS, who try to find solutions for the foreigners living here, it is a very rich experience. Whether they have the right visa or not, foreigners are treated not as such but as human beings, and I feel it is a very good thing.
There are many legal regulations. But if you try to hold together with the foreigners that can be lost in the maze of the laws, regulations, and a sometimes very unfriendly society, we can make a better society !
If you dont have the right paper, I realized daily life can become extremely difficult. I never had trouble with getting a cell phone, getting registered or daily life matters, thanks to my foreign student visa. But, listening to the stories of people in different situations, I realized that it was not so easy for other people. Finding an apartment, a job, divorce, cellphone, a lot a things of very difficult.

While Im in Japan, I dont want to do research in an office. I want to be on the field, to grasp the situation.
So, as much as I can, I want to participate in finding solutions with this association, and with the people living here.