Word: hosted
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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MITOYO CITY, Japan—While my host family generally expects me to help with chores around the house, one task is strictly off limits: taking out the trash. “It's just too difficult for foreigners,” she tells me. Perhaps Japan’s strict garbage disposal regulations are as daunting to an outside visitor as Tokyo’s crisscrossed subway map and a writing system with three different alphabets...
...home-stay, trash is sorted into 18 categories, which range from burnable waste, to metallic trash, to used tempura oil. City residents divide up their own waste and deliver it to nearby collection stations on designated days. This means that every second Thursday of the month, my host parents transport their plastic waste to the collection site near city hall – except, of course, on the second Thursday of an even-numbered month, during which plastic bottles, and not common plastics, are collected. Before they do this, however, they must drive to the nearby supermarket to purchase city...
While originally intended to reduce the amount of landfill waste in land-scarce Japan, these stringent regulations have also managed to reshape many residents’ views about trash and wastefulness. When doing groceries, my host mother seeks products with minimal wrapping—hoping to avoid the hassle of having sort through these later. My host siblings diligently wash out their plastic soda bottles before dumping them in the appropriate bin; they now tend to opt for milk when thirsty—it’s easier to dispose...
...past year, migrant-rights groups and governments have grown increasingly concerned as the global recession has made migrants more vulnerable to abuse. More workers are being taken advantage of by unfair wages or, worse, not being paid at all as companies have folded. Unemployed migrant workers in host countries are also willing to take on increasingly risky work to maintain their incomes or pay back growing debts. And as sending countries continue to battle hard times, the supply of people looking for jobs overseas - even in dangerous conditions - has increased...
...They are written in very, very general terms," says Maruja Asis, research director at the Scalabrini Migration Center in Manila. "The implementation has been very problematic." Some experts say that MOUs can even harm migrants because they create a hierarchy of protection based on ethnicity or type of work. Host countries can be selective with which origin countries they will forge MOUs, creating situations in which some workers are better protected than others...