OSAKA--Many foreign students at universities in Japan have worked hard to come here, but it has been a particularly tough road for a Myanmar man at Kwansei Gakuin University, who fled his home country 16 years ago.
In April, Myo Myint Swe became one of the first two refugees admitted to the university through its agreement with the Office of U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Japan, aimed at providing college education for refugees. He attends the university's school of policy studies at its Sanda campus in Sanda, Hyogo Prefecture.
"I'd wanted to go to university since I left Burma [Myanmar], but it was just impossible," Myo said. "When UNHCR called to tell me I'd been picked as a recommended candidate to the university, I cried tears of joy."
Myo, 38, was involved in the pro-democracy movement as a university student in his home country. "We used to be rich, but we had become one of the poorest countries in the world," he said. "Senior military officials were the only ones living in affluence, and for all others, it was difficult to make a decent living. [Myanmar] is an agricultural country, but people didn't have enough rice to eat."
He added the student movement became so big because even those who had a college education could not find jobs.
However, after the military suppressed the pro-democracy uprising in 1988 and formed the government, he began to feel it was too dangerous for him to stay in the country. "I left [Myanmar], promising myself I'd come back when I could do something to improve the country," Myo said.
As for the recent military crackdown against peaceful demonstrators in Myanmar, he simply said, "I'm worried about the people."
For Myo, Kwansei Gakuin University was a fresh start after years of difficulty in Japan.
He has refugee status under the 1951 U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, but only received it two years ago.
He first came to Japan with a temporary visa, which he eventually overstayed while working at a Japanese restaurant and later at an IT-related firm in Tokyo. Although he had left Myanmar in fear of political persecution and should have been protected as a refugee, he was concerned that overstaying the visa would cause problems, he said.
Unfortunately, his worries became a reality.
As Myo continued to voice his opinion on Myanmar, he felt the need for protection even in Japan. He applied for refugee status in 2004, but shortly after was arrested on suspicion of overstaying his visa. He was detained by the police and the immigration authorities for 251 days, he said.
Two weeks after a provisional release from an immigration facility, Myo was given refugee status by the justice minister.
The first thing he did after earning the status was look into the possibility of going to university.
However, Myo would have to pass examinations and pay tuition like Japanese students, so he decided to get a job and take a college correspondence course. While working for another IT-related firm, he learned about the new program launched by the UNHCR and Kwansei Gakuin University.
For the program, the UNHCR office in Japan screens applicants about their refugee backgrounds and fluency in Japanese, and the university interviews the recommended candidates.
Married by this time, Myo faced a difficult choice, as going to the university meant losing his job and moving from Tokyo. But his wife was very supportive, he said, telling him that a college education would open a whole new world to him in the long run.
Now studying at the university, Myo says he couldn't be happier.
"I was worried I wouldn't be able to keep up with the classes, and I do need to work on my writing [Japanese]. But it's so much fun to learn about politics, economics and human rights," he said. "I also feel Japanese students are very fortunate, living in peace and studying whatever they like. That's such a privilege."
Another student admitted through the program is a 23-year-old Vietnamese man, whose parents are Indochinese refugees. He said through the university's public relations office that he felt the urge to study more at a trading firm where he worked after high school because he realized he had a lot to learn if he wanted to improve his business performance.
The man, who has requested to remain anonymous, also said he hoped to establish a trading firm in Vietnam that would do business with Japan.
The university exempts the two students from tuition and provides a monthly stipend of 80,000 yen each. They also have the choice of living in the university dormitory free of charge.
The stipend comes from a fund, which reached 8.6 million yen as of the end of March through donations from several Osaka-based firms and university professors and employees. The university plans to continue accepting a maximum of two refugees a year.
"We hope to nurture people who can contribute to the good of the world," said Kohei Asano, the university's vice president. "We'd like to give opportunities to refugees, who can't get an education because of financial difficulties or lack of educational records from their home countries. But in addition, we hope sitting in a classroom with refugee students will lead other students to think about problems in the world and what they can do about them."
According to the UNHCR, the program has drawn interest from other universities, including Aoyama Gakuin University, which concluded a similar agreement at the end of July to start a program next April.
"Many refugees manage to learn Japanese although they have a hard time here," Yuki Moriya, public information officer at the UNHCR office in Japan, said. "We'd like to see more universities follow Kwansei Gakuin University's path. If refugees who study here someday go back to their countries, they would definitely be a great bridge between their countries and Japan."
Japan is said to lag behind in refugee-related policies. The number of cases in which applicants were given refugee status under the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Law is 410 out of 4,882 applications since 1982, when the system was put into effect, until the end of 2006, according to government statistics.
Although Myo held a grudge against the Japanese government after being arrested, he is now grateful for the opportunity to study in Japan.
"In the future, I want to work for an international organization and try to eliminate problems that create refugees in the first place, like poverty and political instability," he said.
http://www.yomiuri.co.jp/dy/national/20071101TDY16001.htm
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