{"id":5934,"date":"2010-02-07T00:52:01","date_gmt":"2010-02-06T15:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=5934"},"modified":"2010-02-07T02:36:46","modified_gmt":"2010-02-06T17:36:46","slug":"tangent-odd-treatment-of-naturalized-people-by-air-canadacanadian-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/?p=5934","title":{"rendered":"Odd treatment of “naturalized” people (guess who) by Air Canada\/Canadian Government at Narita Airport"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Hi Blog. \u00a0Writing to you from Calgary, Canada. \u00a0As a tangent that might not be all that tangental, let me tell you about an odd experience I had at Narita Airport yesterday.<\/p>\n

It was a breeze for a change getting out of Hokkaido and going overseas (which generally means, if you don’t go through Seoul, that you go through KIX or Narita), as my bags were checked all the way through to Vancouver (meaning I didn’t have to get my bags and go through long-lined Immigration procedures again at Narita). \u00a0And no, there were no double-takes at my Japanese passport at any stage of the game.<\/p>\n

That is, until boarding. \u00a0I had a ten-hour layover in Narita (!! — it was longer than my actual flight to Canada), so I holed up in the United Airlines lounge (the ANA lounge idiotically won’t take non-members willing to pay 50 bucks at United or Delta) for the duration and got stuff done (free beer and internet, not bad at all). \u00a0Then when I was heading back for the gate about fifteen minutes before boarding, I was paged along with about four other people to come to the Air Canada desk at the gate.<\/p>\n

They asked to see my passport. \u00a0I obliged. \u00a0Then they asked (whole exchange in Japanese):<\/p>\n

“You’re naturalized, right?” \u00a0Yes.<\/p>\n

“What was your nationality before?”<\/p>\n

I double-took and told them that was unessential information.<\/p>\n

“So you are unwilling to say?”<\/p>\n

I asked what this information was necessary for.<\/p>\n

“We’re just asking.”<\/p>\n

“No you’re not. \u00a0Who needs this information? \u00a0You as the airline?”<\/p>\n

“No, the Canadian Government wants it. \u00a0They’re an immigration country. \u00a0They’re trying to avoid faked passports.”<\/p>\n

Me: \u00a0“Erm, I don’t get it. \u00a0I’m not on a faked passport, obviously. \u00a0And it’s not a Canadian passport anyway. \u00a0Why are naturalized people more suspicious?”<\/p>\n

“I don’t know.”<\/p>\n

“Were any of the other four people you paged called up for a passport check?”<\/p>\n

“No, different business.”<\/p>\n

“So you’re only singling out the naturalized people for extra identity checks?”<\/p>\n

“Yes.”<\/p>\n

“This is, frankly, annoying and insulting. \u00a0And unCanadian. \u00a0I went over there in 2006 and was not subjected to this. \u00a0When did this start?”<\/p>\n

“I don’t know. \u00a0I’ve only been working here about a year.”<\/p>\n

“Well, I’m not telling you my birth nationality. \u00a0It’s unnecessary. \u00a0And I don’t see how knowing that helps you smoke out any faked passports. \u00a0Okay?”<\/p>\n

That was fine. \u00a0They pursued it no further.<\/p>\n

I got through YVR and other checkpoints just fine, again, with no double takes.<\/p>\n

Any thoughts from people out there? \u00a0Anyone with connections to the Canadian government willing to ask around and see if this is actual policy?<\/p>\n

Arudou Debito in Calgary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had an odd experience yesterday at the hands of Air Canada in Narita. I was paged shortly before boarding along with about four other people to come to the Air Canada desk at the gate.<\/p>\n

They asked to see my passport. I obliged. Then they asked (whole exchange in Japanese):<\/p>\n

“You’re naturalized, right?” Yes. <\/p>\n

“What was your nationality before?”<\/p>\n

I paused and told them that was unessential information.<\/p>\n

“So you are unwilling to say?”<\/p>\n

I asked what this information was necessary for.<\/p>\n

“We’re just asking.”<\/p>\n

“No you’re not. Who needs this information? You as the airline?”<\/p>\n

“No, the Canadian Government wants it. They’re an immigration country. They’re trying to avoid faked passports.”<\/p>\n

Whaaaa… ?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bad-social-science","category-fingerprinting-nj"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5934","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5934\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.debito.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}