[An-lang] COOL6 - potential problem

[Daniel Long]

John and fellow linguists,

I will tell you what little I know about it.  These regulations by no
means are only for "exotic" countries.  In April I hosted a prominent UK
linguist here in Japan who had been scheduled to teach at the Summer
Institute of Linguistics in Michigan this summer, but his participation
in that was canceled because the US government's demands (that he travel
to London from his home in Switzerland for an interview, and leave his
passport with them even though he had to use it to come here to Japan)
made it virtually impossible.   Several Americans involved called their
Congressional representatives to no avail.

Obviously, the US government is distrustful right now of Muslims,
including those in the UK.   This might not affect Oceanists, but
Austronesianists from Indonesia, Philippines, etc. might be scrutinized.
   This is purely, however, simply speculation based on what I know
about the UK example.

FYI.

Danny Long

John Lynch wrote:

> Following the announcement of the dates and venue for the 6th
> International Conference on Oceanic Linguistics - Hilo, July 2004 - a
> possible problem has come to my attention. Recent media reports have
> indicated that the US Immigration Service is tightening up its visa
> processing regulations, and requires that each applicant from certain
> countries - I cannot establish which - attend a personal interview at
> the embassy, as well as paying a fee of US $100.
>
> In the case of participants who are citizens of Oceanic-speaking
> countries, this will require travel outside their home country simply
> to have a shot at getting a visa, with no guarantee of success. In my
> own case, for example, as a citizen of Vanuatu, I would first have to
> travel to Papua New Guinea, where the embassy responsible for Vanuatu
> is located, then return here, then travel to Hilo via Fiji, Australia
> or New Zealand.
>
> One of the intentions behind the Oceanic Conferences was to try to
> encourage native-speaker linguists from Pacific countries to attend.
> These regulations will make that extremely difficult, because of the
> additional expense involved. I am not sure to how many other countries
> these regulations apply, but perhaps someone on the list might be able
> to get better information. (My email messages to the US embassy in PNG
> keep bouncing and those to the US embassy in Fiji go unanswered).
>
> John Lynch
>

--
Daniel Long, Associate Professor     *** NEW TEL*** +81-426-77-2206
Japanese Language and Literature Dept.         fax  +81-426-77-2140
Tokyo Metropolitan University
1-1 Minami Osawa, Hachioji-shi, Tokyo  192-0397 Japan
mailto:dlong at bcomp.metro-u.ac.jp
http://nihongo.human.metro-u.ac.jp/long/


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