How Immigration Is Playing Out In Greece And Japan

11:04

August 28, 2015

Two migrants from Syria are assisted by their friends as they swim the final 50 yards of their journey before arriving on the beach on the island of Kos after crossing a three mile stretch of the Aegean Sea in a small boat from Turkey August 28, 2015 in Kos, Greece. Migrants from the Middle East and North Africa continue to flood into Europe at a rate that marks the largest migration since World War II. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)

As immigration emerges as a top issue on the presidential campaign trail, all this week, Here & Now has been looking at the U.S. immigration system. To wrap up the series, host Jeremy Hobson looks outside U.S. borders, at how other countries are dealing with the issue.

Greece, of course, has been very much in the news, as tens of thousands of refugees have been flooding across its borders. On the other side of the world, in Japan, the picture is about as different as could be: it's a country with very little immigration of any kind, illegal or legal.

Here & Now's Jeremy Hobson talks with NPR'S Joanna Kakissis in Athens and Peter Landers of the Wall Street Journal in Tokyo, about the very different views and policies the two countries have toward immigration.

See more in our immigration series

Guest

Joanna Kakissis, covers Greece and Cyprus for NPR. She tweets @joannakakissis.
Peter Landers, Tokyo bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal. He tweets @LandersWSJ.

This segment aired on August 28, 2015.