Gateways to Japan

―Patterns of Socio-Economic Integration and Exclusion of New Immigrants―

February 13, 2014 6:30 PM (finished)


David Chiavacci

(Mercator Professor in Social Science of Japan at the University of Zurich, Switzerland)

Date/Time February 13, 2014 6:30 PM
Location Room 549 5th floor, Akamon Sogo Kenkyuto Institute of Social Science, University of Tokyo　 [map]
Abstract The share of foreign residents in current Japan is with less than two percent still low in international comparison. Still, since the late 1980s, Japan has had a significant and continuous inflow of new immigrants. Today, Japan is an immigration country with an increasing ethnic diversity. And in view of its long-term demographic development, the introduction of an active immigration policy is a recurrent topic in policy circles and public discussions since the late 1990s. This talk analyses the patterns and experiences of socio-economic integration and exclusion of these new immigrants in Japanese society. It focuses on a comparative analysis of Chinese immigrants and *nikkeijin *(return migrants of Japanese origin from South America) as the two largest groups among the new immigrants. By applying established theoretical models of inclusion and exclusion in a national context as well as recent approaches on transnational links as another mean of socio-economic integration, it finds large differences in the case of the two ethnic minorities. On the one hand, the Chinese minority is marked by an internal diversity including successful ethnic entrepreneurs as well as marginalized trainees. While for the successful Chinese entrepreneurs a transnational path of socio-economic integration is accessible, Chinese trainees are embedded into Japan's foreign trainee system as a kind of total (transnational) institution. On the other hand, the *nikkeijin *are segregated into indirect short-term employment and not fully incorporated into social security systems. Although they achieve a decent income, they face a high risk of poverty in old age. Moreover, in view of the low school achievements of their children, the *nikkeijin* are on the path to become a precarious underclass. The talk will conclude with a discussion of the factors leading to these diverse patterns among new immigrants and comparing their experiences with Korean immigrants of the colonial era and their descendants in Japan.
Bio David Chiavacci is Mercator Professor in Social Science of Japan at the University of Zurich, Switzerland. His research covers economic sociology, political sociology and sociology of knowledge of contemporary Japan. His newer publications on immigration and integration in Japan include ?Japan in the ?Global War for Talent?: Changing Concepts of Valuable Foreign Workers and Their Consequences?, in* Asien: The German Journal of Contemporary Asia*, 123 (2012): 27-47 and ?Immigration and ?Gap Society? in Japan: Are Foreign Workers a New Underclass??, in: Gy?rgy Sz?ll and Ute Sz?ll (eds.), *Quality of Life & Working Life in Comparison*, Frankfurt: Peter Lang, pp. 347-368.