Updated on 2024/12/04

写真a

 
FARRER, Gracia Liu
 
Affiliation
Faculty of International Research and Education, Graduate School of Asia Pacific Studies
Job title
Professor
Degree
Ph.D ( University of Chicago )
MA ( University of Chicago )
BA ( Fudan University )

Research Experience

  • 2018.10
    -
     

    Waseda University   Institute of Asian Migrations   Director

  • 2014.04
    -
     

    Waseda University   Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies   Professor

  • 2009.04
    -
    2014.03

    Waseda University   Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies   Associate Professor

  • 2008.10
    -
    2009.03

    Ochanomizu University   Assistant Professor

  • 2006.04
    -
    2007.11

    Tohoku University   Center for the Study of Social Stratification and Inequality   Research Fellow

Education Background

  • 1999
    -
    2007

    University of Chicago   Graduate School, Division of Social Sciences   Sociology  

  • 1997
    -
    1998

    University of Chicago   Graduate School, Division of Social Sciences   Education  

  • 1989
    -
    1993

    Fudan University   Faculty of Foreign Language   English Language and Literature  

Professional Memberships

  •  
     
     

    Japanese Sociological Society

  •  
     
     

    Association of Asian Studies

  •  
     
     

    American Sociological Association

Research Areas

  • Sociology

Research Interests

  • Transnational labor market

  • Race and Ethnicity

  • International Education

  • Social Stratification

  • International Migration

Awards

  • Waseda Next Generation Core Researcher

    2017   Waseda University  

  • Waseda Research Award

    2014   Waseda University  

Media Coverage

  • Social Science Japan Journal

  • Asian Pacific Migration Journal

  • Racial and Ethnic Studies

  • International Migration

  • International Migration Review

  • Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies

  • Current Sociology

  • Qualitative sociology

  • American Journal of Sociology

  • Social Science Japan Journal

    Oxford University Press  

▼display all

 

Papers

  • Visa policies, migration industry and the ethnic entrepreneurship trap: the case of Nepalese restaurant businesses in Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer, Dalima Tamang

    Asian Anthropology    2023.07

    DOI

    Scopus

    2
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • Immigration and labor shortages: Learning from Japan and the United Kingdom

    Gracia Liu-Farrer, Anne E. Green, Ceren Ozgen, Matthew A. Cole

    Asian and Pacific Migration Journal    2023.06

    DOI

    Scopus

    6
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • The logics of staying for highly skilled Asian migrants in Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Asian and Pacific Migration Journal    2023.03

    DOI

    Scopus

    3
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • Japan and immigration: Looking beyond the Tokyo olympics

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Asia-Pasific Journal: Japan Focus   18 ( 4 ) 1 - 8  2020.02

     View Summary

    Japan has so far seen forei gn workers as a stop-gap solution to intensifying labor shortages, as manifested in the labor import scheme for the Olympics. However, due to a gathering demographic crisis, the labor shortage will not disappear when the Olympics ends. Japan needs to create asocial environment where immigrants can more easily fit in. Perhaps the 2020 Olympics, with all its promises and challenges, will be an opportunity for Japan to envision a new form of society and redefineits nationalidentity from an exclusively monoethnic monocultural one to an embracing, inclusive and diverse one.

  • Social construction of skill: an analytical approach toward the question of skill in cross-border labour mobilities*

    Gracia Liu-Farrer, Brenda S. Yeoh, Michiel Baas

    Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies     1 - 15  2020  [Refereed]

     View Summary

    Selecting labour migrants based on skill has become a widely practised migration policy in many countries around the world. Since the late twentieth century, research on ‘skilled’ and ‘highly skilled’ migration has raised important questions about the value and ethics of skill-based labour mobility. More recent research has begun to question the concept of skill and skill categorisation in both government policy and academic research. Taking the view that migrants’ skill is socially constructed, we centre our discussion on three questions: Who are the arbitrators of skill? What constitutes skill? And how is skill constructed in the migration process and in turn, how does skill affect the mobility? We show that diverse actors are involved in the process of identifying, evaluating and shaping migrant skill. The interpretation of migrants’ skill is frequently distorted by their ascriptive characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender and nationality, reflecting the influence of colonial legacy, global inequality as well as social stratification. Finally, this special issue emphasises the complex, and frequently reciprocal, relationship between skill and mobility.

    DOI

    Scopus

    79
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • Who are the fittest? The question of skills in national employment systems in an age of global labour mobility

    Gracia Liu-Farrer, Karen Shire

    Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies     1 - 18  2020  [Refereed]

     View Summary

    Faced with demographic as well as economic changes, Germany and Japan have liberalised immigration controls for skilled migrants, set targets for foreign student enrolments in university, and introduced visa categories to enable foreign graduates to enter their labour markets. Yet a relatively modest share of foreign graduates actually receives jobs appropriate to their skill-level and remain in these labour markets. In this article, we focus on organisational recruitment and employment practices, especially those related to skill formation and the structuring of careers, as factors affecting the remain rates of foreign graduates. Our analysis shows that while obtaining the same educational credentials as native students, foreign graduates are disadvantaged because the employment systems of the host countries operate according to the logic of national labour markets, entailing institutionally and culturally specific skill expectations as well as formation processes. Consequently, foreign graduates either fail to enter the market, or are placed in lower or niche categories in a differentiated labour market.

    DOI

    Scopus

    33
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • Bridging the Institutional Gaps: International Education as a Migration Industry

    Gracia Liu-Farrer, An Huy Tran

    International Migration   57 ( 3 ) 235 - 249  2019.06  [Refereed]

     View Summary

    This article examines the education-migration industry that has channelled students from China and Viet Nam into Japan over the past three decades and discusses the conditions for the emergence of such an industry, the major actors and the reasons for their changing roles and practices. It argues that the education-migration industry in Japan emerged because of the discrepant institutional logics. Japan's reluctance to open the door for labour import, despite its acute labour shortage, has turned international education into a sanctioned channel of labour migration and thereby created opportunities for international education to become a thriving migration industry. As long as this institutional gap remains, government regulations will only create new sources of power and profits for brokers who can navigate complex regulations and employ illicit means to satisfy the legal requirements. The education-migration industry is therefore a derivative of Japan's immigration regime and actively interacts with government policies.

    DOI

    Scopus

    36
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • City Making and Global Labor Regimes: Chinese Immigrants and Italy's Fast Fashion Industry

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    CHINA QUARTERLY   235   890 - 891  2018.09

    DOI

  • Immigrants in a non-immigrant society: Recent PHD dissertations on migration in Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Social Science Japan Journal   21 ( 1 ) 117 - 127  2018.01  [Refereed]

     View Summary

    Japan has been struggling with 'immigration'-the 'I' word-for three decades (Roberts, this issue). Instead of calling it immigration, bringing in foreigners is packaged as absorbing global talents, as ethnic return, and as international aids. These disguises reflect Japan's deep ambivalence toward immigration. The country is aware that in order to maintain economic power and material affluence, it is necessary to bring in 'foreign people', but it is unwilling to imagine changes to the cherished Japanese ways of life. Immigration is seen as a threat to national identity. However, despite political ambivalence and cultural resistance, immigration has in fact taken place in Japan. By 2016, over two million foreign nationals have lived and worked in Japan, and this does not include the 400,000 people who have naturalized since 1980 (Du 2015). 1

    DOI

    Scopus

    2
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • From Asia with money: The emigration of the wealthy

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Routledge Handbook of Asian Migrations     128 - 138  2018.01

    DOI

    Scopus

    3
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • Big Firm Syndrome (Ōtebyō): the Problems of Japanese Firms and the Problematic Elite Aspirations

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies (Waseda University)   34  2018

  • The new Chinese immigrants in Japan: Locating belonging in an ethno-national society

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    New Chinese Migrations: Mobility, Home, and Inspirations     39 - 53  2017.11

    DOI

    Scopus

    2
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • Mobility under Constraints: the Making of Differentiated Economic Outcomes among Immigrant Newcomers in Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies (Waseda University)   29   23 - 35  2017.10

    CiNii

  • Understanding the gaps between immigrant economic outcomes: Strategic action and meaning making among newcomer immigrants in Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Social Inequality in Post-Growth Japan: Transformation during Economic and Demographic Stagnation     266 - 283  2016.09

    DOI

    Scopus

  • Migration as Class-based Consumption: The Emigration of the Rich in Contemporary China

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    China Quarterly   226   499 - 518  2016.06  [Refereed]

     View Summary

    Labelled as the third wave of migration out of post-reform China, the recent emigration of wealthy Chinese has attracted worldwide attention. Although this form of mobility involves primarily the richest 0.1 per cent of the Chinese population, the high profile of the people who move and the amount of wealth implied have made it a sensational social phenomenon. Through interviews, participant observation and media reports, this paper searches for the social meanings of this trend of emigration. Journalists generally attribute the exodus of the rich to a desire to secure their wealth, an aspiration for a different education for their children, or concerns with air pollution and food safety. What this paper argues is that underneath these stated motivations, emigration is in fact a form of class-based consumption, a strategy for class reproduction, and a way to convert economic resources into social status and prestige. "Emigration" ( yimin), a form of mobility that may not entail settling abroad, is a path created by wealthy Chinese striving to be among the global elite.

    DOI

    Scopus

    41
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • Migration as Transnational Leisure: The Japanese Lifestyle Migrants in Australia

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    JAPAN FORUM   28 ( 4 ) 569 - 572  2016

    DOI

  • From outside in: The organizational life of a Chinese immigrant in Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Crossing Boundaries and Weaving Intercultural Work, Life, and Scholarship in Globalizing Universities     53 - 66  2016.01

     View Summary

    At the first sight of “(without tenure)” after my name in the Student Handbook’s faculty name list, I felt disbelief and humiliation. Haven’t I been hired on tenure track? Why do they have to put such a distinctive identification in ahandbook for students? No other full-time faculty member had such a qualifier following their name. I went upstairs to the administrative office to see Mr Utsuno1, the administrator in charge of the logistics related to my recruitment. I pointed at the parenthesized note and asked, “Is it necessary to indicate that I am without tenure? It is a bit awkward. ‘Without tenure’ soundslike I am a fixed-term hire, but I am an associate professor on a tenure track.’On tenure track’ is different from ‘without tenure’. Utsuno-san, patient and gentle as always, answered, “So sorry! This is the English translation the Department of Human Resources (jinjibu) uses for the Japanese term ninkitsuki (fixed-term hire). Probably it is not so appropriate.”Pausing for a while, he nodded, “You are right. Your employment condition is an administrative matter. We don’t need to include it in the brochure for students.”.

    DOI

    Scopus

    5
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • Citizenship and Belonging Among Newcomer Immigrants in Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies (Waseda University)   24 ( 24 ) 121 - 142  2015

    CiNii

  • Tied to the family and bound to the labor market: Understanding Chinese student mobility in Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Emerging International Dimensions in East Asian Higher Education     185 - 206  2014.01

     View Summary

    This chapter considers the case of Chinese students currently studying in Tokyo to shed light on the mechanisms that have created diverse outcomes of international education. The author examines student mobility from a sociological perspective, interpreting student mobility as a migration process that develops in an interaction between individual migrant characteristics and socio-institutional contexts. Based on students' narratives, she finds that for the new generation of Chinese students in Japan, labor market conditions and the support from as well as the duty toward the family are particularly important factors that shape students' mobility.

    DOI

    Scopus

    12
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • 留日新华侨:当代中国人移居日本形态及特征分析

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    华人研究国际学报   5 ( 2 ) 1 - 21  2013.12

  • Chinese newcomers in japan: Migration trends, profiles and the impact of the 2011 earthquake

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Asian and Pacific Migration Journal   22 ( 2 ) 231 - 257  2013.06  [Refereed]

     View Summary

    Since the late-1970s, millions of Chinese have arrived in Japan as students, workers, family members, long-term residents, and undocumented migrant workers. Hundreds of thousands of them have chosen to settle in this country. This paper introduces the major patterns of contemporary migration from China to Japan and describes some characteristics of Chinese migrants, highlighting the transnationality of their socioeconomic practices and settlement orientation. It also discusses the impact of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake on the Chinese community, pointing out that migration decision-making takes into account a complex set of contextual factors. Natural disasters might only be a small part of the causal reasons or a catalyst at best. On the other hand, the shared disaster experience might be an opportunity for migrants to participate in societal building and cultivate a sense of belonging.

    DOI

    Scopus

    7
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • Asian Multiculturalism in the Regional Framework

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Journal of Asia-Pacific Studies (Waseda University)   22   37 - 46  2013.03

  • Producing global economies from below: Chinese immigrant transnational entrepreneurship in Japan

    Gracia Liu Farrer

    Deciphering the Global: Its Scales, Spaces and Subjects     179 - 199  2013.01

    DOI

    Scopus

    2
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • Becoming new overseas chinese: Transnational practices and identity construction among the Chinese migrants in Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Living Intersections: Transnational Migrant Identifications in Asia     167 - 190  2012.01

     View Summary

    The Chinese in Japan show two curious characteristics. First, they object to being called ‘immigrants’. Instead, they embrace the identity ‘New Overseas Chinese’, a label invented and popularized by the Chinese in Japan. Second, they prefer permanent residency over naturalization. Although it is generally considered easier to obtain Japanese citizenship than permanent residency, three times as many Chinese immigrants applied and obtained permanent residency as Japanese citizenships between 2003 and 2007. This chapter argues that both the choice of ‘New Overseas Chinese’ identity and the preference for permanent residency in Japan speaks of the Chinese migrants’ desire to maintain a flexible cross-border living and are in congruence with their transnational outlooks. It shows that such desire and outlooks are shaped by the intersections of the social and cultural contexts of Japan and supported by the expanding transnational economy between Japan and China. On the one hand, Chinese migrants’ identifications and transnational outlooks represent their strategies to overcome their marginality in a society they perceive as resistant to immigration and closed to outsiders. On the other hand, Chinese migrants, especially skilled migrants, typically employ their Chinese cultural and linguistic skills in the Japanese labor market and occupy economic positions that have to do with businesses in China. Moreover, with the expanding global economy, the recent Chinese migrants in Japan have begun to interact with older and well-established global overseas Chinese networks. Their economic roles and practices further strengthen their identity as ‘New Overseas Chinese’.

    DOI

    Scopus

    8
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • Ambiguous Concepts and Unintended Consequences: Rethinking Skilled Migration in View of Chinese Migrants’ Economic Outcomes in Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    ASIEN: The German Journal on Contemporary Asia   124   159 - 190  2012  [Refereed]

  • Making careers in the occupational niche: Chinese students in corporate Japan's transnational business

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies   37 ( 5 ) 785 - 803  2011.05  [Refereed]

     View Summary

    Expanding international education and economic globalisation have changed both the make-up of international labour migrants and the patterns of immigrant economic adaptation. Chinese student migrants' employment experiences and economic mobility in Japan suggest that an immigrant occupational niche has emerged among Japanese firms characterised by a set of corporate positions that specifically deal with businesses in China. These firms preferentially recruit Chinese student migrants to fill these positions. This paper discusses the mechanisms that shape such an immigrant occupational niche and the opportunities and constraints presented to Chinese students in Japan. It discusses the paradoxical effects the existence of an occupational niche has on Chinese students, and argues that it provides a pathway for immigrants to enter a previously inaccessible labour market. However, the existence of an immigrant occupational niche itself is a product of prevailing institutional, structural and cultural barriers in the host society. © 2011 Taylor & Francis.

    DOI

    Scopus

    57
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • Debt, Networks and Reciprocity: Undocumented Migration from Fujian to Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    The Asia-Pacific Journal   26   1 - 10  2010.06  [Refereed]

  • The absent spouses: Gender, sex, race and the extramarital sexuality among Chinese migrants in Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Sexualities   13 ( 1 ) 97 - 121  2010.02  [Refereed]

     View Summary

    This article investigates patterns and contexts of heterosexual extramarital practices among Chinese immigrants in Japan, and their social implications. I show that first, both Chinese men and women were engaged in extramarital sexual behavior during migration albeit in different contexts. Secondly, these extramarital sexual practices imply that international migration is both an economic strategy and a sexual strategy. Even economically motivated migration has sexual and emotional motivations and consequences. Thirdly, Chinese immigrants' extramarital sex is culturally specific to the context of migration from China to Japan. Finally, Chinese immigrants' extramarital sexuality shows the competing cultural interpretations of marriages and gender role expectations. Underlying the extramarital sexuality is an assumption of gender equality in sexual subjectivity. Even a seemingly regressive marital arrangement and gendered role assignment in a marriage could be used strategically by Chinese women in their pursuits of sexual and romantic expressions. © The Author(s), 2010.

    DOI

    Scopus

    22
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • "I am the only woman in suits": Chinese immigrants and gendered careers in corporate Japan

    Liu-Farrer Gracia

    Journal of Asia-Pacific studies   No. 13 ( 13 ) 37 - 48  2009.10

    CiNii

  • Educationally Channeled International Labor Migration: Post-1978 Student Mobility from China to Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    International Migration Review   43 (1) ( 25 ) 186 - 211  2009.03  [Refereed]

  • Between privilege and prejudice: Chinese immigrants in corporate Japan's transnational economy

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Global Movements in the Asia Pacific     123 - 146  2009.01

    DOI

    Scopus

    3
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • Educationally channeled international labor mobility: Contemporary student migration from China to Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    International Migration Review   43 ( 1 ) 178 - 204  2009

     View Summary

    International education is an important channel of labor migration. Most commonly, this form of labor migration is considered as "brain drain," represented by the retention of graduate students in science and engineering in the host labor market. This case study of contemporary Chinese student migration to Japan shows that international students have different credentials, interests, and motivations for migrating abroad, and consequently provide the host society both unskilled and skilled labor power. Moreover, Chinese students' labor market practices as skilled labor migrants show their important roles in the economic globalization. Aside from scientific and engineering skills, Chinese students use their linguistic and cultural competencies to act as intermediaries between their host and home economies. © 2009 by the Center for Migration Studies of New York. All rights reserved.

    DOI

    Scopus

    104
    Citation
    (Scopus)
  • The burden of social capital: Visa overstaying among Fujian Chinese students in Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Social Science Japan Journal   11 ( 2 ) 241 - 257  2008  [Refereed]

     View Summary

    This paper provides a sociological analysis of the student visa-overstaying phenomenon among Fujian Chinese immigrants in Japan. Since the mid-1980s, international education has been an important channel of migration from China to Japan. With the rapid increase of Chinese students in Japan, student visa overstaying has also become a major source of undocumented migration. Student visa overstaying is particularly visible among Chinese students from the Southeast coastal province, Fujian. This paper probes into this phenomenon by examining Fujian immigrants' migration network characteristics. It argues that the social capital that facilitates migration and secures the livelihood for immigrants can become a liability prohibiting them from achieving upward mobility in the host society. Fujian immigrant social network closure cultivates and maintains a norm that positively sanctions undocumented immigration and provides resources that make it difficult for Fujian immigrants to maintain legal status. © The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press in conjunction with the University of Tokyo. All rights reserved.

    DOI

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    16
    Citation
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  • Sexual practices and sexual satisfaction: A population based study of Chinese urban adults

    William L. Parish, Ye Luo, Ross Stolzenberg, Edward O. Laumann, Gracia Farrer, Suiming Pan

    Archives of Sexual Behavior   36 ( 1 ) 5 - 20  2007.02

     View Summary

    This study examined sexual satisfaction and its social and behavioral correlates among urbanites aged 20-64 in China, using data from a nationally representative sample of 1,194 women and 1,217 men with a spouse or other long-term sexual partner with whom they had sex during the last year. The results from structural equation models suggest a multiplex set of determinants of sexual satisfaction, including relationship characteristics, sexual knowledge and personal values, physical vitality, and environmental impediments. A large proportion of the effect of these background characteristics was mediated by frequent orgasms, varied sexual practices, and perceived partner affection. In particular, much of the effect of knowledge and beliefs was mediated through variety in sexual practices. While many of the observed patterns were shared among women and men, much of the effect of relationship characteristics was mediated through perceived partner affection for women. Men, in contrast, paid greater attention to his partner's physical attractiveness and to her extramarital sex. A sexual transition is well underway in urban China, even if more rapidly for men than for women. While knowledge and values are arguably more important in this transitional period, many antecedents of sexual well-being drawn from the literature on sexual behavior in developed Western countries are also applicable to urban China. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.

    DOI PubMed

    Scopus

    78
    Citation
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  • The Chinese social dance party in Tokyo: Identity and status in an immigrant leisure subculture

    Gracia Liu Farrer

    Journal of Contemporary Ethnography   33 ( 6 ) 651 - 674  2004.12  [Refereed]

     View Summary

    This article is a sociological ethnography of a Chinese immigrant social dance subculture in Japan. It examines the logic of immigrants' leisure participation from a social psychological perspective. Traditional immigrant community studies, focusing on immigrants' social and economic adaptation and ethnic minority's political mobilization, emphasize the collective identity building and group solidarity in immigrant ethnic subcultures. Without downplaying the theme of collective identity, I argue that the recognition of individual status is an equally important motivation. Social cohesion within an immigrant subculture is achieved because ethnic enclosure allows the removal of a stigmatizing immigrant identity, giving immigrants a chance to display individual status resources.

    DOI

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Books and Other Publications

  • Immigrant Japan: Mobility and Belonging in an Ethno-nationalist Society

    Gracia Liu-Farrer( Part: Sole author)

    Cornell University Press  2020.04 ISBN: 9781501748622

     View Summary

    Immigrant Japan? Sounds like a contradiction, but as Gracia Liu-Farrer shows, millions of immigrants make their varied lives in Japan, dealing with the tensions between belonging and not belonging in this ethno-nationalist country. Why do people want to come to Japan? Where do immigrants with various resources and demographic profiles fit in the economic landscape? How do immigrants narrate belonging in an environment where they are "other" at a time when mobility is increasingly easy and belonging increasingly complex?

  • Routledge Handbook of Asian Migrations

    Gracia LIU-FARRER, Brenda YEOH( Part: Joint editor)

    Routledge  2018 ISBN: 9781138959859

     View Summary

    Housing more than half of the global population, Asia is a region characterised by increasingly diverse forms of migration and mobility. Offering a wide-ranging overview of the field of Asian migrations, this new handbook therefore seeks to examine and evaluate the flows of movement within Asia, as well as into and out of the continent. Through in-depth analysis of both empirical and theoretical developments in the field, it includes key examples and trends such as British colonialism, Chinese diaspora, labour migration, the movement of women, and recent student migration.

    Organised into thematic parts, the topics cover:

    The historical context to migration in Asia
    Modern Asian migration pathways and characteristics
    The reconceptualising of migration through Asian experiences
    Contemporary challenges and controversies in Asian migration practice and policy
    Contributing to the retheorising of the subject area of international migration from non-western experience, the Routledge Handbook of Asian Migrations will be useful to students and scholars of migration, Asian development and Asian Studies in general.

  • Labor Migration from China to Japan: International Students, Transnational Migrants.

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Routledge  2011

  • Japan’s Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity: “Creating a Transnational Community: the Chinese Newcomers in Japan” p116-138担当

    Michael Weiner

    Routledge  2008.12

  • Deciphering the Global: Its Spaces, Scales, and Subjects: “Producing Global Economies from Below: Chinese Immigrant Transnational Entrepreneurship in Japan”p177-p198担当

    Saskia Sassen

    Routledge  2007.08

  • 先端都市社会学の地平: “中国系移民の余暇サブカルチャーにおける性的および地位の実践” p196-p222.担当

    広田康生, 町村敬志, 田嶋淳子, 渡戸一郎

    ハーベスト  2006.11

  • Religious Pluralism in Diaspora “Chinese Catholic Center in Tokyo: Institutional Characteristics in Contexts,” p13-p31担当

    P.Pratap Kumar

    Brill  2006.07

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Presentations

  • Making Japanese studies more central to academic discussion

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Conference on Beyond Japanese Studies, Japan Foundation Australia 

    Presentation date: 2021.02

    Event date:
    2021.02
     
     
  • 外国人はなぜ日本を目指すのか~世界の移民の動向と今後の日本の外国人の受入れの在り方~

    ファーラー グラシア

    法務省外国人支援センター 

    Presentation date: 2021.01

  • Immigration Policies in Japan

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Japan Zoominar @ UC San Diego 

    Presentation date: 2020.12

  • Growing up as X: Immigrant Children in an Ethno-nationalist Society

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    WEAI workshop on Immigration and Racism in Japan: Litmus test for liberal democracy?, Columbia University 

    Presentation date: 2020.11

  • The Integration of Foreign Human Resources: Migrant Workers on Japan’s Segmented Labor Market Migrant Integration in East Asia: Beyond Policy and Ideal

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Public lecture, Korea University 

    Presentation date: 2020.10

    Event date:
    2020.10
     
     
  • Foreigners in Japan’s Labor Market: What can Indonesia learn from?

    Gracia Liu-Farrer

    Center for Area Studies, Indonesian Institute of Science Seminar 

    Presentation date: 2020.09

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Research Projects

  • 仲介業者に着目した移住労働者のトランスナショナルな階層的地位決定メカニズムの検証

    日本学術振興会  科学研究費助成事業

    Project Year :

    2023.04
    -
    2028.03
     

    永吉 希久子, 大井 慈郎, 有田 伸, 今井 順, FARRER GRACIA, 伊藤 未帆

  • Determinants of International Students' Educational Mobility: a Comparative Study of Japan and Germany

    日本学術振興会  科学研究費助成事業

    Project Year :

    2021.04
    -
    2025.03
     

    FARRER GRACIA, 杉村 美紀, 黒田 一雄, 加藤 丈太郎, Asada Sarah

     View Summary

    In FY 2021, the main research goals were literature review, researching policy regarding international education, and collecting published statistical and interview data among international students in Japan and Germany.
    Through the collaboration with Professor Karen Shire, our German counterpart at the University of Duisburg-Essen, the team, with the assistance of 5 research assistants, managed to collect over 120 in-depth interviews with international students in Japan and in Germany. At the same time, we collected policy documents and statistics of international students in Germany. The team set up the qualitative data base for interviews using MaxQDA.
    Because of the travel restriction due to COVID, we were not able to do field research overseas. Instead, the field work, combined with an international conference, took place in July, 2022.
    The PI analyzed the data from the interviews with Chinese students, and presented the results at the International Conference on International Student Mobility in Fulda, Germany, titled: "The difficulties of an easier path: Chinese students’ educational experiences and school-to-work transition in Germany and Japan."
    The presentation discusses Chinese students’ motivations and experiences of studying abroad in Germany and Japan and points out that the process of international education involves different stakeholders whose logics for student mobility might be conflicting. This presentation presents the concept of “socially constructed necessity” to describe the motivations observed among individual students.

  • Globalizing Chinese Buddhism: Ideologies of Values, Ethnics, and Lifestyles

    Project Year :

    2016.07
    -
    2019.03
     

  • Global Labor Mobility and the Changing Meanings of Work: A Comparative Study of Germany and Japan(Fostering Joint International Research)

    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science  Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Fund for the Promotion of Joint International Research (Fostering Joint International Research)

    Project Year :

    2017
    -
    2019
     

    Farrer Gracia

     View Summary

    This study compares educated foreign workers' employment and career experiences in Japan and Germany. Through qualitative interviews with foreign workers and employers in both countries and a survey among employees (in Japan), this study indicates that foreign workers in both countries face institutional and cultural barriers when seeking corporate employment. In Germany, employers' demands for specific skills as well as specialized credentials and training disadvantage foreign workers. In Japan, the language and cultural requirements during the process of recruitment weaken foreigners' competitiveness. Consequently, in both Germany and Japan, foreign workers are likely to enter sectors with lower entry threshold, e.g.e-commerce, small firm or firms where their cultural skills are needed. This points to the emerging labor market segmentation between native and foreign workers, and indicates the need to change the employment systems in order to better absorb foreign talent.

  • Beyond Multiculturalism: Organizational Logics and Cultural Practices at Japanese Workplaces

    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science  Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)

    Project Year :

    2015.04
    -
    2018.03
     

    Liu-Farrer Gracia, HOF Helena

     View Summary

    This project explores the phenomenon that while Japanese government favors skilled labor migration and has created policy incentives to welcome foreign talents,Japanese firms seem to have trouble retaining skilled foreign workers. This project has the following findings.1) Japanese firms' organizational practices result in foreign employees' high turnover rates. In particular, the in-house career system in many Japanese firms is incompatible with the increasingly neo-liberal global labor market in which most foreign employees see themselves in. It is also in conflict with the contemporary ideology of gender equality and diversity. 2) Despite Japanese firms' problems, Japan remains an attractive destination for foreign employees because of the opportunities as well as the cultural appeal. Immigrants' mobility decision is not solely influenced by experiences in a company. Foreign workers might leave a Japanese company, but they do not necessarily leave Japan.

  • 東京における在日中国人のメデイア実践と日中政治関係

    Project Year :

    2014.04
    -
    2017.03
     

     View Summary

    The purpose of this research is to investigate the role that media plays in Chinese migrant lives in Japan, paying particular attention to how their media use reflects changes in Sino-Japanese relations.The research achievements of this project finished in September.1)Dr Coates presented our research findings at several plenaries, guest talks, and international conferences from April to September2)Dr Coates completed a 55 minute documentary film that explores the influence of media practice on young Chinese friendships in Japan. It is currently being submitted to international scholarly film festivals3)Dr Coates submitted several publications that present our research findings28年度が最終年度であるため、記入しない。28年度が最終年度であるため、記入しない

  • Comparative studies on immigrants' communities in the Pacific Rim Area: Focusing on comtemporay changes

    Project Year :

    2011.11
    -
    2015.03
     

     View Summary

    We can find many immigrants' communities in Pacific Rim area. Here, not only major migrants such as ethnic Chinese and oversea Indians, but Japanese, southeastern Asian origin peoples in US, and Africans in Asia. Even in the case of Chinese and Indians, their communities have a vast variety.This project presented varieties of immigrats' community in this area, and rapid changes after 2001. These rapid changes and volume of immigrants are supported by improvement of transporation, world wide communication, and money transfer. We also tried to describe immigrants' community not from viewpoint of residents but from frequent travellers

  • Comparative studies on immigrants' communities in the Pacific Rim Area: Focusing on comtemporay changes

    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science  Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A)

    Project Year :

    2011.04
    -
    2015.03
     

    KURITA KAZUAKI, MISHIMA Teiko, DU Guoqing, ICHIKAWA Makoto, MIZUKAMI Tetsuo, FARRER Gracia, OOHASHI Kenichi, ICHIKAWA Tetsu

     View Summary

    We can find many immigrants' communities in Pacific Rim area. Here, not only major migrants such as ethnic Chinese and oversea Indians, but Japanese, southeastern Asian origin peoples in US, and Africans in Asia. Even in the case of Chinese and Indians, their communities have a vast variety.
    This project presented varieties of immigrats' community in this area, and rapid changes after 2001. These rapid changes and volume of immigrants are supported by improvement of transporation, world wide communication, and money transfer. We also tried to describe immigrants' community not from viewpoint of residents but from frequent travellers.

  • Is Japan an Immigrant Country? A Comparative Study of Immigrant Citizenship Consciousness and Belonging in Japan and Australia

    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science  Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)

    Project Year :

    2011.04
    -
    2015.03
     

    FARRER GRACIA, KAWAKAMI Ikuo, ISHI Angelo, TAJIMA Junko, ZHAO Weiguo

     View Summary

    This research project compares the sense of belonging and citizenship consciousness among the first and second generation Chinese, Brazilian and Vietnamese immigrants in Australia and Japan. Through this exercise, we hope to answer the question whether Japan is on its way to become an immigrant country. Through interviews, survey and media analysis in both countries, this study shows that different receiving contexts have created different levels of citizenship consciousness and different types of identity among immigrants originated from the same countries. This study clarifies issues surrounding immigrant incorporation in Japanese society.

  • 日本は移民国家か?日本とオーストラリアにおける移住者の市民意識と帰属感の比較研究

    科学研究費助成事業(早稲田大学)  科学研究費助成事業(基盤研究(B))

    Project Year :

    2011
    -
    2014
     

     View Summary

    During this financial year, our project team's major efforts were made in the following two areas. First, based on the data we have already accumulated and in order to be able to conduct meaningful comparative analysis, we adjusted the focuses of the project and did a new wave of data gathering. In particular, Farrer (PI) aimed to compare the first generation immigrants' socioeconomic mobility patterns and their sense of belonging in Japan. Since data on Nikkei Brazilians was not sufficient, she and her research assistant conducted fieldwork--both participant observation and focus group discussion--among this group of immigrants in Kanto Area. This research effort gives insights to the causes for different mobility trajectories between different immigrant groups in Japan, especially in accounting for the socioeconomic mobility gap between Nikkei Brazilians and the Chinese and Koreans. In addition, after finishing gathering the data in Australia, Kawakami (CI) continued to gather data among second-generation Vietnamese immigrants in Japan, so as to be able to compare their identity and belonging in these two different immigrants contexts.
    The other main research activity this year was data analysis and preparing research reports for publication. Tajima (CI) and Zhao (Research Collaborator) presented their research paper at the Japanese Society of Sociology Annual Conference. Farrer presented at several international conferences and symposiums. One of her articles is published in Asian Pacific Migration Review (SSCI journal).

  • Social Inequality in an Age of Multiculturalism: Analyzing the Relationship between Social and Geographical Mobility

    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science  Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research

    Project Year :

    2010.04
    -
    2013.03
     

    TAKENAKA Ayumi, NAKAMURO Makiko, LIU-FARRAR Gracia, KAWANO Yukio, FARRAR James, LEE Inja, MA Xiaohua, YONEZAWA Akiyoshi, KISO Keiko, TSUCHIDA Kumiko

     View Summary

    The objective of the research was to analyze the social mobility of “newcomers" or foreign migrants who arrived in Japan after the late 1980s. To this aim, we collected large-scale data on foreign migrants based on both qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative data were derived from in-depth interviews with 130 foreign migrants (Year 1), while quantitative data were obtained through an Internet-based survey (Year 2 and 3). We have found so far that social mobility patterns vary significantly among the major nationality groups and that they depend more on migrants' region of origin rather than on class origins

  • Comprehensive Research on Internationalization of Higher Education under Rapid Structural Change at the Global Level

    Japan Society for the Promotion of Science  Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)

    Project Year :

    2010
    -
    2012
     

    YONEZAWA Akiyoshi, TSUKAHARA Shuichi, OHMORI Fujio, OHTA Hiroshi, KITAMURA Yuto, HUANG Futao, YONEZAWA Yukako, GRACIA Farrer, HOTTA Taiji, SUGIMURA Miki, KAMIBEPPU Takao, HATA Takashi, KAMOGAWA Akiko, KURODA Kazuo, MORI Rie, AKIBA Hiroko, SUEMATSU Kazuko, TAKENAKA Ayumi

     View Summary

    Changes in the way of internationalization of higher education to the rapid structural changes in the world, was examined in a comprehensive manner from the theory, international trends and field surveys. First, the internationalization of higher education in each country is different due to differences in the domestic and international context. Second, countries are faced with a necessity of stronger response to global changes. Third, the multilateral initiatives of higher education are in progress. These factors have had a major impact on the international positioning of higher education in Japan.

  • Comprehensive Research on Internationalization of Higher Education under Rapid Structural Change at the Global Level

    Project Year :

    2010
    -
    2012
     

     View Summary

    Changes in the way of internationalization of higher education to the rapid structural changes in the world, was examined in a comprehensive manner from the theory, international trends and field surveys. First, the internationalization of higher education in each country is different due to differences in the domestic and international context. Second, countries are faced with a necessity of stronger response to global changes. Third, the multilateral initiatives of higher education are in progress. These factors have had a major impact on the international positioning of higher education in Japan.

  • Joint investigator: “Immigrants in Multicultural Japan,” Japan Ministry of Education (MEXT)/Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS),Kiban (B) (JP 13,100,000).

    Project Year :

    2010
    -
     
     

  • 日本における中国人就職者のキャリア移動

    日本学術振興会  科学研究費助成事業 若手研究(B)

    Project Year :

    2007
    -
    2008
     

    FARRER Gracia

     View Summary

    今日のグローバル化による日本・中国間の活発な経済、文化交流の発展に伴い、日本における中国人就職者が急増している。法務省の統計によると、留学ビザから就職ビザに変更した元留学生の三分の二を中国人元留学生が占めている。それらの中国人元留学生たちは日本企業において、中国関係のビジネスを中心に活躍している状況である。本研究の目的は、日本の企業に勤めている中国人就職者(元留学生)の就職状況とキャリア移動(転職、昇進、職種変更など)を調査・研究することであった。当初の研究実施計画では、東北大学の中国人卒業生を対象として、アンケート及びインタビュー調査をする予定であった。また、そのアンケート回答者の中から10人ないし15人を抽出し、キャリア移動の具体的なプロセスや動機がわかるように、個人訪問をしてフォローアップインタビュー調査をする予定であった。しかし、個人情報保護法の影響により、東北大学卒業生名簿が本研究に使用できなくなった。そこで、研究代表者は平成19年の夏末から秋にかけて関東地方の中国入団体を訪問してアンケート調査の可能性を探り、日本国際貿易促進会の中日関係企業データに収録された1600社の日本企業を通して、中国人就職者(元留、学生)にアンケートを配布することにし、準備を進めた。

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Misc

  • Introduction: Asian migrations and mobilities: Continuities, conceptualisations and controversies

    Gracia Liu-Farrer, Brenda S.A. Yeoh

    Routledge Handbook of Asian Migrations     1 - 18  2018.01

    Other  

    DOI

  • Routledge handbook of asian migrations

    Gracia Liu-Farrer, Brenda S.A. Yeoh

    Routledge Handbook of Asian Migrations     1 - 305  2018.01

    Other  

     View Summary

    Housing more than half of the global population, Asia is a region characterised by increasingly diverse forms of migration and mobility. Offering a wide-ranging overview of the field of Asian migrations, this new handbook therefore seeks to examine and evaluate the flows of movement within Asia, as well as into and out of the continent. Through in-depth analysis of both empirical and theoretical developments in the field, it includes key examples and trends such as British colonialism, Chinese diaspora, labour migration, the movement of women, and recent student migration. Organised into thematic parts, the topics cover: The historical context to migration in Asia Modern Asian migration pathways and characteristics The reconceptualising of migration through Asian experiences Contemporary challenges and controversies in Asian migration practice and policy Contributing to the retheorising of the subject area of international migration from non-western experience, the Routledge Handbook of Asian Migrations will be useful to students and scholars of migration, Asian development and Asian Studies in general.

    DOI

  • Religion and migration in Northeast Asia

    Journal of Asia-Pacific studies   ( 16 ) 59 - 75  2011.05

    CiNii

 

Syllabus

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Social Activities

  • Editorial board

    International Migration Review 

Overseas Activities

  • Rethinking Migration through Asian Experiences

    2015.09
    -
    2016.09

    シンガポール・ドイツ   シンガポール国立大学・ハンブルグ大学

Internal Special Research Projects

  • Displaced Syrians in Japan: Navigating Ambiguities

    2023  

     View Summary

    The project has produced a co-authored journal article titled Neoliberal humanitarianism: Contradictory policy logics and Syrian refugee experiences in Japan, that has been published in March 2024, in the international journal Migration Studies (Oxford University Press). The abstract is as follows:Since the 2011 beginning of the Syrian uprising, more than 800 Syrians have become registered residents of Japan. Japan is an unusual destination for these refugees due not only to its geographical and cultural distance from the Middle East and lack of Arab diasporic communities, but also to what we call neoliberal humanitarianism: an approach by which states adopt policies and programmes to reduce refugees’ suffering while also regarding refugees as potentially profitable workers responsible for their own economic survival and social integration. In Japan’s case, the driver of neoliberal humanitarianism is its interest in keeping par with G7 peers in ‘doing something’ in the face of a global ‘refugee crisis’ on the one hand, and its lack of political or social will to receive refugees, on the other. The contradictions inherent in these imperatives come to the fore in the ‘Japanese Initiative for the future of Syrian Refugees’ (JISR), which invites Syrian refugees to pursue graduate degrees at Japanese universities. Japan officially presents JISR participants as refugees, but legally regards them as students, provides limited financial support, and encourages them not to apply for asylum. This article investigates JISR as a case study of neoliberal humanitarianism and examines its contradictory logics and consequences, from the perspective of refugees’ experiences. Qualitative analysis of twenty-one original interviews shows that, though Syrians often choose Japan in search of stability after years of precarity in countries on Syria’s borders, neoliberal humanitarianism in this unusual destination generates a new chapter of uncertainty and disappointment.

  • The Education Detour: Investigating the phenomenon of Chinese international students' China-US-Japan study abroad trajectory

    2022  

     View Summary

    This project aims to understand the phenomenon of Chinese students coming to Japan after finishing their undergraduate education in the United States. The researcher Interviewed Chinese students, faculty members, and career placement officers at Indiana University at Bloomington, University of Chicago, and Northwestern University.The main findings are :- It is difficult to stay in the US. There are institutional hurdles for Chinese students entering the American labor market because of the additional legal procedures in hiring international students.- Chinese students are seen as self-isolating and, at the same time, feel socially and culturally isolated in the United States, wary of racism.- Many parents send their children to the US so they will obtain better education credentials to compete in China's labor market, not staying there.- Coming to Japan is a lifestyle choice. The Chinese labor market has been very competitive, and the working conditions have deteriorated. The stability of corporate Japan looks comparatively attractive. - Japanese English media education at the graduate level lowers the threshold for entry into Japanese graduate schools, especially the elite  programs- the attraction of Japanese popular culture

  • Determinants of recent international student mobilities: a study of inbound students in Japan

    2021  

     View Summary

    This research aims to understand why and how international students choose a particular country, and to study a specific academic subject in a specific university. Our efforts focused on reviewing the literature of international student mobilities and collecting qualitative interview data among international students. With the help of a research assistant, we have collected over 20 interviews with Chinese students who chose to study in either Japan or Germany, majoring in either humanities/social sciences or STEM. These interviews reveal the determinants for students’ decision-making, and especially the important roles the institutional channels and educational intermediaries have played in channeling students into specific regions or countries. We have also learned that, in China, it is often the children who were more concerned about the economic costs of studying abroad.    The main publication, mosty based on literature review, is:Liu-Farrer, Gracia. 2022. “International Students as Transnational Migrants,” in F. Collins and B.S. Yeoh (eds) Handbook of Transnationalism, Chapter 19. Edward Elgar Publishing: 294–309 

  • Japan's New Immigrant Entrepreneurship: Determinants、 Trajectories and Outcomes

    2020  

     View Summary

    This project focused on Nepalese immigrant restauranteurs and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on their business operations, living arrangements, and the plight of their employees. In total, we collected 30 in-depth interviews with Nepalese restaurant owners (15) and Nepalese cooks (15) who worked in these restaurants in Tokyo between August 2020 and March 2021.     Immigrant restaurants are precarious during normal times because they have more legal constraints and less access to the host society’s institutional resources. For services and supports most rely on personal, and especially co-ethnic, networks. These networks both help and exploit the co-ethnics. The prolonged COVID pandemic since early 2020 has devastated the restaurant industry around the world and has put even more strain on businesses run by immigrants, exposing the structural vulnerability of such businesses and people depending on them for livelihood. Our research indicates the structural vulnerability and ethnic burden these restaurant owners and workers face as well as their strategies to deal with the hardship brought by the pandemic.  

  • International Graduates' Labor Market Transition in the US: from the Perspectives of the University Career Placement Services

    2020  

     View Summary

    Because of the Pandemic, the researcher is not able to conduct fieldwork in the US as planned. As a result, the main research activities revolved around literature review and the preparation for a new project. International student mobilities have experienced important changes in recent years. In order to have a more systematic understanding of the relationship between education and career mobilities, this researcher decides to first investigate why international students choose to go to particular countries, are enrolled in specific schools, and select different majors. In the fall, the researcher submitted a Kaken-B proposal titled "Determinants and Processes of International Education Mobility: a Comparative Study of Japan and Germany".

  • Global Labor Mobility and the Changing Patterns of Career : A Pilot Study

    2017   Karen Shire

     View Summary

    Many researchers who study skilled migration in Japan have pointed out that, despite Japanese government's welcoming policies toward foreign workers, Japanese firms have trouble retaining skilled foreign workers. The general consensus is that Japanese firms have problems with their organizational culture. In order to understand whether it is the problems of Japanese firms or that it manifests new patterns of career mobility, this research has proposed to investigate the situation in Germany, a country that is not a traditional immigrant country, uses a national language that is not English, and has a distinct national culture. The researcher conducted the pilot study in August , 2017 in Dusseldorf. By participant observation in a German language intensive course and interviewing foreign workers working in German firms, the research has found that:1) There are many similarities between foreign employees working in German firms and those in Japanese firms. Immigrant employees in German firms also share some of the cultural and social issues with immigrants in Japan.2) In the globalizing world, skilled migrants are increasingly seeing global geographic mobility as an integral part of individual career mobility. Multiple migrations are common among immigrant employees in Germany. 

  • Beyond Multiculturalism: Organizational Logics and Cultural Practices at Japanese Workplaces

    2015   Helena Hof

     View Summary

    This project focuses on foreigners' as well as Japanese employees' experiences working in Japanese firms that attempt to globalise their businesses as well as their workforce. In collecting the narratives of their work experiences, the study aims to understand the nature of the difficulties corporate Japan has had in attracting and retaining foreign talents. Based on our interviews with close to 20 foreign employees who have been working in Japanese firms and several Japanese employees and managerial personnels this year, this study finds that the apparent difficulty for foreigners to adapt to Japanese organisations, aside from work style and office culture,  seems to have to do with the different meanings foreign employees and Japanese employees attach to work and career as well as the uncertainties Japanese firms treat foreign employees. What Japanese employees view as the instrumental and intrinsic values of work are related to a commitment to the firm which are more consistent with the firm's organisational logic. On the other hand, both Japanese firms and foreign employees have a more ambivalent understanding of the nature of their employment. This sometimes leads to frustrations and high turnovers. A theoretical framework of this study is presented at AAS-in-Asia Conference in June, 2015.

  • Imagining a Good Life: Towards a Cultural Sociology of Migration

    2014  

     View Summary

    2014年8月4日~2014年8月25日・中国上海でアメリカ、オーストリア、ヨローパへの投資移民を申請した、あるいはしている10名以上の個人対象者の聞き取りをした。又、二つの移民仲介会社に訪れ、フォーカスグループを行った。その成果を "Outmigration of the Rich and the Shaping of an Elite Class inContemporary China"というタイトルの論文にして、国際ジャーナルChinaQuarterlyに投稿した。または、2015年2月12-14日に、”Japan’sNew Immigrants: Capturing the Changing Ethno-scape in a Globalizing Japan”という国際シンポジムを開催し、 この分野の研究している国内或いは国外の研究者との意見交換ができた。このシンポジムで発表された論文をSocial Science Japan Journalで特集として投稿する予定がある。又は、共著の本を編集する企画がある。

  • 日本は移民国家か?日本とオーストラリアにおける移住者の市民意識と帰属感の比較研究

    2011  

     View Summary

    Research Goal: The purpose of this special research grant is to partially conduct the proposed Kaken Kiban-B project that failed to obtain a grant during the FY 2011-2 and prepare for the Kaken application due in October 2011. The original research goal for the proposed Kaken Project is to investigate the citizenship consciousness and sense of belonging among different immigrant groups in Japan, and compare them with those who have migrated into Australia, a more classic immigrant country. Due to the limited funding, the researcher was only able to investigate the Chinese immigrants in Japan, and taking advantage of a conference trip to the U.S., compare them with Chinese immigrants who have settled in the U.S.--another classic immigrant country. Research activities: The main research activities during this period is fieldwork. This project employed 4 Waseda University MA students to conduct interviews and transcribing these interviews. During the course between June, 2011 when the funding started and mid-November, 2011 when the funding ended (because my Kaken Kiban-B project was finally approved), with the help of these research assistants, we were able to interview 44 Chinese immigrants in Japan, including both 1st generation immigrants who have been in Japan for over 5 years and 1.5 generation immigrants who arrived in Japan before the age of 12. These interviews yielded valuable insights into the Chinese community in Japan. In order to understand the Chinese in Japan better, the researcher also conducted fieldwork among settled Chinese immigrants in the U.S. because the research needed to go to a conference there in any case. In the Southeast of US, the researchers met with an ethnic Chinese anthropology professor, Guo Zibin, from the University of Tennessee, in order to better understand the Chinese community there. The researcher also interviewed settled Chinese professionals in North Carolina. This overseas fieldwork provides wider perspectives for understanding the Chinese in Japan. Self-evaluation of the research progress and outcomes:This was a particular productive research year, thanks to the help of the 4 capable and diligent RAs. This research grant allowed me to collect a lot of data efficiently and established solid empirical and theoretical foundation for the kaken kiban-B project that is on-going now.

  • 日本のグローバル化経済における留学生のキャリア形成

    2010  

     View Summary

    This project proposed to understand international students’ career aspirations and how they perceive the opportunity structure in Japanese labor market. Based on my research among the Chinese student migrants in Japan, I hypothesized that both home country’s economic situations and the transnational economic ties between home and host countries affect international students’ labor market participation and their career outcomes in Japan. Because of the limit of budget, the actual fieldwork was reduced in the fiscal year. With the assistance of students, I surveyed and interviewed with international students at Waseda University. Following are some findings from this investigation. 1) Employment prospect did influence whether students aspire to remain in Japan upon graduation. For example, among government funded international students, Southeast Asian students were more likely to feel that they were bound to service their home countries upon finishing their designated degrees in Japan. It scarcely crossed their mind that they might look for employment in Japan. In comparison, Chinese, North American and European students, except for JDS students, were more likely not only to consider staying in Japan, but also to find employment in Japan upon finishing their target education. 2) Most privately funded international students expressed interest in working in Japan if employment was possible and also participated in organized recruiting events. There was this awareness that Japanese companies, especially globalized firms, were actively recruiting international students. But the degree of aspiration was different among European and North American students and East Asian students, especially Chinese students. Chinese students demonstrated a stronger aspiration to work in Japan upon graduation. They were more active in participating in the institutionalized job searching process. 3) While European and North American students were more likely to look for jobs in their home country companies, and chose to stay in Japan partly because of the difficulty in reentering the labor market in their home countries, Chinese students are more aware of their occupational niche in Japanese firms. Many expressed their conscious choice of positions involved in the transnational economy between Japan and China, and believed that their career advantages lied in such occupational niches.

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