Immigrant Incorporation in East Asian Democracies

Comparing three Northeast Asian countries, this book examines how past struggles for democracy shape current movements for immigrant rights.

Erin Aeran Chung (Author)

9781107042537, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 8 October 2020

270 pages
16 x 23.5 x 2 cm, 0.57 kg

'Erin Aeran Chung tells a compelling story how the three East Asian democracies, which started from strictly exclusionary policies, have embarked on different pathways of immigrant incorporation. The main protagonist of change is not the state but civil society, and each society's civic legacies determine the trajectory of reform. This book does not merely fill a large gap in the comparative literature, it also provides a powerful analysis of policy change from below that calls for being tested in other cases.' Rainer Bauböck, European University Institute, Florence

Despite labour shortages and rapidly shrinking working-age populations, Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan shared restrictive immigration policies and exclusionary practices toward immigrants until the early 2000s. While Taiwan maintained this trajectory, Japan took incremental steps to expand immigrant services at the grassroots level, and South Korea enacted sweeping immigration reforms. How did convergent policies generate these divergent patterns of immigrant incorporation? Departing from the dominant scholarship that focuses on culture, domestic political elites, and international norms, this book shows the important role of civil society actors - including immigrants themselves - in giving voice to immigrant interests, mobilizing immigrant actors, and shaping public debate and policy on immigration. Based on more than 150 in-depth interviews and focus groups with over twenty immigrant communities, Immigrant Incorporation in East Asian Democracies examines how the civic legacies of past struggles for democracy shape current movements for immigrant rights and recognition.

Introduction. Is There an East Asian Model of Immigrant Incorporation?
1. How Civic Legacies Shape Immigration Politics
2. Constructing Developmental Citizens in East Asia
3. Civic Legacies and Immigrant Incorporation in East Asian Democracies
4. 'I Can't Be Tanaka': Understanding Immigrant Incorporation through Migrant Voices
5. Marriage and Migration
6. Multiculturalism with Adjectives
Epilogue.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB], Sociology [JHB], Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies [JFSL1], Migration, immigration & emigration [JFFN], Asian history [HBJF]