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Immigrant Japan
Mobility and Belonging in an Ethno-nationalist Society
Gracia Liu-Farrer (Author)
9781501748622
Hardback, published 15 April 2020
276 pages, 3 charts - 3 Charts
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.5 cm, 0.907 kg
Immigrant Japan is a necessary addition to the bookshelf of contemporary Japan and migration studies scholars, students and everyday persons. Liu-Farrer's work in sharing the voices of immigrants is an invaluable resource for readers who aspire to build a more nuanced understanding of contemporary Japanese society and the immigrants who have long been a part of it. In her impressive book, Liu-Farrer draws on interviews with 229 research subjects as well as ethnography, focus group analysis, stories of migrants from secondary literature, and her own experiences as a migrant to and naturalized citizen of Japan to examine how migrants to Japan negotiate issues regarding home and belonging. Liu-Farrer's book is engagingly written, and the stories of her interviewees as well as her ethnographic vignettes are appealing and fun to read. Immigrant Japan is an important intervention into the characteristically pessimistic scholarly literature on Japan's capacity to be a new country of immigration.
Immigrant Japan? Sounds like a contradiction, but as Gracia Liu-Farrer shows, millions of immigrants make their 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? Gracia Liu-Farrer illuminates the lives of these immigrants by bringing in sociological, geographical, and psychological theories—guiding the reader through life trajectories of migrants of diverse backgrounds while also going so far as to suggest that Japan is already an immigrant country.
Introduction: Japan as an Ethno-nationalist Immigrant Society
1. Immigrating to Japan
2. Migration Channels and the Shaping of Immigrant Ethno-scapes
3. Working in Japan
4. Weaving the Web of a Life in Japan
5. To Leave, to Return
6. Home and Belonging in an Ethno-nationalist Society
7. Children of Immigrants: Educational Mobilities
8. Growing Up in Japan: Identity Journeys
Conclusion: Realities, Challenges, and Promises of Immigrant Japan