Immigrant Japan: mobility & belonging in an ethno-nationalist society

Join us for the IRiS Seminar Series 2018-19, The Legacy of Migration, at the University of Birmingham

Speaker: Professor Gracia Liu Farrer form Waseda University.

It is hard to imagine Japan, a society with a strong national cultural identity and a myth of racial homogeneity, as an immigrant society. Although at around 2.5 million and about 2% of the total population, the presence of immigrants is not comparable to that in most other industrial countries, immigrants have nonetheless penetrated every aspect of economic and social life in this island country and are taking part in shaping its future. Based on many years of field research among immigrants from different national backgrounds living in Japan, this presentation examines how immigrants make home, build communities, and understand their existence in a country with distinct patterns of social organization and powerful ethno-national cultural narratives.

All welcome.