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Date and Venue

October 29 (Tuesday) | 17:00-18:30 JST

In-person at Waseda University

Room 712, Building 19, Waseda University



Event details:


Speaker:

Dr. Ruth Achenbach

Dr. Ruth Achenbach is leader of the BMBF-funded research project Qualification and Skill in the Migration Process of Foreign Workers in Asia (QuaMaFA), where her individual project investigates the labor market integration and staying decisions of Chinese graduates in Japan and Singapore. She also serves as PI of the EU-funded project AspirE – Decision making of aspiring (re)migrants to/within the EU: The case of labour market-leading migrations from Asia at Goethe University Frankfurt, focusing on Japanese migrants in Germany, both located at the Interdisciplinary Center for East Asian Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt. Her work focuses on the migration of Chinese students and professionals in East and Southeast Asia, Japanese migration to Germany, and migrants’ locational decision-making processes among other issues.



Abstract:

Given Japan’s severe labor shortage combined with a somewhat institutionalized pathway from its finest universities to the best jobs, it should be expected that international graduates from these top-level institutions easily make their ways into the top segment of the Japanese labor market. Student migrants are imagined to be one solution to Japan’s need for foreign skilled workers, in that they know the culture and speak the language well, move through job-hunting with their Japanese peers and then contribute to Japan’s economy long-term. In the case of Chinese, during the covid-pandemic staying intentions in Japan could have even intensified, given the Chinese economic downturn, high youth unemployment and stricter covid regulations. Yet, data from the qualitative study at hand collected in three rounds between 2022-2024, resulting in 60 interviews with 24 Chinese migrants, show that the majority of the migrants in their student lives originally only intended to study in Japan and then return to push their careers at home. Some were immobilized during covid and reluctantly decided to stay in Japan a little longer, others voluntarily decided to extend their stays, in many cases now leading to settlement intentions.

This presentation addresses an old phenomenon in migration, namely that short-term intentions can lead to long-term stays, from a newer angle, by adopting de Haas’ aspirations-capabilities framework to map shifts over students’ mobility trajectories in pandemic and post-pandemic times. Students’ scope of action against geopolitical, economic and social structures is highlighted, by placing migrants’ perspectives at the center of analysis.


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