Members List
Dr. Aimi Muranaka
Member
Aimi Muranaka is assistant professor the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at Waseda University. Her research interests focus on international high-skilled migration, particularly among Vietnamese IT professionals in Japan, and on various roles of migration infrastructure within cross-border labour market. She has completed a four-year (2021-2025) collaborative research project “Qualification and Skill in the Migration Process of Foreign Workers in Asia (QuaMaFA)”. Within
this project, she examined how highly educated migrants shape their physical, social and professional (im)mobilities and ultimately shaping their long-term, with specific focus on Vietnamese IT professionals.
Research Projects
Since 2025: “Migratory trajectories: Evolving careers across borders and time” (with Helena Hof) funded by Toshiba Internation Foundation.
Since 2024: “Recalibrating ‘Skill’ in Changing Immigration Regimes: Skilled Migrants and the Nature of Work in Asia” (with Helena Hof, Ruth Achenbach, Yang Wang and Brenda S. A. Yeoh), in collaboration with the Asia Research Institute).
08/2024-02/2025: “Comparative Perspectives on the Transformation of East Asian Labor Markets through International Skilled Migration” (with Helena Hof and Kikuko Nagayoshi), funded by Toshiba International Foundation.
03/2021-02/2025: “Qualification and Skill in the Migration Process of Foreign Workers in Asia (QuaMaFA): The role of Japanese intermediaries and language schools in the integration of Vietnamese skilled workers in the IT-sector in Japan”, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF)
Recent publications
· Muranaka, Aimi. Forthcoming. “"Immobility as a stepping stone? Practice of temporal immobility among Vietnamese IT professionals in contemporary Japan" Mobilities. DOI: 10.1080/17450101.2025.2594449
· Hof, Helena, Aimi Muranaka and Joohyun Justine Park. 2024. “Employment as an anchor: The prospects of emerging East Asian skilled migration regimes through the lens of migrants’ access to the labor market”. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal. DOI: 10.1177/01171968241292376
· Muranaka. Aimi. 2024. “Perks or burdens? Being “nearly (Im)mobile” as IT foreign professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan”. Contemporary Japan. DOI: 10.1080/18692729.2024.2410556
· Muranaka, Aimi. 2024. “The myth of Vietnamese IT and engineering professionals being “shin-nichi”? Their short-term participation in the Japanese labour market.” In Immigration and Quality of Life in Ageing Societies: How Attractive for Migrants are Japan and Germany? by Aeneas Zi Wang, Aimi Muranaka and Florian Coulmas (eds.). Routledge: pp. 89-107. DOI: 9781003425359-6
· Wang, Aeneas Zi and Aimi Muranaka. 2024. “Attractive immigrants or attractive for immigrants? Two ageing societies and migration.” In Immigration and Quality of Life in Ageing Societies: How Attractive for Migrants are Japan and Germany? by Aeneas Zi Wang, Aimi Muranaka and Florian Coulmas (eds.). Routledge: pp. 1-16 DOI: 9781003425359-1
· Muranaka, Aimi. 2024. “Being a Foreigner During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Researcher Positionality in Online Interviews”. Forum Qualitative Sozialforschung Forum: Qualitative Social Research, 25(1). DOI: 10.17169/fqs-25.1.4075
· Muranaka, Aimi. 2023. “‘Framing’ and ‘Packaging’ of Foreign Skilled Workers: Diversity of the Intermediary Actors in the Cross-Border Labour Market Between Japan and Vietnam”. Globalizations. DOI: 10.1080/14747731.2023.2165376
· Tran, Huy An and Aimi Muranaka. 2022 “Editorial – Transnational Flows of Contemporary Asia: Trends and Futures”.The German Journal on Contemporary Asia. 162/163: 7-14.
· Muranaka, Aimi. 2022. “Brokerage in the cross-border labour market: Recruitment and training of Vietnamese IT workers by Japanese temporary staffing firms.” Asian Studies Review. 46(4): 578-596. DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2022.2093836
· Muranaka, Aimi. 2022. “Beyond blue ocean? The roles of intermediaries in the cross-border labour market between Japan and Vietnam.” Global Networks. 22(3): 514-529. DOI: 10.1111/glob.1235610.
For the updated list of Aimi Muranaka’s publications, please go here.