Whats Driving BrazilJapan Migration The Making and Remaking of the Brazilian Niche in Japan Naoto Hi

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Whats Driving Brazil-Japan Migration?The Making
and Remaking of theBrazilian Niche in Japan
Naoto Higuchi and Kiyoto Tanno
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• Since the late 1980s the Brazilian population in
  Japan has steadily increased, despite the
  long-term recession in the late 1990s.
• Why and how the Brazilian population increased in
  Japan.
• How Brazilians were incorporated into the
  Japanese labor market.

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• Japan has experienced major policy debates about
  foreign workers.
• 1980s Whether migrant workers should be
  introduced to solve the unprecedented labor
  shortage. Concern about migrants impact on
  economy and society.
• 1999 The integration of migrants in a more
  structural labor shortage, caused by decreasing
  birth rates and increasing proportion of the
  aged. Approximately one fifth of Japanese
  descendants in Brazil are now living in Japan.

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DUALISM in Japanese economy

• Primary labor market v. Secondary labor market.
• Disparity between large and small firms wages
  rise in proportion to the number of employees.
• Internal and external labor markets. The
  privileged internal labor market is open solely
  for new graduates from high schools or
  universities. Migrant workers were concentrated
  in the external labor markets.

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Change between 1990 and 1999

• In 1990, all sectors suffered from absolute labor
  shortage and welcomed any labor.
• Later, manufacturers introduced a portfolio of
  labor they hired workers as needed. More and
  more Brazilians were employed as flexible labor
  became compatible with the portfolio.
• Brazilians were paid more and found jobs through
  institutionalized channels, including recruiting
  agencies, while undocumented workers depended on
  personal networks.

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Just-in-time delivery and Market-mediated
migration

• Market-mediated migration
• Recruiting agencies serve as the functional
  equivalent of migration systems usually
  migration systems refer to facilitating
  institutions of migration that are composed of
  family and friendship networks.
• Networks of recruiting agencies spread all around
  the Japanese migrant communities.
• The number of advertisements in Japanese
  newspapers in Brazil exceeded 100 in 1987.
• Just-in-time delivery
• Workers are sent to the dormitory of the
  contractor, but they do not always start working
  right away. They are kept in order for
  contractors to respond to demands promptly
• Workers on the waiting list are delivered to
  workplaces.

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Conclusion

• The Brazilians were incorporated into the
  secondary labor market from the beginning
  (migrants are found where natives are reluctant
  to work).
• Migrants do not always go up the job ladder in
  accordance with the length of stay and language
  skills. In the case of Brazilians in Japan,
  institutional contexts are more important because
  they determine the mode of incorporation.
• Brazilians depend less on their human and social
  capital, and more on the market-mediated
  migration system.