Bifurcated incorporation and migrant social mobility in Japan

The context of reception is crucial in establishing different mobility pathways for migrants within host societies. Given that access to government resources is increasingly reserved for citizens and permanent residents and most states provide relatively few avenues to naturalization or permanent residence, host country human capital and social networks are often vital for upward social mobility. I use a variety of research methods including 60 semi-structured interviews, over 800 hour of participant and non-obtrusive observation, and ethnography from a 14-month period in 2011–2012 in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area to investigate how Sub-Saharan African migrants pursue mobility within Japanese society. I theorize that there are two distinct groups of long-term staying migrants in Japan: one initially incorporated as unskilled laborers and another initially incorporated as skilled laborers. Migrants initially incorporated as skilled workers have comparatively greater access to state resources and discretion to incorporate as individuals. Migrants initially incorporated as unskilled laborers must rely on the intervention of native-born individuals in order to experience upward mobility. These findings suggest that visa status is an important signal of initial migrant incorporation trajectory and a significant moderating factor for individual outcomes and social mobility in Japan.