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“Unseeing” Chinese Students in Japan: Understanding Educationally Channelled Migrant Experiences

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  • Jamie Coates

Abstract

Chinese migrants are currently the largest group of non-Japanese nationals living in Japan. This growth is largely the result of educational migration, positioning many Chinese in Japan as student-migrants. Based on 20 months’ ethnographic fieldwork in Ikebukuro, Tokyo’s unofficial Chinatown, this paper explores the ways in which the phenomenology of the city informs the desire for integration amongst young Chinese living in Japan. Discussions of migrant integration and representation often argue for greater recognition of marginalised groups. However, recognition can also intensify vulnerability for the marginalised. Chinese student-migrants’ relationship to Ikebukuro’s streets shows how young mobile Chinese in Tokyo come to learn to want to be “unseen.” Largely a response to the visual dynamics of the city, constituted by economic inequality, spectacle, and surveillance, the experiences of young Chinese students complicate the ways we understand migrants’ desires for recognition and integration.

Suggested Citation

  • Jamie Coates, 2015. "“Unseeing” Chinese Students in Japan: Understanding Educationally Channelled Migrant Experiences," Journal of Current Chinese Affairs - China aktuell, Institute of Asian Studies, GIGA German Institute of Global and Area Studies, Hamburg, vol. 44(3), pages 125-154.
    • Handle: RePEc:gig:chaktu:v:44:y:2015:i:3:p:125-154
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    1. Max Nathan, 2014. "The wider economic impacts of high-skilled migrants: a survey of the literature for receiving countries," IZA Journal of Migration and Development, Springer;Forschungsinstitut zur Zukunft der Arbeit GmbH (IZA), vol. 3(1), pages 1-20, December.
    2. Paul Waley, 2007. "Tokyo-as-World-City: Reassessing the Role of Capital and the State in Urban Restructuring," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(8), pages 1465-1490, July.
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    Cited by:

    1. Lee, Claire Seungeun, 2019. "Global linguistic capital, global cultural capital: International student migrants in China’s two-track international education market," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 94-102.

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    Keywords

    China; Japan; migration; recognition;
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