IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/esj/esridp/293.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Negative Assimilation: How Immigrants Experience Economic Mobility in Japan

Author

Listed:
  • TAKENAKA Ayumi
  • ISHIDA Kenji
  • NAKAMURO Makiko

Abstract

This paper examines the economic mobility of foreign migrants in Japan. In a country that is largely regarded as homogeneous and closed to outsiders, how and to what extent do immigrants achieve economic success? A survey conducted by the authors revealed that the conventional assimilationist perspective does not fully explain immigrants' economic success in Japan. Migrants from the West experience what Chiswick and Miller (2011) refer to as "negative assimilation." That is, their earnings decline over time in Japan. While negative assimilation was not clearly observed among immigrants from neighboring Asian countries, wages among this population did not increase with the length of their stay in Japan. For both groups, the skills they brought from abroad were found to be largely accountable for their economic success, while locally specific human capital, such as education acquired in the host society, did not contribute to their earnings.

Suggested Citation

  • TAKENAKA Ayumi & ISHIDA Kenji & NAKAMURO Makiko, 2012. "Negative Assimilation: How Immigrants Experience Economic Mobility in Japan," ESRI Discussion paper series 293, Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI).
    • Handle: RePEc:esj:esridp:293
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.esri.go.jp/jp/archive/e_dis/e_dis293/e_dis293.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Agnieszka Kanas & Barry R. Chiswick & Tanja Lippe & Frank Tubergen, 2012. "Social Contacts and the Economic Performance of Immigrants: A Panel Study of Immigrants in G ermany," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(3), pages 680-709, September.
    2. Douglas J. Krupka, 2009. "Location‐Specific Human Capital, Location Choice And Amenity Demand," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 49(5), pages 833-854, December.
    3. Ana M. Ferrer & W. Craig Riddell, 2002. "The role of credentials in the Canadian labour market," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(4), pages 879-905, November.
    4. Theodore P. Lianos & D. Asteriou & G.M. Agiomirgianakis, 2004. "Foreign university graduates in the Greek labour market: Employment, salaries and overeducation," International Journal of Finance & Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 9(2), pages 151-164.
    5. Julie DaVanzo & Peter Morrison, 1981. "Return and other sequences of migration in the United States," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 18(1), pages 85-101, February.
    6. Borjas, George J, 1993. "The Intergenerational Mobility of Immigrants," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 11(1), pages 113-135, January.
    7. Peter S. Li, 2001. "The Market Worth of Immigrants' Educational Credentials," Canadian Public Policy, University of Toronto Press, vol. 27(1), pages 23-38, March.
    8. George J. Borjas, 2006. "Making it in America: Social Mobility in the Immigrant Population," NBER Working Papers 12088, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    9. Tachibanaki, Toshiaki, 1988. "Education, occupation, hierarchy and earnings," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 7(2), pages 221-229, April.
    10. Bernt Bratsberg & James F. Ragan Jr., 2002. "The Impact of Host-Country Schooling on Earnings: A Study of Male Immigrants in the United States," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 37(1), pages 63-105.
    11. Ilana Akresh, 2007. "U.S. Immigrants’ labor market adjustment: Additional Human capital investment and Earnings Growth," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(4), pages 865-881, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Ayumi Takenaka & Makiko Nakamuro & Kenji Ishida, 2016. "Negative Assimilation: How Immigrants Experience Economic Mobility in Japan," International Migration Review, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(2), pages 506-533, June.
    2. Dustmann, Christian & Glitz, Albrecht, 2011. "Migration and Education," Handbook of the Economics of Education, in: Erik Hanushek & Stephen Machin & Ludger Woessmann (ed.), Handbook of the Economics of Education, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 0, pages 327-439, Elsevier.
    3. Ana Ferrer & W. Craig Riddell, 2008. "Education, credentials, and immigrant earnings," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 41(1), pages 186-216, February.
    4. Duncan, Brian & Grogger, Jeffrey & Leon, Ana Sofia & Trejo, Stephen J., 2020. "New evidence of generational progress for Mexican Americans," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 62(C).
    5. Gabin Langevin & David Masclet & Fabien Moizeau & Emmanuel Peterle, 2017. "Ethnic gaps in educational attainment and labor-market outcomes: evidence from France," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 84-111, January.
    6. Brian Duncan & Stephen J. Trejo, 2015. "Assessing the Socioeconomic Mobility and Integration of U.S. Immigrants and Their Descendants," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 657(1), pages 108-135, January.
    7. Sweetman, Arthur, 2004. "Qualite de l'education des immigrants dans leur pays d'origine et resultats sur le marche du travail canadien," Direction des études analytiques : documents de recherche 2004234f, Statistics Canada, Direction des études analytiques.
    8. Gabin Langevin & David Masclet & Fabien Moizeau & Emmanuel Peterle, 2017. "Ethnic gaps in educational attainment and labor-market outcomes: evidence from France," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 25(1), pages 84-111, January.
    9. Abdulla, Kanat, 2020. "Human capital accumulation: Evidence from immigrants in low-income countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(4), pages 951-973.
    10. Benoit Dostie & Mohsen Javdani, 2020. "Immigrants and Workplace Training: Evidence from Canadian Linked Employer–Employee Data," Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 59(2), pages 275-315, April.
    11. Christian Dustmann & Nikolaos Theodoropoulos, 2010. "Ethnic minority immigrants and their children in Britain," Oxford Economic Papers, Oxford University Press, vol. 62(2), pages 209-233, April.
    12. Chen, Natalie & Conconi, Paola & Perroni, Carlo, 2007. "Intergenerational Mobility of Migrants : Is There a Gender Gap?," The Warwick Economics Research Paper Series (TWERPS) 815, University of Warwick, Department of Economics.
    13. Ekberg, Jan & Hammarstedt, Mats & Shukur, Ghazi, 2007. "SUR estimation of earnings differentials between three generations of immigrants and natives," CAFO Working Papers 2007:7, Linnaeus University, Centre for Labour Market Policy Research (CAFO), School of Business and Economics.
    14. Neeraj Kaushal, 2011. "Earning Trajectories of Highly Educated Immigrants: Does Place of Education Matter?," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 64(2), pages 323-340, January.
    15. Marie-Pier Joly, 2019. "The Employment and Occupational Status of Migrants from Countries Experiencing Armed Conflict," Journal of International Migration and Integration, Springer, vol. 20(4), pages 1071-1095, November.
    16. Bratsberg, Bernt & Raaum, Oddbjørn & Røed, Knut, 2011. "Educating Children of Immigrants: Closing the Gap in Norwegian Schools," IZA Discussion Papers 6138, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Randall Akee & Maggie R. Jones, 2019. "Foreign vs. U.S. Graduate Degrees: The Impact on Earnings Assimilation and Return Migration for the Foreign Born," Working Papers 19-17, Center for Economic Studies, U.S. Census Bureau.
    18. Mikal Skuterud & Mingcui Su, 2012. "The influence of measurement error and unobserved heterogeneity in estimating immigrant returns to foreign and host-country sources of human capital," Empirical Economics, Springer, vol. 43(3), pages 1109-1141, December.
    19. Banerjee, Rupa & Verma, Anil, 2009. "Determinants and Effects of Post-Migration Education Among New Immigrants in Canada," CLSSRN working papers clsrn_admin-2009-20, Vancouver School of Economics, revised 11 Mar 2009.
    20. Renee Luthra & Thomas Soehl, 2015. "From Parent to Child? Transmission of Educational Attainment Within Immigrant Families: Methodological Considerations," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 52(2), pages 543-567, April.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:esj:esridp:293. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: HORI nobuko (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/esrgvjp.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.