Constraints on Migrant Workers’ Lives Due to Structural Mediation in Labour Migration: A Case Study of Thai Technical Intern Trainees in Japan

Abstract

The Technical Intern Training Program (TITP) is a mechanism for supplying foreign workers as technical intern trainees to Japanese companies encountering labour shortages, particularly small and medium-sized enterprises. Previous studies reveal that despite the growing number and importance of TITP workers, their lives—professional and personal—and rights in Japan are constrained because of Japan’s rules and regulations. I argue that the mediation between actors at the structural level, from both migrant-receiving and migrant-sending countries involved in labour migration, such as the governments of the two countries, entrepreneurs who receive migrant workers, and recruiting agencies, should be considered transnationally. Through a case study of TITP workers from Thailand—a prominent supplier of TITP workers to Japan—this study analyses the constraints and/or restrictions on the migratory capabilities of Thai workers. These constraints and/or restrictions have continually emerged throughout the course of TITP implementation because of the mediation between concerned parties on both the Japanese and Thai sides. This study has implications for understanding the lives of migrant workers who are conditioned by structural factors.