African Labour Migration and the Small Firm Sector in Japan

抄録

The reform of the immigration control law in 2018 signalled the latest phase in the institutional approach to post-World War II immigration governance in Japan. In previous decades, governments avoided an official immigration policy, relying instead on a range of alternative schemes to procure workers. As in other high-income countries, state anxiety over immigration centred on restricting low-skilled migration and while Japan has sought to facilitate highly-skilled migration, the recent policy shift to accept less-skilled migrants is undoubtedly significant.¹ This paper, however, will focus on Ghanaian labour migration to the country for low-skilled work during a period where such migration was not legally permitted. Drawing on qualitative research conducted in Japan and Ghana, the paper will focus on the employment dimension of this migration in relation to the small firm sector.² It will highlight the relationship between immigration status and employment experiences, arguing that both the migration trajectories of Ghanaians as well as their immigration status affected their experiences in the small firm sector.