Abstract
This paper examines how in-migrants to remote islands come to play roles in local communities and how their practices relate to the continuity of community life. The study is based on qualitative interviews with 23 in-migrants living on three Japanese islands. Focusing on their narratives, the paper analyzes how they formed relationships with local residents, entered community life, and came to assume particular roles.
The findings indicate that the involvement of in-migrants can be understood from three interrelated aspects. First, many in-migrants gained access to local communities by taking on concrete roles in everyday life, such as helping with community events, participating in collective work, providing transportation for older residents, and supporting local gatherings. In remote island communities, such small roles were not peripheral; they often functioned as important points of entry into local relationships. Second, relationshipbuilding was not automatic. Some in-migrants experienced time lags, difficulties, and constraints in becoming accepted, particularly when they had no prior local ties or when their connections remained limited to workrelated networks. Third, some in-migrants came to play mediating roles that linked the inside and outside of the island through information-sharing, community-building, support activities, and the creation of new places for interaction.
The paper argues that, in remote island settings, the significance of in-migrants should not be reduced to population replacement. Because island societies are small in scale and everyday life is closely interconnected, even modest practices can contribute to sustaining community functions and shared life. The significance of in-migrants lies in the ways they gradually become embedded in local relationships and, through this process, help support the continuity of community life.
