• Naoko Uehara Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo

• Misako Nukaga Associate Professor, Graduate School of Education, The University of Tokyo

Currently, movement across nation-states has been a common phenomenon for more people in the era of globalization. Thus, the difference between “immigrant” and “refugee” has been arbitrarily politicized. From this point, the refugee determination process has been heavily affected by political interest rather than humanitarian aspect. In Japan, refugee acceptance has been very limited based on the narrowed interpretation of the Refugee Convention of 1951. Among asylum seekers, although no accurate number is known, Kurdish people from Turkey who or whose parents flee to Japan as asylum seekers constitute one main ethnic group who remain undocumented or “quasi-legal or liminal legal status”.

Considering these backgrounds, this presentation examines how the liminal legal status of Kurdish students during asylum seeking affects their life at a night-time high school and their future prospects. Based on participant observation at a night-time high school and life story interviews with four Kurdish female students, her research focuses on their academic aspiration, disclosure of their legal status, and the ways in which the night-time high school includes/ excludes the needs of the Kurdish asylum seeking students.