Early-Career Scholar Forum

Counterintuitive Effects of Restrictive Migration Policies

Date
Friday, 14 May 2021 | 9:15 - 10:00 (JST)
Venue
Zoom Meeting
Language
English
Speakers
  • Hilary Holbrow Assistant Professor, Dept of East Asian Languages and Cultures, Indiana University
Moderator
  • Sawako Shirahase TCJS Director
Event Description

Ostensibly, Japan’s Technical Intern Training Program (TITP) brings interns from developing countries to Japan to learn advanced skills in manufacturing, construction, and agricultural firms. In reality, interns work menial jobs and receive little transferable training. But although COVID has underscored and magnified the vulnerable position of program participants, even the global pandemic has not laid bare the broader societal costs of TITP, which ultimately countermand the aims of the program and its proponents.

About the Speaker

Hilary J. Holbrow is Assistant Professor of Japanese Politics and Society. A sociologist by training, her scholarship examines social and economic inequality, work and organizations, immigration, and the intersections of gender, race, and ethnicity. She is an International Research Fellow at the Canon Institute for Global Studies in Tokyo, an Associate in Research at Harvard’s Reischauer Institute, and a member of the US-Japan Network for the Future.