Hélène Le Bail

Cross-border marriages as a side door for paid and unpaid migrant workers: the case of marriage migration between China and Japan

ABSTRACT Cross-border marriages between Chinese and Japanese over the past twenty years have expanded in scale and taken on new forms. The special case of Japan lies in the implication of local authorities in the promotion of these marriages, locating the matrimonial migratory route at the crossroads of familial migration and work migration from the point of view of both the migrants themselves and the host communities. Marriage migrants in Japan are one of the variations of the transfer of a feminine workforce to ensure reproductive work. While migratory policies in Japan have generally appealed to side doors for unqualified immigration, local authorities have helped create extra side doors via marriage to provide support in the context of the restructuring of reproductive work. Migrant wives also represent a potential salaried foreign workforce especially in peripheral zones which have difficulty attracting migrants. An analysis of the participation of these migrants in both reproductive and productive work (remunerated or not) enables us to better understand the contemporary debate that feminized migratory routes tend to reinforce patriarchal norms.ABSTRACTCross-border marriages between Chinese and Japanese over the past twenty years have expanded in scale and taken on new forms. The special case of Japan lies in the implication of local authorities in the promotion of these marriages, locating the matrimonial migratory route at the crossroads of familial migration and work migration from the point of view of both the migrants themselves and the host communities. Marriage migrants in Japan are one of the variations of the transfer of a feminine workforce to ensure reproductive work. While migratory policies in Japan have generally appealed to side doors for unqualified immigration, local authorities have helped create extra side doors via marriage to provide support in the context of the restructuring of reproductive work. Migrant wives also represent a potential salaried foreign workforce especially in peripheral zones which have difficulty attracting migrants. An analysis of the participation of these migrants in both reproductive and productive w...

Étudiants étrangers et travailleurs qualifiés au Japon

Mise au jour d’un processus d’installation depuis deux decennies Le Japon affiche officiellement une politique d’immigration restreinte et privilegiant les travailleurs les plus qualifies. Ainsi, la reforme de la loi de controle de l’immigration et de reconnaissance du droit d’asile de 1989 (entree en vigueur en 1990) a determine 13 categories de visas dits de “travail qualifie”, tels ceux de professeur, chercheur, ingenieur, journaliste, specialiste des ressources humaines et des affaires in...

Le Japon, pays d'immigration

Japon et migration ne semblent pas faire tandem. On repete a l’envi que le pays est reste marque par deux siecles de fermeture sur le reste du monde (jusqu’a la reforme de Meiji, en 1868) et que le peuple japonais se caracterise par une forte homogeneite ethnique qui rendrait difficile l’integration d’un grand nombre de residents etrangers. Les chiffres de la population etrangere installee au Japon tendent a confirmer ce discours.

Le soutien associatif aux femmes étrangères au Japon

De nombreuses migrantes originaires d’Asie sont victimes d’une double discrimination au Japon, liee au genre et a leur origine. Venues pour travailler dans les clubs et les bars a hotesses ou par mariage arrange, elles sont rendues invisibles dans la societe nippone, tout en etant la cible de violences et de la xenophobie. La societe civile japonaise reagit. Dans la continuite des mouvements citoyens, les reseaux de soutien aux travailleurs etrangers, les associations feministes et les institutions d’origine chretienne font cause commune pour defendre les droits de ces femmes.