The world has entered an era of global migration. Several hundred million people now live outside their countries of birth or nationality - an increasingly diversified group, including amongst others, migrant workers, persons migrating for the purpose of family reunification, and refugees.
Amidst this dramatic rise in the cross-border movement of people, immigration control, particularly in industrialised countries, has become increasingly strict, leading to the ever more stringent treatment of refugees and asylum seekers. Whilst the employment of professional and highly-skilled migrants is being actively encouraged, those foreign residents and workers who do not meet criteria on residence periods or statuses as set out in immigration laws and ordinances are, in principle, excluded, with few exceptional opportunities for regularisation.
To be sure, more countries have undertaken migrants’ rights protection in line with the development of international human rights principles. However, when migration policies are examined within the context of the nation-state, it has become apparent that certain traditional immigration countries are facing the need to reconsider “multiculturalism”, and that some European countries, host to large migrant communities, have revisited social integration policies that used to accommodate cultural diversity, and attached more importance to “official” language acquisition, in order to prevent migrants from becoming peripheral in their host societies.
In the midst of such changes, Japan now faces serious questions on its immigration control policy and the need for a more all-inclusive strategy vis-a-vis foreign nationals and ethnic minorities already resident in Japan (the latter has come to be called a “multicultural co-existence policy”). So far, Japan has de facto accepted migrant workers without any comprehensive policy direction, thus triggering a number of problems and contradictions. With the increasing tendency of foreign nationals to stay longer in Japan, the necessity has arisen for a systematic migration policy, one which takes into consideration a revision of the current residence status system, enhanced possibilities for social, economic and political participation, and issues related to nationality and education.
Notwithstanding the above, in Japan there is no established think-tank for migration policy, and there are few fora for researchers and practitioners to share information, network and engage in discussions. Furthermore, as migration policy by definition touches upon wide-ranging issues concerning all human activity, it necessitates multi-disciplinary and evidence-based research. Recognising this, we, the proposers, call for the establishment of the “Japan Association for Migration Policy Studies (JAMPS)” as a forum open not only to researchers active in various academic fields, but also to practitioners, particularly lawyers, staff of international organisations, NGOs and policy makers. JAMPS aims at sharing knowledge, information and experience amongst its members, and at a more effective use of these resources.
April 11, 2008
