Hostname: page-component-55f67697df-q9hcs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-05-08T22:57:41.605Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Debt, Networks and Reciprocity: Undocumented Migration from Fujian to Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 May 2025

Gracia Liu-Farrer
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Fujian, the coastal province in Southeast China, is where a large number of overseas Chinese called home. After widely publicized tragic events such as the Golden Venture and Dover incidents, the name Fujian has in recent decades become associated with clandestine border entry. This article examines the causes and contexts of undocumented migration from Fujian to Japan. It highlights the unique characteristics of undocumented migration into Japan: debt-driven migration and network-induced visa overstaying. It also explores the tradition- and reciprocity-oriented ethical frameworks within which Fujian undocumented migrants justify their behavior.

Type
Research Article
Information
Asia-Pacific Journal , Volume 8 , Issue 26 , June 2010 , e1
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
Copyright © The Authors 2010

References

Chin, Ko-Lin. 1999. Smuggled Chinese: Clandestine Immigration to the United States. Temple University Press, Philadelphia.Google Scholar
Chin, Ko-Lin. 2001. “The Social Organization of Chinese Human Smuggling,” in Kyle, D. and Espenshade, R., T. J. and Acevedo, D.. 1995. “Migrant cohort size, enforcement effort, and the apprehension of undocumented aliens,” Population Research and Policy Review, 14: 145–172.Google Scholar
Cranford, Cynthia. 2005. “Networks of Exploitation: Immigrant Labor and the Restructuring of the Los Angeles Janitorial Industry.” Social Problems 52(3): 379–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Immigration Bureau, Ministry of Justice. 2007. Immigration Control. Tokyo.Google Scholar
Japan Immigration Association. 2004. Statistics on the Foreigners Registered in Japan..Google Scholar
Kwong, Peter. 1997. Forbidden Workers: Illegal Chinese Immigrants and American Labor. New York: New Press.Google Scholar
Liang, Zai and Ye, Wenzhen. 2001. “From Fujian to New York: understanding the new Chinese immigration,” in Kyle, D. and Koslowski, R. (eds), Global Human Smuggling: Comparative Perspectives, Hohns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore: 187–215.Google Scholar
Liang, Zai and Morooka, Hideki. 2004. “Recent Trends of Emigration from China: 1982-2000.” International Migration 43(3): 145–164.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liang, Zai and Morooka, Hideki, Chunyu, Miao David, Zhuang, Guotu and Ye, Wenzhen. 2008. “Cumulative Causation, Market Transition, and Emigration from China,” American Journal of Sociology, Volume 114 Number 3 (November 2008): 706–37.Google Scholar
Liu-Farrer, Gracia. 2008. “The Burden of Social Capital: Fujian Chinese Immigrants' Experiences of Network Closure in Japan.” Social Science Japan Journal. Vol. 11 No. 22. 241–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massey, Douglas and Arango, J, Hugo, G., Kouaouci, A., Pellegrino, A. and Taylor, J.. 1993. “Theories of international migration: a review and appraisal,” Population and Development Review 19(3). 431–466.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ministry of Justice. Ministry of Justice Press Release, February 17, 2009, accessed on November 12, 2009.Google Scholar
Pieke, Frank N., Nyiri, Pal, Thuno, Mette, and Ceccagno, Antonella. 2004. Transnational Chinese: Fujianese Migrants in Europe. Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Tajima, Junko. 2003. “Chinese Newcomers in the Global City Tokyo: Social Networks and Settlement Tendencies.” International Journal of Japanese Sociology. 12: 68–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vasishth, Andrea. 1997. “A model minority: the Chinese community in Japan,” Pp. 108–139, in Japan's Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity, ed. Weiner, Michael. London: Routledge.Google Scholar