Immigration Discourses in the U.S. and in Japan Chie Torigoe
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University of New Mexico UNM Digital Repository Communication ETDs Electronic Theses and Dissertations 7-1-2011 Immigration Discourses in the U.S. and in Japan Chie Torigoe Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cj_etds Recommended Citation Torigoe, Chie. "Immigration Discourses in the U.S. and in Japan." (2011). https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/cj_etds/25 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Electronic Theses and Dissertations at UNM Digital Repository. It has been accepted for inclusion in Communication ETDs by an authorized administrator of UNM Digital Repository. For more information, please contact [email protected]. i IMMIGRATION DISCOURSES IN THE U.S. AND IN JAPA by CHIE TORIGOE B.A., Linguistics, Seinan Gakuin University, 2003 M.A., Communication Studies, Seinan Gakuin University, 2005 DISSERTATION Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Communication The University of New Mexico Albuquerque, New Mexico July, 2011 ii DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to the memory of Dr. Tadasu Todd Imahori, a passionate scholar, educator, and mentor who encouraged me to pursue this path. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I would like to express my sincere gratitude to those who made this challenging journey possible, memorable and even enjoyable. First and foremost, I would like to thank my advisor, Dr. Mary Jane Collier. Mary Jane, without your constant guidance and positive support, I could not make it this far. Throughout this journey, you have been an amazing mentor to me. Your intelligence, keen insight and passion have always inspired me, and your warm, nurturing nature and patience helped me get through stressful times. I am grateful that I could work with you, Mary Jane. I will never forget the private graduation ceremony you had for me! My heartfelt gratitude also goes to my dissertation committee members, Dr. John Oetzel, Dr. Ilia Rodriguez, and Dr. Ricky Lee Allen. Thank you, John, for being always supportive. Whenever I lost confidence in my intellectual abilities, your positive encouragement and constructive suggestions saved me. Ilia, your class and your advice helped me find the topic of my dissertation. Thank you for your scholarly inputs and encouragement. Ricky, taking your critical race theory class shaped the major structure of my work. Thank you for introducing the field of critical race studies and providing me with completely new perspectives to understand my own society. I would also like to thank other faculty members and staffs of the C&J department at UNM. You all made this department my “home.” Thank you for making such a warm and welcoming environment. I would like to extend my special thanks to my dearest friends, Jessica Crespo, Soumia Dhar, and Abdissa Zerai. Without your friendship and support, I could not iv survive grad school. I am so lucky that I have you as my friends and family who went through both good and bad times together. I am also deeply grateful to Dr. Miyahara and other wonderful colleagues at Seinan Gakuin University. Without their support, I could not complete my dissertation while teaching at the university at the same time. I would also like to thank my family members and my partner for their unconditional love and support. Otousan and Okaasan , thank you for always believing in me and letting me, your only daughter, to pursue my Ph.D. degree in the U.S. Massa, my friend and my “brother,” thank you for your guidance and support, both scholarly and emotional one. Lastly, Christian, thank you for being you and always standing by my side even though we live thousands of miles apart from each other. v IMMIGRATION DISCOURSES IN THE U.S. AND IN JAPAN by CHIE TORIGOE B.A., Linguistics, Seinan Gakuin University, Japan, 2003 M.A., Communication Studies, Seinan Gakuin University, Japan, 2005 Ph.D., Communication, University of New Mexico, 2011 ABSTRACT The primary purpose of this study was to investigate how systems of racial inequality and dominance produced at macro-institutional level discourses are reproduced and/or challenged in micro-interpersonal everyday discourses regarding immigration/foreign workers in the U.S. and in Japan. To establish a link between the discourses at these two levels, I employed a combination of critical and interpretive theoretical perspectives, and analyzed how racial ideologies were reproduced and/or challenged through participants’ use of various interpretative repertoires (i.e., discursive themes and specific rhetorical moves therein) and positioning of self and Others . Interpretative repertoires and discursive positioning of self and Others are major analytical frameworks of discursive psychology that were developed by Wetherell and Potter (1992), and I employed their discursive psychological analysis as the methodology for this study. vi The present study included 14 pairs of self-identified white Americans in the U.S. and 17 pairs of self-identified Japanese in Japan. I provided each pair with a discussion guide and asked the participants to record their 30-60 min long private conversations regarding immigration/foreign worker issues using the discussion guide that I provided. The analysis of the participants’ interpersonal discourses demonstrated the existence and significance of the dialectical relationship between macro and micro level discourses regarding racial ideologies. In addition, the juxtaposition of discourses of countries with different historical and sociopolitical contexts indicated the importance of taking historical and sociopolitical contexts into account to understand the process of reproducing systems of inequalities and dominance. Although similar discursive patterns were recognized, such as erasure of race and positioning of positive-self and negative-Others , the analysis showed that different backgrounds provide unique kinds of interpretative repertoires as resources to maintain and/or challenge dominant racial ideologies. The present results imply that successive studies on racialized discourses about immigration/foreign workers in the U.S. and Japan are necessary. Given the rapidly changing immigration policies and racial dynamics in the U.S. and Japan, it is important to track the reproduction of systemic racism and changes over time. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter I: Introduction and Theoretical Perspectives .................................................. 1 Combination of Critical and Interpretive Perspectives ............................................... 6 Major Tenets of a Critical Perspective in Current Study .................................... 8 Racialized Social Systems .................................................................................. 9 Major Tenets of an Interpretive Perspective ..................................................... 15 Negotiation of Intersecting Multiple Identities ................................................ 18 Positioning of Self and Others .......................................................................... 19 Chapter II: Contexts of Immigration/Foreign Workers in the U.S. and in Japan.... 24 Social and Historical Contexts of Immigration ........................................................ 24 The United States ...................................................................................................... 24 Current immigration demographics in the U.S. ............................................... 24 History of immigration policy in the U.S. ........................................................ 28 Public discourse on immigration. ..................................................................... 39 Japan ......................................................................................................................... 50 Current immigration/admission of foreign workers in Japan. .......................... 51 Demographics and categories of foreign born residents in Japan. ................... 52 Japanese society as a racialized social system. ................................................ 56 Japanese immigration policies in a racialized social system. ........................... 61 Institutional racism against foreign workers in Japan. ..................................... 69 Public discourses on foreign workers and immigrants in Japan. ..................... 72 Summary ................................................................................................................... 76 Discursive Reproduction of a Racialized Social System in Interpersonal viii Discourses ........................................................................................................ 76 Research Questions ................................................................................................... 80 Chapter III: Methods ..................................................................................................... 83 Discourse Analysis in General .................................................................................. 83 Common Theoretical Assumptions in Discourse Analysis .............................. 84 Differences among Discourse Analysis Approaches ........................................ 85 Potter and Wetherell’s Discursive Psychology ......................................................... 88 Procedures ................................................................................................................. 91 Participants ......................................................................................................