Beyond Boundaries Selected Papers on Refugees and Immigrants, Volume V
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
Beyond Boundaries Selected Papers on Refugees and Immigrants, Volume V Edited by Diane Baxter and Ruth Krulfeld In 1988, the Committee on Refugees (CORI) was established as a committeeof the General Anthropology Division, a Section of the American Anthropological Association. Its primary objective is to encourage, stimulate, and enhance the anthropological studyof refugee issues. CORI is committed to expanding knowledge about refugeesand refugee concerns by supporting scholarly activities that bridge theoreticaland applied research, by promoting research endeavors that span various disciplines without compromisingan anthropological perspective, and by advocating on behalf of refugees in diverse institu tional contexts. In 1996 the mandate of CORI expanded to include immigrantsand dis· placed peoples more generally. To become a member of CORI or the General Anthropology Division of the American Anthropological Association. pleasecontact American Anthropological Association 4350 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 640 Arlington, VA 22203-1620 703/528·1902 fax 703/528-3546 http://www.ameranthassn.org Cover Photos: Ruth Krulfeld ISBN 0-913167·85-1 Ii Recipient of the 1997 CORI Award Return Migration of Japanese Brazilian Women: Household Strategies and Search for the "Homeland" TABLE OF CONTENTS Keiko Yamanaka Acknowledgments This CORI award recognizes the outstanding paper on refugee, migrant, or immi Introduction Ruth Krulfeldand Diane Baxter grant issues submitted to Beyond Boundaries ( Selected Papers on Refugees and Volume V). The award celebrates excellence in anthropological Immigrants, _ . Winner of the CORI Annual Award for Best Paper research, broadly defined as embracing theory, methods,dat a, and appll�t1on. The __...Rdurn Migrationof JapaneseBrazilian Women: 1,.,/'" �o�sehold Strategies and Searchfor the "Homeland" winning paper is chosen through a vote of the volume's anonymous reviewers. Keiko Yamanaka Ethnic Transnationalism andthe Channelingof Migrant Flows: The ReturnMigration of Japanese-Brazilians Takeyuki Tsuda The Role of Christian Missionariesin Forging a Transnational Identity AmongIu-Mien (Yao) Refugees JefferyMacDonald Towards Nikkeiism: Japanese (Nikkei)-Peruvian Migrants as a New EthnicMinority Ayumi Takenaka When the"Powerless" Take Control: Self-EmpowermentThrough Organization-BuildingAmong Lao Refugee Wome n Ruth M. Krulfeld Young Girls Dressing: Experiences of Exile andMemories of Home Among Kosovo-AlbanianRefugees in Sweden KarinNorman Idealizedand Devalued: Imagesof Identity Among PalestinianCamp Refugeesin the West Bank DianeBaxter Copyright© 1997 by the American Anthropological Association Danglingon the Fringeof Nowhere: RepatriationAmbivalence Amo ng All rights reserved. �efugees From the FormerYugoslavia ISBN 0-913167-85-1 Eva V. Huseby-Darvas For additional copies of this volume, please contact Intergenerational Stress: Parentsand Adolescentsin Iranian ImmigrantFamilies American Anthropological Association Patricia J. Higgins 4350 North Fairfax Drive, Suite 640 Arlington, VA 22203-1620 703/528-1902 fax 703/528-3546 http://www.ameranthassn.org Yamanaka Household Strategies RETURN MIGRATION OF JAPANESE BRAZILIAN WOMEN: Household Strategies And Search For The "Homeland" Keiko Yamanaka By tracing the immigrationhistory ofNikkeijin (Japanese descendants) in Brazil. this studyidentifies three categories ofJapanese Brazilian migrantwomen who have leftBrazi l since the late I 980s to work temporarily in Japan Thesew omen of contrasting generations, ethnicities and experience--categorized here as "Seniors, " "Juniors"and "Brazilian Wives" (ofNikkeijinmen)--constit ute more than40 percent ofthe 200,000 JapaneseBrazilian migrantpopulation in Japan An examination of data obtainedfro m interviewsin I 00 households in Japanand Brazil reveals distinctive ways in which women ofeach categoryapproach and maximizeeconomic opportunities encountered in Japan. Senior Nikkeijin, speakinggood Japanese, characteristically work in hospitals as caretakers ofelderly patients. whileJunior Nikkeijin and Brazilian Wives, with Ii/Ile linguistic and culturalfamiliarity, toil on manufacturing assembly lines. As a result of their experienceof social marginalityin Japan, the ethnic identityofNikkeijin women has been redefined, reflecting their historyin Brazil. Transnational migration has also entailed a reworking ofhousehold strategies for upward mobility in the context of continuing economic uncertaintyin Brazil. Return migration ofNikkeijinwomen to their ancestral countryhas thusope ned a new chapterin their individualbiographies and in their community'shistory in Brazil. Since 1990, some 200,000 descendants(Nikkeijin, "Japanes e descendants")of Japanese emigrantsto Latin America, primarily Brazil,have returnedto theirancestral homelands as unskilled laborers in response to anincreased demand for labor in jobs shunnedby Japanese. Encouraged by the 1990 Japanese immigrationreform a l w which grantedsecond (Nisei) and third (Sansei)genera tion Nikkeijin a renewable stayofup to threeyears withunlimited access to labor markets, they looked forwardto finding well paying jobs as sojournersin Japan, and to being welcomed as compatriots. The enabling law was intended to attractNikkeij in as culturally familiar substitutes for what was perceived as an alarming influxof non-JapaneseAsian labor migrants. But theseexp ectations andintentions were ill-fated. The Nikkeijin foundthemselves to be regardedas aliens and treated as secondary citizensby the Japanese, while theJapanese found theNikkeijin to be disturbinglyforeign (Brazilian). From the beginning ofthis migration boom, theNikk.eijin population in Japanincluded a high proportionof women. In 1990, 39 percentof the total annual admissionsfrom Brazil were females, increasingto 43 percent in 1994. Similarly,the pr oportion of childrenwent up from5 percent in 1990 to 8 percent in 1991. These statisticsclearly indicate thatJapanese Brazilian migration is familyoriented, rather than dominatedby unaccompaniedmales. Despite the fact that family demography is crucial to understandingpatterns of migration,settlement and subsequent behavior in the adopted country, literatureon recent immigrantlabor in Japan pays I I Yamanaka Household Strategies Yamanaka Household Strategies littleattention to this featureof what has become the country'sthird largest immigrant population, following 700,000 Koreans and220,000 Chinese. Basedon more than 100 household interviews and 50 surveyquestionnaires conducted in both Japan and Brazilin 1994 and 1995, this study will discuss Nikkeijinwomen's experiences asmig rantworkers in Japan, their resettlementprocess uponreturn ing to Brazilafter several years' sojourn and theim pact oflabormigration on theirse lf-perceptions. A close examination of the interview data reveals extraordinarycomple xity and diversity in the migration experiences of Nikkefjin w omen by generation, languageand ethnicity,thus highl ighting theimportance of [ [ C: C: incorporating in the analysis the historicaland cul turalcontexts of their return migration from ;· Brazil to Japan. Japanese Women in Transnational Migration "Birds of passageare also women ... " (Morokvasic 1984:886); this comment emphasizes the neglected attention paid to migrant women in theinternational migratio n literature. Migrant women makesignificant financialcontributions, as produc ers and earners,to their families and communities and therefore to the economy of the receivingcountry. By remitting a portionof their meager wages to thefamilies remaini ng in their home country,migrant women also contribute to the household and national economies there. As reproducers and nurturers, women play centralroles in uniting families,d eveloping social networks andth us solidifying ethnic communities and occupational niches. By raising and socializing children, they also transmit cultural traditions to succeeding generations, thus strengtheningemotional and social ties withthe host population (Morokvasic 1984; Gabaccia 1992). Japanese women, together with theirhusbands, were "birds of passage" fromthe earliest stages of emigration following theopening of thecountry in 1868 (see thefirst column of Chart I). In North America, between 1885 and1990, 20 to 25 percent of the89,000 Japanese immigrants to Hawaii were women (Nomura 1989). The 1907-08 Gentlemen's Agreement between the United Statesand Japan, while halting new immigration to the United States, permittedfamily members to enter the country as legal immigrants. Consequently, between 1910 and 1920, sizablenumbe rs (about 17,000) arrived, most of them as "picture brides" for immigrant Japanese men (lchioka, 1980). In South America, afterthe U.S. gate was closed in 1908, Japaneseemigran ts headed for Brazil.1 At this time, Brazilwas experiencing a laborshortage which had begunwith the abolition of slavery in 1888 and was exacerbated by the expanding demand forcoffee in Europe. Large coffee plantation owners (fazendeiros) first recruited farm handsas contract workers (colonos) from Italy, Portugaland Spain, and later fromGermany and Japan. Unlike those Japanese who firstemigrated to the United States, most of thosearriving in Brazilwere accompanied by their families. In aneffort to secure thestability of theirlabor force,em ployers' contracts required that a familyunit comprise 3 to 10 laborers, aged between12 and 45 (Suzuki 1992:141). Frequently unable to meet this familyrequir ement, theemigrants often create d "paper families" (kosei kazoku, "constituted families")of unrelatedpeople.