Japanese Lifestyle Migrants in Southeast Queensland

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Japanese Lifestyle Migrants in Southeast Queensland Japanese lifestyle migrants in Southeast Queensland: Narratives of long-term residency, mobility and personal communities Jared Denman BA Honours (Japanese); BEd A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at The University of Queensland in 2014 School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies Abstract Contemporary Japanese migration and overseas residency are being increasingly understood through the lens of lifestyle migration, whereby those who leave Japan prioritise lifestyle factors ahead of other considerations. Studies of Australia’s Japanese communities in particular have tended to focus on such migrants and advance this concept. This study employs biographical- narrative and case study elements to further the study of Japanese lifestyle migration to Australia in two ways. One is by examining cases from a cohort in Southeast Queensland that has yet to be a focus of investigation: those who arrived during the late 1980s and early 1990s, before the transformations of post-bubble Japan. The other is by supplementing existing understandings of Japanese phenomena with an emerging conceptualisation of lifestyle migration in Western Europe. This alternative framework observes that narratives of lifestyle migrants are shaped by themes of escape and pursuit and rhetoric of personal transformation, while also proposing that the act of migration is not a final outcome but is embedded within an ongoing lifestyle trajectory. By analysing participants’ narratives and examining their reasons for migration, their mobility histories and self-defined personal communities, this thesis argues that existing characterisations of the particular cohort and of Japanese lifestyle migrants in general are too narrow. Decisions are not straightforward individual matters framed by escape and pursuit, but can be directed by more complicated individual and household trajectories influenced by a variety of mobility experiences that are not simply geographical. Patterns of post-migration mobility are similarly diverse and not straightforward continuations of lifestyle projects. Finally, the analysis of participants’ personal communities reveals that their important familial and non-familial relationships exist because of and in spite of normative expectations, geographical closeness or distance, cultural similarity or difference and activity or latency. 1 Declaration by author This thesis is composed of my original work, and contains no material previously published or written by another person except where due reference has been made in the text. I have clearly stated the contribution by others to jointly-authored works that I have included in my thesis. I have clearly stated the contribution of others to my thesis as a whole, including statistical assistance, survey design, data analysis, significant technical procedures, professional editorial advice, and any other original research work used or reported in my thesis. The content of my thesis is the result of work I have carried out since the commencement of my research higher degree candidature and does not include a substantial part of work that has been submitted to qualify for the award of any other degree or diploma in any university or other tertiary institution. I have clearly stated which parts of my thesis, if any, have been submitted to qualify for another award. I acknowledge that an electronic copy of my thesis must be lodged with the University Library and, subject to the policy and procedures of The University of Queensland, the thesis be made available for research and study in accordance with the Copyright Act 1968 unless a period of embargo has been approved by the Dean of the Graduate School. I acknowledge that copyright of all material contained in my thesis resides with the copyright holder(s) of that material. Where appropriate I have obtained copyright permission from the copyright holder to reproduce material in this thesis. 2 Publications during candidature Book chapters Denman, J. (2014). Reconciling migration and filial piety: Accounts of Japanese lifestyle migrants in Australia. In T. Aoyama, L. Dales & R. Dasgupta (Eds.), Configurations of family in contemporary Japan (pp. 134-147). London: Routledge. Peer-reviewed papers Denman, J. (2009). Japanese wives in Japanese-Australian intermarriages. New Voices , 3, 64-85. Publications included in this thesis Denman, J. (2014). Reconciling migration and filial piety: Accounts of Japanese lifestyle migrants in Australia. In T. Aoyama, L. Dales & R. Dasgupta (Eds.), Configurations of family in contemporary Japan (pp. 134-147). London: Routledge. – partially incorporated into discussion of family ties in Chapter 6. Contributions by others to the thesis No contributions by others. Statement of parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree None. 3 Acknowledgements I would like to thank my advisors, Dr Belinda Kennett and Dr Yuriko Nagata, for their knowledge, guidance, feedback and support throughout my candidature. Belinda was always very generous with her time and Yuriko was kind enough to continue advising me even after entering retirement. I am very grateful to my participants and their families for agreeing to take part in this research and allowing me to learn about them and their experiences. This work is what it is thanks to their voices. I would also like to thank Dr Rosemary Roberts, Dr Geoff Wilkes and Dr Kayoko Hashimoto for their work as postgraduate coordinator during my candidature, Dr Roberto Esposto, Dr Barbara E. Hanna and Emeritus Professor Nanette Gottlieb for participating as readers on my milestone committees, and Associate Professor Tomoko Aoyama for inviting me to join the UWA-UQ Bilateral Collaborative Research Award Project, Configurations of Conventional and Non- conventional ‘Family’ Arrangements in Japan . Furthermore, the encouragement and assistance of academic and administrative staff throughout the School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies were greatly appreciated. I wish to extend my gratitude to Esther Lovely, Lucy Fraser and those with whom I have shared an office for their friendship and support. My doctoral studies were also made possible by the financial support of the Australian Federal Government, in the form of an Australian Postgraduate Award. Finally, I would like to thank my wife, father, mother, sister and brother for their love and encouragement. 4 Keywords Japanese, lifestyle migrants, lifestyle migration, Southeast Queensland, Australia, narratives, mobility, personal communities. Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classifications (ANZSRC) ANZSRC code: 200208 Migrant Cultural Studies, 75% ANZSRC code: 200209 Multicultural, Intercultural and Cross-cultural Studies, 25% Fields of Research (FoR) Classification FoR code: 2002 Cultural Studies, 100% 5 Table of Contents Abstract .......................................................................................................................................... 1 Declaration by author ...................................................................................................................... 2 Publications during candidature ....................................................................................................... 3 Publications included in this thesis ................................................................................................... 3 Contributions by others to the thesis ................................................................................................. 3 Statement of parts of the thesis submitted to qualify for the award of another degree ......................... 3 Acknowledgements .......................................................................................................................... 4 Keywords ........................................................................................................................................ 5 Australian and New Zealand Standard Research Classifications (ANZSRC) ...................................... 5 Fields of Research (FoR) Classification ............................................................................................. 5 Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................. 6 List of Tables & Diagrams ............................................................................................................... 8 List of Abbreviations used in the thesis ........................................................................................... 10 Chapter 1: Introduction ................................................................................................................. 11 Thesis structure ......................................................................................................................... 15 Chapter 2: Literature Review ......................................................................................................... 17 Japanese migration to Australia during the late 1980s and early 1990s ......................................... 18 Characteristics of the contemporary Japanese community in Southeast Queensland ..................... 21 Understandings of Japanese residency in Southeast Queensland around the late 1980s and early 1990s ......................................................................................................................................... 23 Conceptualisations of Japanese lifestyle
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