Annual Seminar Series SeminarTuesday 29 October 2019
6:00pm – 7:30pm
The Challenge of Migration in the UK and Japan
Drinks reception: 7:30pm – 8:00pm
13/14 Cornwall Terrace, Outer Circle (entrance facing Regent's Park), London NW1 4QP
Organised by the Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation
Fully bookedMigration is one of the most pressing global issues of the 21st century. In the UK, the possibility of a no-deal Brexit in October this year might mark the end of free movement for EU citizens, impacting on low-skilled migration and presenting serious implications for the economy as a whole. By contrast, in April 2019, the Japanese government introduced a new program that seeks to attract 345,000 low skilled migrants to Japan over the next five years. This seminar considered the current situation facing the UK and Japan and the demographic challenges ahead. Speakers included: Dr Heather Rolfe who spoke on low skilled migration in the UK, and the threat posed by Brexit; and Dr Nana Oishi who spoke on the growing phenomenon of ‘brain drain’ in Japan and prospects for ‘brain circulation’.
Download here the article by Dr Nana Oishi “Skilled or unskilled?: The reconfiguration of migration policies in Japan”
Read here the 2019 ISS/Oxford Prize for Modern Japanese Studies winning article written by Dr Nana Oishi
About the contributors
Dr Nana Oishi
Dr Nana Oishi is Associate Professor in Japanese Studies at the University of Melbourne. Prior to her current position, she was Professor of Sociology at Sophia University in Tokyo and Policy Analyst at the International Labour Organization in Geneva. She has served on the United Nations Expert Meeting on Migration, Development and Social Protection and various national advisory boards on immigration in Japan. She completed her Ph.D. in Sociology at Harvard University as a Fulbright Scholar, and has received several awards, including the Government of Canada Award. Her research centres around migration and gender. Recent publications include ‘Silent Exits: Post-3.11 Japanese Skilled Migration to Australia’ in Social Science Japan Journal (2019), ‘North-North Migration of Care Workers: Disposable Au Pairs in Australia’ in Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies (2019) and ‘The Pitfalls of Skilled Migration Policies in Japan: Institutional Isomorphism and Reality’ in Japanese Sociological Review (2018).
Dr Heather Rolfe
Dr Heather Rolfe is Head of Research at Demos. She studied at the University of Sheffield and the University of Southampton (PhD), and subsequently worked at the University of Essex and the Banking, Insurance and Finance Union as a researcher, and then as a Research Fellow at the Policy Studies Institute. In 1998 she joined the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) as Associate Research Director of Employment and Social Policy. At NIESR, her research focused on employers’ use of migrant labour and skills and workable immigration policies, public attitudes towards immigration, integration of migrant pupils in schools, and integration of religious and ethnic groups. She joined Demos in 2019, and her particular areas of interest include migration, inclusion, and integration; her recent publications include ‘Immigration Policy from Post-War to Post-Brexit: How New Immigration Policy can Reconcile Public Attitudes and Employer Preferences’ in National Institute Economic Review (2019), and ‘The power of negative thinking: why perceptions of immigration are resistant to facts’, LSE online (2019).
Professor Brad Blitz
Professor Brad Blitz (Chair) is Professor of International Politics and Policy and head of the Department of Education, Practice and Society at University College London. He is a frequent contributor on matters of migration, refugees, humanitarian assistance and human rights and has appeared on television and radio including BBC News, Sky News, National Public Radio, as well as in print media. He recently acted as Principal Investigator for the ESRC-DFID funded EVI-MED project on refugee reception systems in the Mediterranean and is co-investigator of a £15.4 million ‘hub’ on Gender, Justice and Security, funded by the Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Recent publications include Migration and Freedom: Mobility, Citizenship, Exclusion (2014).