The Contemporary Mechanisms of Occupational Status Attainment by Zainichi Koreans: Economic Assimilation, Ethnic Enclavization and Underclassization

It is of fundamental importance to analyze the process by which immigrants achieve their occupational status in order to address the various issues surrounding foreigners in Japan and instances of social inequality based on race and ethnicity. In the case of Zainichi Koreans, who have a long history of settling in Japan, the easing of employment discrimination by Japanese employers, the decline of the ethnic economy that has offered Koreans employment opportunities, and the recent polarization of the labor market, have all contributed to cases of occupational status divergence which can be grouped into three categories: economic assimilation, ethnic enclavization, and underclassization. The purpose of this paper is to identify the divergence mechanism responsible for determining the occupational status of Zainichi Koreans. The analysis presented in this paper is based on immigrant studies in America, which focus on the "adaptation" process of immigrants. I consider the key factor affecting the occupational status divergence of Zainichi Koreans to be the way in which the immigrant family acts as a "reservoir of different forms of capital." In other words, the divergence of achieved occupational status by Zainichi Koreans can be explained in terms of the differences in the arrangement structure of economic or social resources possessed by each Korean family. Analysis of interview data revealed various combinations of social capital, economic capital, and cultural-human capital that cause economic assimilation, ethnic enclavization, and the underclassization of Zainichi Koreans. This paper makes two major contributions. It contributes to the field of "Zainichi studies'* which has historically developed in Japan through the analysis of the contemporary mechanisms of occupational achievement by Zainichi Koreans, paying special attention to diversity within this ethnic group. It also contributes to the study of immigration in Japan by offering a Zainichi Korean perspective that helps address the issue of immigrant adaptation in Japanese society.