Towards a New Migration Management: Care Immigration Policy in Japan

Under globalization, most of the countries in the world have become diverse, multi-ethnic societies. Cross-border mobility has become a normal feature of contemporary society. The more globalization is accelerated, however, the more the state struggles to maintain border control. In particular, unprecedented movement of human beings poses the dilemma of immigration policy between opening and closing the national border. This border control dilemma reflects one aspect of the assumed challenge to the nation-state posed by international migration. Globalization and its subsequent transnationalism of migrants may induce state sovereignty to decline. State sovereignty seems to be challenged by the influx of international migrants. At present, most states struggle to manage migration in keeping state sovereignty more than before. Despite being a relatively ethnic homogeneous country, Japan is not an exception here, although it has kept a strictly selective immigration policy. Due to its depopulation and aging, Japan decided to recruit nurses and care workers from Indonesia and the Philippines. The introduction of new migration channels marks a profound shift of Japanese policy and regional migration management since the care immigration policy of Japan is implemented within the bi-national framework of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) Japan initiated with several sending countries. Adapted from the source document.