01.01.2018 - 00:00

The Development of an Inter-regional Comparative Research Perspective on Changes in Labor Markets and Labor Migration in Japan and Germany

Karen Shire (IN-EAST)
DFG grant for the initiation of international cooperation, 2018–2020

The grant funds follow-up activities from a workshop, initiated by the DFG and organized on their behalf by Karen Shire and Verena Blechinger-Talcott (FU Berlin) in Tokyo, November 13–15, 2017 on Social Science Contributions to Contemporary Social and Political Changes in Germany and Japan. The follow-up research collaboration aims to deepen two dimensions of cooperation between German and Japanese sociologists. The first aim is to support the development of collaboration between major survey research programs designed for sociological research in both countries (especially the Japanese Life Course Panel Survey and the German SOEP survey, among other). This part of the program was completed earlier in 2019 and reported in Institute Report 26/2019. In the current reporting period the second aim of the grant, to work towards a joint research project, building on a theoretical perspective, which reframes migration as a cross-border labor market, and focusses on the social mobility of skilled as well as less skilled migrant labor was pursued.

In December 2019 a joint workshop of graduate students and young scholars researching migration in both regions was conducted in cooperation with Waseda ­University, Keio University and the University of Duisburg-Essen. This activity was aimed at discussing a research idea for a possible International Research Training Group. In February 2020 Prof. Hirohisa Takenoshita, Keio University, was guest professor at IN-EAST. His visit was used to engage in cooperation talks with the Institut für Arbeitsmarkt- und Berufsforschung in Nürnberg, the SOEP survey program researchers in Berlin, and with the Deutsches Zentrum für Integration- und Migrationsforschung (DeZIM) in Berlin to discuss research cooperation. A workshop was also held at the UDE with migration researchers, to exchange state of the arts with the idea of a broader cooperation (the workshop was joined by Helen Baykara-Krumme, Anja Weiss, ­Marcel ­Erlinghagen, Stephan Scheel, and their associated research assistants, as well as by IN-EAST scholar Florian Coulmas). A joint research workshop was planned with co-funding by both the Waseda University Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies and Keio University in March 2020 to finalize a program of comparative research on employment patterns of migrants in Germany and Japan. The workshop was canceled due to the pandemic. This event would have provided the opportunity to meet with key researchers at the Japan Institute of Labor, who have conducted surveys which can be matched to the IAB surveys. It would have also provided Karen Shire a chance to meet personally with the Deans and Research officers at Keio University, whose cooperation is needed for joint research programs. PI Karen Shire planned month-long research residency at the Waseda University Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies in March 2020 to work on joint research proposals, especially one for an international research training group. Again, this visit would have provided the essential opportunities to meet with the Dean of the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies and research officers, whose assent for a grant is necessary. Karen Shire was invited as a visiting fellow to the Graduate School for this purpose. Also, this activity was canceled due to the pandemic. With all travel canceled at the critical stage of negotiating with university officials and grant-writing with cooperation partners, we applied for an extension and rededication of the DFG funds to allow for Aimi Muranaka to coordinate and support grant-writing virtually from Duisburg. A proposal for joint research is now being prepared by Aimi Muranaka and Karen Shire with Prof. Hirohisa Takenoshita and Gracia Liu-Farrer. This has been enabled by an extension to the grant by the DFG until the end of December 2020 (due to disruptions in plans caused by the pandemic). While we will have completed the necessary preparation for submitting a grant on the German side, the actual submission of joint grants is postponed until travel and meetings in Tokyo are again possible.