The Motivation to Migrate: The Ethnic and Sociocultural Constitution of the Japanese‐Brazilian Return‐Migration System
The Motivation to Migrate: The Ethnic and Sociocultural Constitution of the Japanese‐Brazilian Return‐Migration System
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移民的动机：日本-巴西回返移民制度的民族和社会文化构成
DOI：
10.1086/452444
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发表时间：
1999
影响因子：
2
通讯作者：
Takeyuki Tsuda
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Takeyuki Tsuda
近几十年来，移民是在全球经济、政治和社会一体化不断加强的背景下发生的，随之而来的是国际交通和通讯的速度和便利性的提高。因此，当代移民往往涉及在东道国短期、临时逗留，这与前几代移民离开祖国永久定居国外形成鲜明对比。 1 尽管当今许多侨民最终仍定居在东道国，但暂时留在国外的初衷对他们的移民意愿产生了重大影响。由于许多当代移民只要有钱支付必要的交通费用就可以立即返回家园，因此移民不再需要对东道国作出长期承诺。由于国际通讯和媒体网络的改善，移民现在可以与留守者保持密切联系，了解家乡的新闻、事件甚至电视节目。由于移民的风险和成本降低，现在有两个人更愿意移民，而且移民的压力也小得多。由于“移民门槛”——经济、政治和社会压力足以导致个人移民的门槛——已经降低，说服人们离开自己的祖国变得更容易。最近，日裔巴西人作为非技术外国工人“回国移民”到日本，无疑是这种短期、相对低成本移民的例证，这种移民最初是由寄居者心态驱动的。 3 自 20 世纪 80 年代末开始移民流动以来，日本的日裔巴西人数量已增至 220,000 人，并且尽管日本经济衰退，但仍在以稳定的速度增长。因为他们中的绝大多数人只打算在日本工作几年© 1999 年，芝加哥大学。版权所有。
In recent decades migration has been taking place amidst increasing global economic, political, and social integration, which has been accompanied by the greater speed and ease of international transportation and communication. As a result, contemporary migration often involves short-term, temporary sojourns in the host country, in contrast to earlier generations of migrants who left their homelands to settle abroad permanently. 1 Although many of today’s sojourners still end up settling in the host country, the initial intention to remain abroad only temporarily has a significant impact on their willingness to migrate. Because many contemporary migrants can return home at a moment’s notice—as long as they have money for the necessary transportation—migration no longer entails a long-term commitment to the host country. As a result of improved international communications and media networks migrants can now stay in close touch with those left behind and keep up with news, events, and even television programs back home. Since migration has become less risky and costly, 2 individuals are now more willing to migrate and do so under considerably less pressure. Because the ‘‘threshold of migration’’—the point at which economic, political, and social pressures become sufficient to cause individuals to migrate—has been lowered it has become easier to convince people to leave their home countries. The recent ‘‘return migration’’of Japanese-Brazilians to Japan as unskilled foreign workers certainly exemplifies this type of short-term, relatively low-cost migration that is initially motivated by a sojourner mentality. 3 Since the migrant flow began in the late 1980s, the number of Japanese-Brazilians in Japan has increased to 220,000 and continues to grow at a steady rate despite the Japanese recession. Since a vast majority of them have intentions to work in Japan for only a couple of years© 1999 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.