Building a Society More Inclusive of Migrants Through University Education

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This study aims to identify Japanese criteria for deciding whether to socially accept migrants, how those criteria change contextually, and the impact of those boundary maintenance practices on migrants’ mental health with the goal of proposing ways for university education to help students become more accepting of migrants in Japan. Last year, I worked on 2 papers that identified: 1. how the criteria that Japanese people value may change depending upon their perceived levels of threat, contribution, and social status among immigrants, and 2. how such acceptance criteria may change according to immigrants’ national background. Analyses reveal that Japanese consider 2 types of criteria important for accepting migrants: ethnic (e.g., Japanese ancestry or birthplace) and civic (e.g., language skills or following social norms). Such expectations vary depending upon contextual variables: greater perceptions of threat resulted in more exclusive attitudes, while higher assessments of contributions and social status engendered more accepting stances toward immigrants. Such findings have important implications for education: by promoting immigrants’ contributions in Japan (both economic and social) and social status, while reducing threat perceptions, educators can engender more inclusive attitudes towards immigrants among students. From April 2022 to the end of April 2023, I had 1 refereed paper accepted about this research (now in press) in an international journal, and I gave 20 presentations in person or online at academic conferences or as invited lectures.