Building a Society More Inclusive of Migrants Through University Education

这项研究旨在确定日本决定是否接受移民的标准，这些标准如何随背景变化，以及这些边界维护做法对移民心理健康的影响，目的是提出大学教育的方法，以帮助日本学生更好地接受移民。去年，我写了两篇论文，确定了：1.日本人重视的标准可能会随着他们对移民的威胁、贡献和社会地位的感知水平而变化，2.这种接受标准可能会随着移民的国家背景而变化。分析表明，日本人认为接受移民有两种重要的标准：民族(例如，日本血统或出生地)和公民(例如，语言技能或遵守社会规范)。这种期望因背景变量的不同而不同：对威胁的更多感知导致更排外的态度，而对贡献和社会地位的更高评估导致对移民更容易接受的立场。这些发现对教育具有重要意义：通过提高移民在日本的贡献(经济和社会)和社会地位，同时减少威胁感知，教育工作者可以在学生中产生更具包容性的对待移民的态度。从2022年4月到2023年4月底，我在一家国际期刊上收到了1篇关于这项研究的推荐性论文(目前正在出版中)，我在学术会议上或作为特邀讲座亲自或在网上做了20次演讲。

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.