JAPAN : A NEW RECEIVING COUNTRY FOR INTERNATIONAL MIGRANTS

This document is based on my project*s research under the topic of "Migration and Development of Thailand, the case study of Thai migrant workers in Japan" . The research will analyse about the causes and possible consequences of the recent dramatic growth in migration from Thailand to Japan. My aim is to learn some general characteristics of the migrations, and to link them to theoretical explanations of migration and its place in the process of globalisation. My main question is how Thai migrants enter to work in Japan both legally and illegally?

And what are the possible consequences for the receiving countries, in terms of social, cultural and political change ? To answer this questions visibly, I have to do some field research both in Japan as a host country and in Thailand where the Thai workers came from.

Thailand has experienced many of the development strategies and she shifted from a pure agricultural rural development strategy to strategies promoting import-substituted industries and export industries. At present she is at a cross-roads moving toward industrial development. Meanwhile, per capita income has increased, rural people still remain poor, and income distribution is the main issue.

In addition to income disparity, development also created a rural-urban disparity in social welfare and social infrastructure between the countryside and Bangkok. People were encouraged to organize themselves for income-generating activities, to identify and solve local problems, and to participate in development activities. The international migration is chosen as an alternative for many of the rural people. The agents come into the villages to recruit workers to work in Japan. Many joined and brought in a large amount of Yen.

Since 1980s there was a shift of migrant workers from Thailand to work in Japan. Because of the decline in the birth rate, the shortage of labour for low skilled jobs, due to economic growth and to the reluctance of highly-qualified young Japanese to take blue-collar jobs drastically changed during above dated, there is great demand for both male and female labour. Japan then encouraged migration of labour to help abate labour shortage problem.

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