Local Citizenship in Recent Countries of Immigration: Japan in Comparative Perspective

Description

Because of severe domestic labor shortages, Japan has recently joined the increasing number of advanced
industrialized nations that have begun importing large numbers of immigrant workers since the 1980s.
Although the citizenship status of foreign workers is the most precarious in such recent countries of
immigration, the national governments of these countries have become increasingly preoccupied with border
enforcement, forcing local municipalities and organizations to offer basic rights and social services to
the foreign residents who are settling in their local communities. This project analyzed the development
of local citizenship in Japan by examining the role of local governments and NGOs as well as grass-roots
political and judicial activism in the expansion of immigrant rights. In this manner, localities are
emerging as important sites for the struggle for immigrant citizenship and social integration, enabling
foreign workers to enjoy substantive rights even in the absence of national citizenship. The
possibilities and limits of such local citizenship in Japan were then compared to three other recent
countries of immigration (Italy, Spain, and South Korea).