Comparing immigration policies in Japan and Korea: a historical-institutionalist approach

This dissertation, Comparing Immigration Policies in Japan and Korea: a historical-institutionalist approach examines convergence and divergence in immigration policies between Japan and Korea. I challenge a well-established hypothesis that supports policy convergence based on the experiences of European countries. I argue that significant policy divergence has occurred between Korea and Japan especially when it comes to unskilled foreign workers, while policy convergence has been observed in return migration policies toward ethnic Koreans and Japanese. To explain these puzzles, I propose a historical-institutionalist approach to immigration policy by placing special emphasis on intra-governmental competition and political coalitions between state and social movement organizations (e.g. pro-migrant NGOs) in the policy-making processes. Using data from governmental sources and interviews, I find that political coalitions between state and pro-migrant civic organizations lead to liberal policies toward unskilled foreign workers in Korea, whereas the absence of influence of civil society in the policy-making process makes immigrant policies less liberal and less flexible in Japan. This comparative study outside of traditional western states not only broadens the empirical scope of international migration studies, but also tests whether current migration theories that heavily rely on Euroamerican cases may apply more generally to non-Western cases. For studying other policy areas, my research also can provide new analytical dimension including roles of new social movements in policy domains beyond the traditional view of bureaucracy-led policymaking in Japan and Korea.Ph.D.Includes abstractVitaIncludes bibliographical referencesby Byoungha Le