Swedish migrants' experiences in Japan : A qualitative interview study of Swedish migrants' experiences of contact with Japan's public sector, workplaces, and relationships with Japanese people

Migration to Sweden and integration of immigrants in Sweden is an ongoing subject in politics and the media. Swedish people migrating to other countries that have different cultures and values is not as talked about. One example of such a country is Japan which has experienced a drastic demographic change in the last decades with a growing elderly population. Japan has a restrictive migration policy and while the easiest way of solving this issue is allowing more migrants into the country, little has been done to change policies so far. This study aims to explore what experiences Swedish migrants in Japan have in their everyday life. What challenges do they face? To explore this the study focuses on their experiences of contact with Japan’s public sector, workplaces, and relationships with Japanese people. Five semi-structured interviews were conducted with Swedish people that all had experience of living and working in Japan. The results show that the respondents generally have a positive experience of Japan’s public sector, while they wish there were more English-speaking staff. They also critiqued Japan’s restrictive migration policies. In the workplaces they also had generally positive experiences. They talked about cultural differences they encountered and that they had to adapt how they behaved in certain ways. When it came to relationships with Japanese people it was a mixed bag. While they all had Japanese friends, and some had Japanese partners, they all felt that it was difficult to get close to or befriend Japanese people. Several of the respondents also experienced different types of discrimination and harassment. None of the respondents felt fully integrated into Japanese society, where some of them wanted to feel fully integrated, while some were happy the way it was