OCCUPATIONAL DESKILLING: JAPANESE-BRAZILIAN MIGRANT WOMEN IN JAPAN

Abstract

The structure of labor participation is segmented by ethnicity and gender lines. As a result ascribed characteristics such as race and gender put migrant groups into marginal position and into different hierarchical segments of the labor market. Consequently those mechanisms push migrant women into casual and informal jobs. In this paper, issues related to Japanese migration policy and its influence on migrant women’s work conditions is analyzed. The work conditions between Brazilian migrant women and women from Asian countries are also analyzed. At the first part of the paper, we analyze how migratory policies influence on migrant’s insertion into labor market and in the second part, case studies about Brazilian migrant women, who were engaged in skilled jobs (translator/advisor), are described. The issues focused were work conditions, job perspective, and relations between family and work. Although this work is skilful and profitable, it takes part of an unstable work market, too for form a professional perspective due to its low valuation by the Japanese government.