Séminaire de recherche MigrAsie - Third session

This seminar is a collaborative effort in conjunction with Migrations en Asie, migrations d’Asie (IFRAE), and the PopAsiE research group (CERI Sciences Po Paris)." 
Seminar coordinator: Hui-yeon Kim
Organizing team:
Hélène Le Bail, Yusuke Kunitomo, Oumrati Mohamed, Aki Yoshida, Hui-yeon Kim.
Seminar location:
Maison de la recherche (2, rue de Lille 75007 Paris), Inalco (65 rue des Grands Moulins 75013 Paris)

Laure Sizaire | Megha Wadhwa | Aki Yoshida
Organisé par
Hélène Le Bail | Yusuke Kunitomo | Oumrati Mohamed | Aki Yoshida | Hui-yeon Kim
14 NOV. 2024 À 14H
Inalco - Salle 4.23

Indian Women Life Stories in India

Megha Wadhwa, researcher and Film Maker (Research Associate at Free University of Berlin, and a

visiting fellow at Sophia University, Tokyo)

Chair : Aki Yoshida ( Maitresse de langue à l’Inalco et chercheuse associée à l’IFRAE et docteur en

littérature japonaise)

Discutante : Laure Sizaire (post-doctorante, Laboratoire d’Anthropologie des Mondes Contemporains.

Université Libre de Bruxelles, fellow de l'Institut Convergences Migrations)

Film Screening and debate with the film maker

“Finding their niche : unheard stories of migrant women”, 2023

An hour-long film documents the life of two Indian women migrants who moved to Japan more than a decade ago as trailing spouses. The women were excited to move to a foreign country and to be with their husbands, but they had no prior knowledge of Japan. Having witnessed at a distance the lives of their relatives settled inthe US, UK, and Canada, they had similar expectations for their own future lives in Japan. But the reality wasto prove different from the expectation. Through personal narratives told by the women, we examine past,present and future expectations and see how these affect their roles as Indian women, wives, mothers, and workers in a foreign country, as well as the challenges they faced in ‘Finding their Niche’.

Second session

Educational mobiliy: international students in South Korea and China
Chair : Oumrati Mohamed (PhD Candidate in Political Science (Inalco/Sciences Po)
Discutant : Kevin Mary ( Maître de conférences en géographie, Université de Perpignan Via Domitia)
Hyunjee Kim (PhD student at the Centre Population et Développement (CEPED) of the French National
Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) and Paris Cité University)
 

Title : Elite Mobility from Sub-Saharan Africa to Korea: A New Institutionalized Pathway for Korea's Ontological Security
 

Abstract : The educational mobility of Africans to Korea is a significant channel fostering relations between the two regions, yet it is rarely addressed as an independent topic in the literature. Meanwhile, Korea's approaches to Africa have primarily been examined through the lens of Korea's dual, and sometimes conflicting, economic and (geo)political interests (Darracq, V. and Neville, D., 2014; Kim, S. and Gray, K., 2016; Kim, S., 2013; Nicolas, F., 2020). Although there is consensus on the presence of non-economic motivations behind Korea's strategies towards Africa, these have often been oversimplified as "soft power."
In this presentation, I will discuss the mobility of African students to Korea as a strategic tool to address its complex non-economic needs, which cannot be fully captured through the concept of soft power. Scholarship programs channeling African elites to Korea will be examined, alongside Korean discourse towards Africa and African students, drawn from interviews, official documents, and grey literature since the 1960s. In doing so, I will seek to explore how Korea's identity, needs, and representation of Africa are redefined as the geoeconomic landscape changes, leading to the emergence of new institutionalized student mobility channels. Then I will examine how these mechanisms of mobility are utilized to ensure Korea's ontological security. DU, Yingjing (Ph.D. student at Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan)
 

Title : China’s Internationalization of Higher Education and Inbound International Student Mobility from the Belt and Road
 

Abstract : The geography of international student mobility (ISM) is transforming, with a rapid increase of students and multipolarity-shifting destinations. The U.S. and the U.K. maintain the top two destinations, while China has moved up to third place, hosting 492,185 international students. This is facilitated by government policy, such as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). The students from BRI countries comprise 53% (260,600), maintaining a high growth rate (12.8%) which surpassed the average increase rate of students from other regions (6.7%). This paper investigates China’s inbound international students from the BRI countries. Through policy document analysis and semi-structured qualitative interviews with 50 students from BRI, this paper explores the student decision-making in choosing to study in China and their post-graduation trajectories. Findings suggest that the migration infrastructure contributes to the increase of China’s inbound ISM, including regulatory (government scholarships and institutional cooperation), commercial (study abroad agencies), technological (word of mouth on social media), and social (networks of students) dimensions. This paper also finds that China’s internationalization of higher education is mainly driven by top-down initiatives, fulfilling the purpose of introducing foreign talents in an aging and birthrate-declining society. However, the post-graduation trajectories of students show that they have become transient migrants — neither wanting to go back nor being able to move forward to a better country

First session 

Asylum seekers in Japan: policy, life experiences and cause building
Chair : Hélène Le Bail, chargée de recherche au CNRS, CERI Sciences Po Paris, fellow IC Migrations
Discutant : Stefan Le Courant, chargé de recherche au CNRS, Centre d'étude des mouvements sociaux, EHESS, fellow IC Migrations
Yusuf Avcı (assistant professor in the Department of Asian Studies at SSUA, Türkiye)
Title: Navigating Change and Continuity: Life as an Asylum Seeker in Japan
Abstract: Japan's asylum policy has undergone considerable changes in the last decade, reflecting negotiations and conflicts between asylum seekers, government agencies, and national and international organisations. This seminar examines the experiences of asylum seekers in Japan, focusing on the dynamics of change and continuity in their lives. By exploring the legal, social, and economic challenges they face, this study highlights the resilience and adaptability of these individuals amidst ongoing policy changes, emphasising their agency. By contrasting past and current experiences, the seminar aims to shed light on how Japan's evolving immigration landscape affects the lives of asylum seekers.
Yusuke Kunitomo (PhD student in the French Research Institute on East Asia (IFRAE)/the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO)
Title: Building the cause of asylum seekers in Japan: commitment of lawyers and civil associations actors
Abstract:
Asylum seekers, who have very little chance of obtaining asylum in Japan, encounter social constraints: the allocation of allowances to asylum seekers is selective; the right to work and access to health insurance is not guaranteed for all asylum seekers; rejected asylum seekers risk being detained in an administrative detention center for an undetermined period. Against this administrative power, lawyers and associative actors try to bring about political change by two means: lawyers resort to justice to repair the damage suffered by asylum seekers or rejected asylum seekers; associative actors organize mobilization actions against immigration policy on the public stage. My presentation offers an analysis of the process of building the cause of asylum seekers in Japan.

To find out the dates of all sessions, download the attached PDF

Séminaire
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Séminaire de recherche MigrAsie
65 rue des Grands Moulins 75013 Paris