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Why migrate to earn less? Changing tertiary education, skilled migration and class slippage in an economic downturn.
- Source :
- Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies; Jul2021, Vol. 47 Issue 13, p3131-3149, 19p, 1 Chart
- Publication Year :
- 2021
-
Abstract
- This paper examines the changing experience of middle-class labour in an economic downturn and its relation to migration motivations. At the heart of this paper is an intriguing question of why educated middle-class workers would leave metropolises with high standards of living to work in a provincial city abroad where they perform routine tasks and earn less than they would in comparable positions back home. An analysis of in-depth interviews with Japanese service workers in China's digital outsourcing industry focuses on their educational background and employment experience prior to migration. Based on my findings, I argue that relatively educated migrants use their diminishing middle-class resources to access an occupational niche abroad, in order to (temporarily) evade the increased risk of class slippage in the society of origin. Japan's experience of a long-term economic slump since the early 1990s provides a fruitful point of comparison for studies that investigate changing youth transitions from education to employment and their relationship to migration patterns and class mobility in economically stagnant nations elsewhere. I critically engage with the literature on middling migration to highlight the usefulness of a historically sensitive and relational perspective from which to study middle-class migrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Details
- Language :
- English
- ISSN :
- 1369183X
- Volume :
- 47
- Issue :
- 13
- Database :
- Complementary Index
- Journal :
- Journal of Ethnic & Migration Studies
- Publication Type :
- Academic Journal
- Accession number :
- 151268399
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1720629