Social Science Japan Journal Advance Access originally published online on October 24, 2008
Social Science Japan Journal 2008 11(2):241-257; doi:10.1093/ssjj/jyn035
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Social Science Japan Journal 11:241-257 (2008)
© 2008 Oxford University Press
The Burden of Social Capital: Visa Overstaying Among Fujian Chinese Students in Japan
Gracia LIU-FARRER is an Assistant Professor of sociology at Ochanomizu University, Japan. Her research examines the economic, social and emotional lives of contemporary Chinese immigrants in Japan. She is currently investigating Chinese migrants’ transnational labor market practices, career mobility and the issues of racial and gender stratification emerging in the transnational labor market between Japan and China. She can be reached by e-mail at glfarrer{at}gmail.com
This paper provides a sociological analysis of the student visa-overstaying phenomenon among Fujian Chinese immigrants in Japan. Since the mid-1980s, international education has been an important channel of migration from China to Japan. With the rapid increase of Chinese students in Japan, student visa overstaying has also become a major source of undocumented migration. Student visa overstaying is particularly visible among Chinese students from the Southeast coastal province, Fujian. This paper probes into this phenomenon by examining Fujian immigrants’ migration network characteristics. It argues that the social capital that facilitates migration and secures the livelihood for immigrants can become a liability prohibiting them from achieving upward mobility in the host society. Fujian immigrant social network closure cultivates and maintains a norm that positively sanctions undocumented immigration and provides resources that make it difficult for Fujian immigrants to maintain legal status.