2018 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Creating a Multicultural Japan: Ethnographic Study and Digital Oral Interview Archive of Social Integration by Civic Institutions Supporting Recent Migrants in Kanto
| Project/Area Number |
18K02006
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| Research Institution | Sophia University |
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Principal Investigator |
Slater David 上智大学, 国際教養学部, 教授 (70296888)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2018-04-01 – 2021-03-31
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| Keywords | archive / oral narrative / refugees |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
RELEVANCE: 2017 we saw a huge increase in the number of asylum applications to almost 20,000; and a decrease in the refugee recognition rate of .2%. This has presented a huge uproar in the Japanese and international press. This greatly increases the relevance of my project.
POLICY CHANGES: Earlier this year, Japan announced changes in the immigration and refugee policy, dramatically altering the research terrain. The processing of refugees, even the definition of who is refugee, has changed somewhat dramatically in both the law and practice of immigration, as well as who is entitled to what sort of support. MORE BACKGROUND RESEARCH REQUIRED: Due to these changes, I have had to re-focus my activities to do more policy and legal background research.
DATA COLLECTION: During this period, I have had to do more interviews with NPO and policy individuals in order to evaluate the on-the-ground effects of this change. I have conducted some interviews with asylum seekers and refugees also, but mostly in "focus group" style in order to get the shape of this new terrain. The individual interviews with asylum seekers and refugees were fewer than we had anticipated.
CIVIC OUTREACH: We have held "Refugee Cafe" as a way to both recruit new informants and to link refugees, university students and community members.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
I have been able to make good progress, but due to the changing policy by the Japanese government, I have had to focus more on interviews with NPO supporters (rather than asylum seekers and refugees themselves, as expected).This is necessary research in order to capture the current situation, so it is well-used research time. But it also means that I've had to postpone to 2019 the refugee interviews expected to begin in 2018.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
The plans for the 2019 is to shift the majority of the asylum seeker and refugee interviews into 2019. It is not yet clear if it is best to do individual interviews (which will cost us budget) or group interviews (which will not cost us budget). I will start with some more focus group interviews, and then based on those preliminary results, I will possibly move to the individual oral narrative interviews. Because I have spent more time on the policy changes in 2018, I will not have to return to this part of the research in 2019.
I will continue with the community outreach, and so far have gotten many more students and community members involved in the process.
Finally, at the end of 2019, I will begin the post-production editing phase of digital video interviews in order to solidify the archive of refugee video and to lay the foundations for an open website.
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| Causes of Carryover |
We ended up not using all of the funds that we had originally allocated for 2018 for the following reasons. 1. Because there were significant refugee policy changes, we had to focus on that; 2. Because more of our interviews were focused on religious, CSO and NPO leaders, these interviews do not cost any money; 3. Because the interviews we did with the refugees and asylum seekers are mostly group interviews (rather than individual interviews), it did not cost us any money.
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