Educational Reform for Immigrant Youth in Japan

Transnational migration is seldom associated with Japan even though Japan has been dependent on immigrants for several generations. The research presented in this article explores a reform effort viewed as radical within the Japanese context that took place in a metropolitan school known for having one of the largest number of immigrant students in Japan, most of whom hail from Latin America, Southeast Asia, and China. While many of these “Newcomers” are of Japanese ancestry, absence from the homeland for two to four generations has left them without the cultural and linguistic skills to navigate the nuances of Japanese society. As a result, schools, which have never had to respond to the needs of immigrant youth, find themselves at a loss as to how to integrate young people whose parents have been drawn back from the Japanese diaspora through government policies designed to assuage the labor shortage of the 1980s and 1990s. Over the course of 5 months of ethnographic field work in the community in which this school is located the author offers insights gleaned from extensive time spent with social workers, translators, government workers, teachers, staff, students, parents, and community liaison volunteers, all of whom shared their frustrations and challenges with the education of immigrant youth within the context and constraints of Japanese schools

Conflict and cooperation in Armenian diaspora mobilisation for genocide recognition

Mobilising for genocide recognition has been central for sustaining the Armenian diaspora for over a century. This chapter analyses how genocide recognition claims become sustained through conflict and cooperation, internal and external to the Armenian diaspora. Internally, activists have been involved in cooperation with different diaspora sub-groups, despite often existing party rivalries. Externally, Armenian diaspora activists have been involved in both cooperative and conflictual relationships with other diasporas. Arameans and Pontus Greeks, also affected by the 1915 genocide, have been long-time allies to the better-organised Armenians. Conflict has been pronounced with Turks and Azeri in the diaspora, who have developed their own counter-mobilisations. This chapter concludes that both conflict and cooperation are central to sustain diaspora mobilisation for genocide recognition