Transnational migration and incorporation into the labor market in Japan: Job searching methods and the labor market outcomes

This study examines how migrant workers in Japan move across national borders and obtain jobs in the destination country. While recent research has paid increasing attention to migration infrastructures, referring to networks of private intermediaries often operating in coordination with institutions of state governments, conventional studies continue to emphasize the enduring roles of co-ethnic ties in facilitating transnational mobility and job matching. Meanwhile, drawing on the 2018 Survey of Life and Work among Foreign Citizens in Japan, based on a two-stage cluster sampling method, this study provides a comprehensive assessment of how different job-search methods relate to labor market outcomes. Furthermore, we shed light on how the place of education works in transnational mobility and job-matching processes. The results show that migrants educated overseas were more likely to rely on co-ethnic ties and private intermediaries when seeking their first job in Japan, while those educated in Japan tended to use formal job-search channels similar to native Japanese workers. We also find that reliance on co-ethnic ties and private intermediaries was associated with entry into unskilled and precarious jobs, whereas formal job-search methods are linked to better labor market outcomes.