Labour Crossings

This book advances scholarship on the infrastructural turn in migration studies by foregrounding the underexplored role of migration brokers from receiving countries and catering to foreign professionals. While existing research has predominantly focused on brokerage in migrants' countries of origin, this monograph conceptualises migration brokerage in the host society as a key institutional infrastructure shaping contemporary cross-border labour markets. It conceptually contributes by integrating insights from economic sociology and international migration studies, introducing a transnational lens into the market-making framework.

Drawing on qualitative data from ethnographic fieldwork, the book examines the role of brokers not only in facilitating and regulating workers’ mobility, but also in actively “making” an emerging cross-border labour market between Japan and Vietnam. It also provides a nuanced analysis of the experiences of skilled Vietnamese migrants as they navigate entry into and participation in Japan’s labour market. 

Focusing on Japan as an emerging immigration country, the analysis is situated within a context characterised by acute labour shortages alongside a persistently restrictive migration regime. Over the past decade, the number of foreign—particularly skilled—migrant workers, including Vietnamese nationals, has increased substantially. In the absence of a comprehensive immigration policy, private intermediaries have become crucial in facilitating, mobilising and controlling the mobility of both migrant workers and labour users. Despite Asia's importance as a major host region of international migrants, Japan remains comparatively under-researched. Addressing this gap, the book will appeal to scholars, students, and policymakers working in migration studies, economic sociology, Asian studies, and migration and labour policy.