The multi‐scalar embeddedness of support policies for migrant entrepreneurship in Japan
| Published date | 01 April 2023 |
| Author | Sakura Yamamura |
| Date | 01 April 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/imig.13000 |
International Migration. 2023;61:67–86.
|
67
wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/imig
Received: 14 March 2 021
|
Revised: 31 Octob er 2021
|
Accepted: 17 Februar y 2022
DOI: 10.1111/imig.1300 0
SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE
The multi- scalar embeddedness of support policies
for migrant entrepreneurship in Japan
Sakura Yamamura
This is an open ac cess article und er the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial License, which p ermits
use, distri bution and reprod uction in any medium , provided the orig inal work is properl y cited and is not used fo r commercial
purposes.
© 2022 The Auth ors. International Migration published by John W iley & Sons Ltd on behalf o f International Or ganization for
Migration.
Departm ent of Socio- Cultural Diversity,
Max Planck Ins titute for the Stud y of
Religious and Et hnic Diversity, Göt tingen,
Germany
Correspondence
Sakura Yamamur a, Departmen t of Socio-
Cultural Di versity, Max Planck In stitute for
the Study of Reli gious and Ethnic Dive rsity,
Hermann- Föge- Weg 11, 37073 Göttingen,
Germ any.
Email: yamamura@mmg.mpg.de
Abstract
Contextual entrepreneurship and mixed embeddedness
approach alike emphasize the importance of the politi cal-
institutional embeddedness next to social embeddedness
along w ith further context s for migra nt entrepreneur-
ship, yet the aspect of international migration policies as
an impor tant institutiona l framework has been somewhat
neglected. This pap er introduces the case of politic al-
institutional embeddedness of migrant entrepreneurship in
Japan from an international migration policy perspective,
discussing embeddedness of migrant entrepreneurs and
their support instit utions from a multi- scalar pers pective.
By analysing the migration policy context of migrant en-
trepreneurshi p at d ifferent polic y levels, that is, national,
regional and ur ban scales , it demonstrates the analytical
value of differentia ting policies along these scales a nd also
their inter- connectedness, conceptually pr oposing the in-
ter- and t rans- scalarity of these policy contexts. By bri ng-
ing issues of migration regimes and pa rticularly the East
Asian developmental st ate as a lens to analyse migrant
entrepreneurs hip, it brings further appro aches in compara-
tively analysing differ ent entrepreneuria l contexts for fu-
ture research.
|
YAMAMUR A
INTRODUCTION
Diversity has become a novel phenomenon much d iscussed in society and research, but is also becoming in-
creasingly an import ant paradigm in policy- making. Such diversification can be also observed in recent changes
in migration po licies in Japan, a countr y which was known for its r eluctance to internat ional migration. Admit ting
the need for fo reign workers due to the severe labour short age in the ageing and shr inking society, the Jap anese
government has begun diversif ying migration schemes beyond their focus on highly- s killed. In such historical shift,
migrant entrepreneurs have also come into focus as important economic potentials. Changes have been made to
allow immigration of entrepreneurs by revising visa schemes, but also introducing directives supporting them at
further po licy levels beyond immigra tion.
Though migrant entrepreneurship scholars have stressed the importan ce of research- informed policy recom-
mendation po inting at the crucial policy- nexus (R am et al., 2013), the political- ins titutional side of mig rant entre-
preneurs’ embeddedness in t he entrepreneurial environment has not yet found sufficient attention. The analytical
framework of mixed- embeddedness (Kloosterman, 2010; Kloost erman & Rath, 2001), which has become the main
perspective in analysing migrant entrepreneurship, conceptualizes the dual embeddedness of migrant entrepre-
neurs in their social networks and the political- institutional contexts. However, the political- institutional context
is first an under- resear ched part in migrant entrepreneurship, and secon d, these policy contexts primarily focus on
the economi c integration of migr ants through sup port of their en trepreneurial end eavours rather tha n on issues
of international m igration per se (cf. Desider io & Mestres- Dom ènech, 2011; OECD, 2010 ).
This raises the question whether the contextuality of migrant entrepreneurship with its national- level migra-
tion p olicies, but also loc al- level implementation of suppor t policies in forms of informatio n disseminatio n and
accessibilit y for the migra nt populati on, has been s ufficiently considered in the contextual approaches so f ar.
Research p oint out that different rea sons can inhi bit migrant en trepreneur to access instituti onal support , such
as the lack of trust in inst itutions partic ularly found in E astern European mi grants, but also linguistic barri ers for
the access (cf. Lassal le & McElwee, 2016). The latter prom inent role of linguistic accessi bility, which has also been
identified as key for the fu nctioning of migrant- led di versity (Vertovec, 20 07), is evidently an issue to fu rther look
into in case of Japan .
Moreover, although different analy tical levels h ave been discus sed in mixed- embeddedness, research on
the int errelations of these l evels and those that might be crossing borders are still sc arce (Rath, 2002; Rath &
Swagerman, 2016). T hird, there is also a tendency in migrant ent repreneurship to focus on Nor th American a nd
European contexts, opening further avenues of research to reconsider elements of the entrepreneurial contexts
that might be accou nted for in other world regions , such as Asia.
Taking these issues together, t his paper addr esses the lac k in the int egration of migr ation policies as part of
the mixed- embeddedness of migrant entrepreneurship and concretizes the contextual approach regarding the
relations bet ween such migration policy a nd its implementation at di fferent levels of policies aim ed at supporting
migrant entr epreneurship. Bri nging a novel empiri cal case of recent ly introduced st art- up scheme s in Japan, this
paper aims at answering the research question on: what are the implications of the political- institutional embed-
dedness for migrant entrepr eneurs in terms of the novel context of the national migration policy in Japan, and how
are the interrelations among the different levels of policies, where possible entrepreneurial ventures of migrants
are embedded?
The theoretic al contributions of this paper are three fold. First, building on the mixed - embeddedne ss perspec-
tive, it brings nationa l- level migration policies i nto the political- inst itutional context of migrant entrepr eneurship.
It p oints at Japanese government's novel pol icy approa ches to foster migrant entr epreneurship as one of th e
recently diversified chan nels of intern ational migratio n. This pape r calls for a theoretica l reconsideratio n of the
contextual ap proach to migrant entrepr eneurship which goes beyo nd the analysis of institut ional environment of
entrepreneurship itself and extends to migration- related policies. S econd, by discussing not only the macro- level
policies on internat ional migration, but also the regiona l and metropolitan levels of policies t argeted at supporting
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