Economic Mercenaries in Training: International Student Mobility, Nation-Building, and the Global 30 Project in Japan

• In Event: 469 - Section on International Migration Roundtables (one-hour)
  In Refereed Roundtable: Table 16. Migration, Development, and Nation Building

Abstract

In recent years, international students have become a growing and welcomed segment of international migrants. In recent years, Japan has been making efforts to attract international students in hopes that they will enhance the country’s prosperity in an increasingly competitive global market. The country aims to increase the number of international students to 300,000 by 2020, and has launched the English-language focused and elitist Global 30 Project to help achieving this goal. This paper examines Japan’s recent history of international student policies to argue that the internationalization of domestic institutions at once can be a nation-building project.

Author

• Ryoko Yamamoto, State University of New York-Old Westbury