Localizing Global Talents: Career Guidance as Cultural Learning and Embedded School-work Migration Pathway in Japan

• In Event: 2384 - Section on International Migration Refereed Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable 60min: Table 05. Drivers and Dynamics of Migration

Abstract

International student mobility has increased in popularity as an entry point of highly-skilled migration. Governments invest in enhancing the school-to-work pathway for qualified international students as an effective way to acquire high-skilled knowledge workers. When students leave an academic field and enter another, they need to learn a set of new, field-specific protocols and cultural sensibilities. Based on ethnographic observations of fifteen career guidance seminars for international college students in Japan, this study argues that the school-to-work migration pathway is deeply embedded in the local employment practices. Career guidance events offer opportunities to learn cultural protocols of the local employment system in addition to providing job-related information and training in practical tactics.

Author

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