Uneven Integration: Local Government Integration Policies and Filipino Residents in Nagoya City, Japan

Abstract

The failure at the national level to address foreign resident integration has highlighted the need for local governments to implement policies and provide social services to foreign residents to promote multicultural co-existence. How such policies impact the integration of foreign residents given the specific context by which they migrated and settled is what this article seeks to investigate. Indices measuring integration policies tend to assess only what policies are intended to measure, leaving out unintended outcomes that can help better understand policy impact. This study is based on a mixed-methods study of Filipino residents in Nagoya City. Using a multidimensional approach to understand the extent of integration, I found that the Filipino residents are experiencing an uneven integration, brought about by a conflation of the approach of the local government to integration that prioritizes structural integration and the specific context of the Filipino residents in Japan.