Infrastructural casualties: educational intermediaries and casualization of Nepali student workforce in Japan

Abstract

ABSTRACT This article explores the mutual restructuring of migration infrastructure and international student mobility in contemporary Japan. Through ethnography in an emergent Nepali migrant community, specifically, the experience of student-workers, the essay elucidates the joint effect of migrant labor subordination and casualization of student workforce. Using the case of former and current Nepali students enrolled in Japanese language schools (nihongo gakko) and vocational colleges (senmon gakko) and employed as part-time workers, the essay zooms into the role of educational intermediaries in reproducing and restructuring migration infrastructure in Japan. It shows how foreign student recruitment from low-income countries like Nepal is self-disciplined to enter low-wage labor shortage sectors through Japanese language socialization, legalization experience, and discourse surrounding educational aspirations.