Nyberg-Sorensen, N et al. (2002) describe the increasing interconnectedness of migration and development with the term The Migration-Development Nexus. Migration is now specifically mentioned in the SDGs. In Japanese society, the Corona disaster has prompted organizations that have been involved in international development, such as JICA and NGOs, to provide new support to migrants living in Japan.

In Japan, however, migration and development studies have developed separately, and the link between the two has been weak. Therefore, we have established this study group as a platform for migration researchers and development researchers to gather and discuss. As a theme that can be approached from both migration and development studies, the study group will focus on the Technical Internship Training Program (TITP). The purpose of TITP has been to “transfer skills, technology, or knowledge to developing countries”. However, immigration studies have criticized the program as a means of temporary savings for those who come to Japan from developing countries, and as a means for Japanese companies to supplement their labor force. In addition, the Japanese government is trying to launch a new human resource development system to replace TITP, but it is unclear what “skills” have been transferred to developing countries under TITP yet. The approaches from development studies are also needed.

It is expected that this study group will generate new perspectives and analytical frameworks on migration and development that have not appeared in either migration research or development research alone. It also aims to make concrete policy recommendations by the final year of the project.

The research group aims to analyze the impacts of migration on the economic and human development in their home countries and destinations. Migration, both within and beyond national borders, is a broad concept that encompasses refugees or internally displaced persons of conflicts and natural disasters as well as those who move to seek opportunities of employment, education, or marriage at their own will.

The impacts of migration have been discussed mostly in terms of economic development, particularly its contribution to poverty alleviation through the migrants’ foreign remittance to their home countries. However, the on-going discussion is not sufficient to analyze both the negative and the positive aspects of the migration.

Its negative impacts may include the so-called brain drain, the excessive dependency of households and national economies on the foreign remittance, the disintegration of families, and the underdevelopment of local industries in their home countries. In the present era of global migration, it is no longer realistic or feasible to “develop a community to prevent its members from migration.”

This research group instead starts with accepting migration as an inevitable reality and attempts to seek the potential of migration that contribute to the development of people and societies both in their home countries and destinations.