Paper short abstract:

This paper traces shifting experiences of transnational migration between Brazil and Japan over the last twenty years. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in both countries, I aim to analyze concepts of settlement, return, and circular migration as experienced by different generations of a single Japanese-Brazilian family.

Paper long abstract:

Two decades have passed since Japan first turned to people of Japanese descent (Nikkei) as a source of foreign labor. As the number of Nikkei migrants—most of them Brazilian—continued to increase, many of them brought or started families in Japan, raising their children partially or primarily outside Brazil. While some Japanese-Brazilians still speak of returning to Brazil, others seek to settle in Japan, viewing themselves not as temporary workers but as long-term members of Japanese society. Still others continue to engage in circular migration between the two countries. Against this backdrop of the last twenty years, my paper seeks to examine how notions of family and "keeping the family together" directly affect different generations' experiences of return, settlement, and circular migration between Brazil and Japan.