Host Country Human Capital and Migrants’ Semi-Compliance: A Study of South and Southeast Asian Students in Japan

Research on host country human capital (HCHC) identified two kinds of effects it has on migrants: the facilitation of their integration into the host society and undocumented entry. This study seeks to reveal yet another effect of HCHC. Specifically, focusing on South and Southeast Asian students in Japan—the largest part-time laboring international student body in the country—it examines how their accumulation of HCHC may promote their semi-compliance (i.e., working in violation of employment restrictions while having legal residency). The analysis is primarily based on the results of semi-structured interviews with these students and found three ways in which an increase in their HCHC leads to their semi-compliance: (1) improvements in their host language abilities facilitate their breach of weekly working-hour restrictions by enabling them to secure multiple part-time jobs, (2) the development of part-time work skills helps them conceal this breach by eliciting employers/managers' cooperation, and (3) their expansion of knowledge of the host society's lifestyle can promote the informal entrepreneurship that serves non-citizens. The findings provide new insights into the role of HCHC in the context of the recent proliferation of the temporary and contingent legal status among major migrant-receiving states.