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Project summary
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While certain forms of transnational mobility are highly regarded, access to such experiences and the chances to turn this physical mobility into upward social mobility are unequally distributed. This is true even within a nation considered to be developed and wealthy, such as Japan. Working Holiday Makers of post-‘bubble economy’ Japan are young people who come from a rapidly changing society characterised by a highly celebrated consumerism, the shift to a post-industrial economy and increasing anxiety for future stability, both at the national and individual levels. Through exploring stories of mobile young people from Japan and their hopes and aspirations, there emerges a complex web of factors that influence their sense of self and their life options for an ever more uncertain future. This thesis is an attempt to understand what role transnational mobility plays in the exercise of individual agency, amid socio-economic constraints that are often invisible.
This project involves a year-long period of multi-sited fieldwork in both Japan and Australia, to delve into the world of Japanese Working Holiday Makers in Australia, tracing their movements between the two countries. Contrary to their popular image as carefree backpackers on holiday, particular attention is paid to their experiences as workers who cross the national border. I argue that, while they continue to consume socially desirable experiences such as cosmopolitanism, their lives as workers are marked by a lack of fulfilment, disadvantage, and even exploitation. Behind their drive to exercise agency through transnational mobility as “worker-consumers” is the individualistic discourse of self-actualisation, but this only functions to reinforce and legitimise the structural inequalities that contribute to their decision to partake in Working Holiday mobility in the first place. Such tension is discussed with consideration of the concept of social status and individual desire to be socially useful through labour.
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