Japanese Women Migrants in Australia: Situating the Self between Ethnicity and Femininity

Abstract

Based on fieldwork in Sydney, Australia, this paper discusses the ways in which Japanese women marriage migrants remold their gender identity in the process of settlement. Among recent Japanese migrants to Australia, women migrants, i.e., those who migrated to Australia on account of their marriage to an Australian resident or citizen, constitute the largest number. Their settlement experience suggests navigating relationships and interactions with the local ethnic Japanese community, their cross-cultural family, and the host community. In the process, they situate themselves in daily life through their gendered identity, which assumes as important a role as ethnicity. The maternal role is central in defining their identity in Australia, although for some, this essentialized identity creates ambivalence about the self in the host society.