Negotiating one’s own belonging: envisaging the Japanese (Im)migratory stratification through immigrant-origin youths’ narratives

This article contributes to delineating the concept of migratory stratification, newly introduced in this Special Issue, by exploring the Japanese immigration experience. Despite receiving little attention from the academic community, the long-standing immigration to Japan offers a crucial perspective for understanding the evolution of immigration and its resulting strata. Drawing on a thematic analysis of sixty-one semi-structured interviews conducted with Brazilian, Korean, and Chinese-origin youths residing in Japan, this study aims to reveal patterns of intergenerational incorporation experiences, emerging from narratives about self-identity negotiations and the legitimacy of one’s sense of belonging.