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“Japanese” in Brazil and foreign in Japan, dekassegui creates a game of identities to face embarrassing situations
looks but isn't
Dekassegui means “working outside the home”. In Japan, it referred to workers who temporarily left their regions for more developed regions in the country, because winter interrupted production in the field and prevented their livelihood. The Japanese were also dekaseguis who, at the beginning of the 20th century, crossed the seas and ended up forming colonies in lands that were only supposed to be temporary tropical stops, until they saved money to return to the path of the rising sun.
The recent and intense migration of Japanese descendants (the Nikkei) to Japan, which began in the mid-80s, has been called the Dekassegui Phenomenon. Following the opposite path of their ancestors, they are attracted by much higher salaries compared to Brazil, despite being recruited as cheap and unskilled labor. Contemporary dekasseguis serve activities included in the five 'K' – Kitanai (dirty), Kiken (dangerous) and Kitsui (burdensome), Kibishii (demanding) and Kirai (detestable).
Elisa Massae Sasaki, in her master's thesis published by the Center for Population Studies (Nepo) at Unicamp, addresses the new saga of the Nikkei towards what they could consider their homeland (country of origin). The work is rich in numbers and information about the migrant population, salaries, currency remittances to Brazil, social networks created to support workers, in addition to bringing testimonials from dekasseguis. All this to contextualize the researcher's main theme: the game of identities that the Nikkei – with slit eyes, yellow skin and even blood, but born outside of Japan – uses to survive within a society that discriminates against them as foreigners, like that that “it seems, but it is not”.
Failed – Just over 15 years ago, the first news emerged about Japanese people living here who went to work in Japan, forced by the Brazilian crisis. Still children or very young when they arrived, the Issei gentlemen (first generation) returned to their homeland after decades. They were then frowned upon by the colony in Brazil, because subjecting themselves to menial work meant being a failure, hurting the pride of the Japanese who immigrated here at the beginning of the 20th century. Despite the ease of entry into Japan, these Issei felt like foreigners there, treated as a necessary evil.
Over the following years, as migration gained volume, the term dekassegui would lose its pejorative tone. As the natives refused to perform the service of the five 'K', the Japanese government was faced with the invasion of workers from the neighborhood – Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Taiwan, Thailand – and generally clandestinely. The peak period of the phenomenon was caused by the Reform of Japan's Immigration and Control Law (enacted in 1990), indicating a clear preference for Nikkei from South America. Japanese descent, in the judgment of the rulers, would ensure cultural affinity and ease of adaptation to Japanese society.
“Within the colony in Brazil, what was shameful became a good opportunity to get to know the land of our ancestors, in addition to ensuring a better salary. Another important factor is that, in the mid-90s, entire families of dekasseguis traveled”, informs Elisa Sasaki. She recalls that, at the beginning of the flow, the profile of the Japanese-Brazilian migrant was individual, male, first or second generation (Isei or Nisei) and, therefore, with dual nationality. The first adventurers were also older, generally knew how to speak Japanese and had temporary intentions, that is, to save money and return to Brazil to ensure or achieve a better standard of living in less time.
Social Media – The massification of the flow occurred at the pace of the formation of social networks in Japan and Brazil: a support, infrastructure and information apparatus that offers security to those in foreign lands. “Social networks are understood as a set of interpersonal ties that link migrants and non-migrants, through ties of kinship, friendship and the community of origin”, explains Elisa. Add intermediary agents as actors in the networks – labor recruiters, tourism agencies, information and guidance centers for workers – and anyone who does not find prospects in a country in crisis will feel strongly tempted to take risks in exterior.
Following the data she managed to collect at the time of her dissertation, the researcher estimated the population of dekasseguis at 220 thousand in 1997, noting that after the “great flight” that occurred in the period 1989/90, with the Japanese economic boom, the number grew a lot little in subsequent years. Elisa credits much of this population stability to the promulgation of the “re-entry visa”, which allowed the dekasseguis to constantly come and go between Brazil and Japan, in other words: the possibility of coming for a period of visits and rest, returning many times for the same job. According to her, these workers can be included in the category of “transnationals” (long-distance migrants).
Closet – Even though official Japanese bodies offer legal support to Nikkei and the term dekassegui has lost its connotation of temporality given the increasingly longer period of stay in Japan, prejudice still haunts migrants. “In this background, what we call identity negotiation takes place. The dekassegui holds several identity elements that are activated according to the situations experienced throughout their migratory experience”, writes Elisa Sasaki.
She adds that, in the interviews she conducted with some of these workers, reports were common that “in Brazil they felt Japanese and, in Japan, Brazilian”. It is not easy to deal with Brazilianness (everything that was assimilated from our culture) and Japaneseness (inherited from parents and grandparents), even though we are here. In Japan, dekassegui resorts to a “caricaturization” of situations, playing with differences, contrasts and multiplicities of Japanese, thus tracing its irreducible “brand”.
Elisa Sasaki tries to explain this identity negotiation better: “Let's refer to 'clothes' as a value or cultural baggage. For the trip, you choose some clothes, not taking all your belongings. There, your wardrobe will have clothes from your country of origin as well as those purchased in the host country. In other words, in addition to not taking all your belongings with you, you also acquire new elements of the migratory experience. Then you will choose an outfit for each occasion.”
Perhaps as a result of this experience, many dekassegi are unable to readjust to Brazil and return to Japan shortly afterwards. Some of it is true because they find themselves in financial difficulties again – lack of employment, low salary, insufficient savings –, but many simply by choice.
In her work, Elisa Sasaki reproduces advertisements published in newspapers aimed at Brazilian migrants in Japan, looking for relatives who stopped sending news. According to the researcher, these cases are so frequent that we can now speak of an “anonymous society” of Brazilian dekasseguis, because being in Japan, if they want, they can easily 'disappear off the map'.
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