Liberal Reform of Guest Worker Programs: Challenges to Labor Mobility Governance

I investigate the design and implementation of Japan's Specified Skilled Worker (SSW) program in the context of a growing global trend toward liberalization of guest worker programs. The SSW is built upon the guest worker program — the Technical Intern Training Program (TITP). TITP workers may transition to the SSW, thereby obtaining the freedom to change employers and other rights. I compare the structure of labor mobility governance in the TITP and the SSW. The TITP is rooted in the privatization of mobility control, in which the state delegates mobility governance to private brokerage agencies. In the SSW, the state reverses the privatization of mobility governance by withdrawing the regulatory power from brokerage agencies and transferring the power to administrative ministries. By drawing on data collected over 14 months in Japan, I show how the freedom to change employers is difficult to obtain on the ground. The shift of mobility governance from brokers to the state could not eliminate control held by brokers who withhold required documents for employer changes. Ministries erect barriers to balance labor supply among industries that have impeded workers’ employer changes across industries (such as from agriculture to the food industry). Moreover, workers’ precarity persists due to inadequate legal protections and regulations on brokers. The discrepancies between policy intentions and implementation outcomes demonstrate three major challenges to liberalizing guest worker programs: lifting structural constraints on labor mobility built into guest worker programs, handling inherent conflicts between permitting employer change and meeting labor demand in noncompetitive sectors, and regulating brokers and employers for labor protection.