Determinants of Future Course of Chinese Studens Focusing on Students of “Returnee from China” in Osaka

• Published in: Kyōiku shakaigaku kenkyū Vol. 80; pp. 331 - 349
• Main Author: KAJI, Itaru
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese; English
• Published: THE JAPAN SOCIETY OF EDUCATIONAL SOCIOLOGY 31.05.2007
• ISSN: 0387-3145; 2185-0186
• DOI: 10.11151/eds.80.331

In the period from 1975 to 2004, Japan accepted more than 152,000 new immigrant children under the age of 14 years, but there are no surveys or censuses on their academic achievements. This paper examines how “age or grade at the time of immigration” affected the academic achievements of 147 Chinese children who lived in a school district in Osaka as junior high school students. Using cross tabulation, the author finds that the percentage of high-school enrolment in the 1.5 generation (i. e. those who came to Japan as elementary schoolchildren) was much higher than that of the 1.25 generation (i. e. those who came to Japan as junior high school students) and even higher than that of 1.75 generation (i. e. those who came to Japan before the age of 6). In another cross tabulation, the author finds that high school students whose father was not a peasant in China were more likely to receive higher education than other high school students. The author then analyzes the determinants of years of education employing regressive analysis and finds that “Grade at the time of immigration” and “father’s job in China” both have a consistent effect on years of education, such that years of education was highest when the child came to Japan as a third or fourth grader in elementary school. It is surprising to see that many members of the 1.75 and 2.0 generation quit school before entering high school. This indicates that the Chinese community (including their parents) are losing control over these children, who no longer speak fluent Chinese at home and school. As soon as the 1990s began, Japan experienced a large flow of immigrant, which lasted throughout the decade, and now most of the newcomer immigrant children in junior high school are members of the 1.75 generation, and soon will be replaced by the 2.0 generation. This paper, focusing on the difficulties faced by 1.75 or 2.0 generation immigrant children in surviving in school beyond the junior high level, acts as a warning that there will be many dropouts among Japanese monolingual immigrant children in the near future if no support or control is provided.