New Policies for New Residents

Many countries have experienced both increased immigration and a devolution of governance to the local level. Deborah J. Milly looks at new policies to promote the social inclusion of recently arrived residents in Japan, comparing this experience to developments in South Korea, Spain, and Italy.

Deborah J. Milly is Associate Professor of Political Science at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University. She is the author of Poverty, Equality, and Growth: The Politics of Economic Need in Postwar Japan, winner of the Masayoshi Ohira Memorial Prize.

Deborah Milly has written an outstanding book that makes for essential reading in a year when the migration of refugees and other displaced peoples has threatened the viability of the European Union more than any other crisis in the nearly 60 years since the European Economic Community was established.... Milly's book will be of great interest to anybody in academia, the policy world, or society at large interested in how immigrant policies are shaped by multilevel politics and the effects of devolution and civil society.

Betsy Brody:

Deborah J.Milly's New Policies for New Residents: Immigrants, Advocacy, and Governance in Japan and Beyond is an important contribution to the literature on immigrant integration, providing a new framework for considering the interplay between civil society groups and different levels of government in responding to the challenges created by the reality of immigrant communities. The implications of this research are interesting for immigrants, immigrant advocacy groups and local governments in immigrant-receiving communities, suggesting that there are ways to use the tools of democracy at both the national and local level to promote inclusion of immigrants in local decision making.

Reinhard Drifte:

[This] analysis of immigration and immigrant policies in Japan throws an interesting light on the interaction between national government, local authorities and civil society, and explains why national policy changes—and not just in these policy fields—have only been effected at margins.

Gregory Kasza, Indiana University, author of One World of Welfare: Japan in Comparative Perspective:

In New Policies for New Residents, Deborah J. Milly examines the complex interactions and networks that take shape among local and national interest groups, elected officials, bureaucrats, and, in some cases, international policymakers. The sophistication of her treatment is remarkable. I felt I came away from this book with a real understanding of how policies are made.

Anthony M. Messina, John R. Reitemeyer Professor of Political Science, Trinity College, author of The Logics and Politics of Post-WWII Migration to Western Europe:

New Policies for New Residents is ambitious and smart. Deborah J. Milly embeds her subject capably in several major scholarly literatures and scrutinizes her implicit hypotheses thoroughly.