(Becoming) Strong Women in Sweden : Japanese Female Immigrants in the Greater Stockholm Area

Sammanfattning: This thesis investigates how the Japanese women who were born and grew up in Japan experienced their migration to Sweden. Three things are examined. The first regards the Japanese female immigrants’ (re)interpretation and practice of gender. Differences in policies and social systems of Sweden and Japan to pursue a gender-equal society are illustrated through contextualization of social and historical backgrounds of the past few decades and informants’ lived experiences. The second regards their (re)construction and performance of ethnicity. Various meanings and experiences of Japanese cultural space were highlighted in transcultural settings of Swedish society and (re)constructed Japanese ethnicity in Sweden. Having these perspectives as components, thirdly, their multiple, complex and flexible ways of being and sense of belonging(s) are scrutinized by employing translocational positionality framework. This analytical framework permeates all chapters of this thesis and discusses how Japanese female immigrants multiply constructed and flexibly shifted their ways of being and sense of belonging(s) in addition to their positionality in Swedish social stratification depending on situations and contexts they were exposed to. This thesis is an attempt to contribute to burgeoning ethnographic studies on gender and migration by revealing female immigrants’ construction of corrective identities in their contry of settlement.