Living Transnationally between Japan and Brazil

Based on over two years of participant-observation in labor brokerage firms, factories, schools, churches, and people’s homes in Japan and Brazil, Sarah LeBaron von Baeyer presents an ethnographic portrait of what it means in practice to “live transnationally,” that is, to contend with the social, institutional, and aspirational landscapes bridging different national settings. Rather than view Japanese-Brazilian labor migrants and their families as somehow lost or caught between cultures, she demonstrates how they in fact find creative and flexible ways of belonging to multiple places at once. At the same time, the author pays close attention to the various constraints and possibilities that people face as they navigate other dimensions of their lives besides ethnic or national identity, namely, family, gender, class, age, work, education, and religion

Living Transnationally between Japan and Brazil: Routes Beyond Roots makes an important contribution to the study of ethnicity and diaspora by interpreting ‘transnational living’ as a series of processes that create attachments across multiple borders—national, personal, and cultural. Sarah LeBaron von Baeyer’s fieldwork in Japan and Brazil demonstrates an insightful ethnographic lens. Her focus on three families and her astute analysis of identity expressions in foodways, dress, and leisure activities illustrates shifting identities among Japanese-Brazilians. This study teaches readers that living transnationally means many things at the same time and thus rejects essentialist claims about migrants and their lives.

Sarah LeBaron von Baeyer is lecturer in anthropology and East Asian studies at Yale University.