Introduction

Summary

How do we explain divergent patterns of immigrant incorporation in Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan given the similarities between each country’s immigration and citizenship policies, their overlapping immigrant populations largely from neighboring Asian countries, and their common dilemmas of accommodating social diversity while adhering to liberal democratic principles? This book explores how the civic legacies of past struggles for democratic inclusion shape current patterns of immigrant incorporation. Comparing three similarly situated countries in Northeast Asia, I examine three levels of variation: (1) cross-regional differences between immigration and citizenship regimes in East Asia and those in Western industrial democracies; (2) cross-national variations between three countries with descent-based citizenship policies that are conventionally characterized as exclusionary in their policies toward immigrants; and (3) intra-national variations between immigration and citizenship policies and practices among different migrant subcategories.