Rewriting the Meaning of Silence: Latin American Migrant Workers from Kanagawa City Union
Rewriting the Meaning of Silence: Latin American Migrant Workers from Kanagawa City Union
This chapter discusses how migrant workers of Kanagawa City Union (KCU), who are largely from Latin American countries, participated in the annual negotiation meeting with government representatives and the union's well-known activity called ‘Day Long Action’. Japanese is predominantly used in these events, with little effort to translate for non-Japanese-speaking participants. While the previous chapter looks at an instance where migrant protesters challenge the gap between their visibility and audibility, this chapter shows that they strategically use such a gap for their own benefit. For some migrants, being unable to understand Japanese is not a hindrance but a convenient pretext to follow what they are ordered to do. In this regard, silence gives them an opportunity to perform their loyalty to the trade unions they belong to. Demonstration of such loyalty is a key strategy for KCU migrant members because it is Japanese unionists who ultimately handle migrants' labour disputes.
Keywords: migrant workers, Kanagawa City Union, Latin American migrant workers, Japanese language, migrant protesters, silence, trade unions, Japanese unionists, labour disputes
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