Reconsidering Migration Management from a Socio-Legal Perspective

As globalisation proceeds deeply, issues of inequality are addressed more sharply in the world. Especially, it is suspected that immigration inherently generate and expand inequality concerning immigrants. Indeed, in most cases, immigrants cannot help being engaged in so-called 3D works (Dirty, Dangerous and Demeaning works) in the host society. How can one resolve and/or alleviate inequality of immigrants in the host society? One idea has been already submitted, that is migration management. According to migration management advocates, if the state replaced migration control with migration management, immigrants could escape from the trap of inequality, because migration management can create a 'triple-win' situation among the sending country, the receiving country, and migrants. However, two research questions at least should be addressed here. First, can migration management really ensure benefits for all of these three actors, in particular for immigrants? Second, how can migration control be shifted to migration management? With mentioning some cases including care workers based on the Economic Partnership Agreement to Japan, this paper explores effectiveness of migration management in terms of tackling the inequality issue of immigrants moving across borders.