International population mobility and linguistic capital formation: Comparative evidence on transnational migration decisions in China and Japan
East Asia faces divergent demographic challenges: Japan confronts acute population aging with an old-age dependency ratio exceeding 50%, while China experiences accelerating labor force contraction. International population mobility serves as a key mechanism for cross-border demographic redistribution. Pre-migration linguistic capital formation, shaped through differentiated language education, influences the selectivity and composition of bilateral flows. This study provides a carefully executed descriptive, pathway-based comparison of how distinct migration pathways are associated with divergent patterns of migrant selectivity, demographic composition, and settlement outcomes between China and Japan. Integrating bilateral migration statistics (2019–2025) and qualitative narratives, the research analyzes two pathways: education-led migration (academic track) and Japan’s Specified Skilled Worker program (vocational track). These pathways generate systematically differentiated populations. Academic-track migrants are younger (mean age 19.8), predominantly female (55.2%), and exhibit a high propensity to settle (68.4% five-year retention). Vocational-track migrants are older (mean age 26.8), predominantly male (71.8%), and display circular migration patterns (48.7% return within three years). Linguistic capital accumulated pre-migration functions as an institutional gatekeeping mechanism contributing to these demographic differences. Through this interpretive framework, the study illustrates how migration pathway design shapes the demographic and settlement trajectories of international migrants, highlighting the importance of institutionally embedded linguistic capital formation for demographic sustainability in aging East Asian societies.
Adger, W. N., Fransen, S., Safra de Campos, R., & Clark, W. C. (2024). Migration and sustainable development. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 121(3), e2206193121. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2206193121
Bai, Q., Nam, B. H., & English, A. S. (2024). Acculturation and linguistic ideology in the context of global student mobility: A cross-cultural ethnography of anglophone international students in China. Educational Review, 76(6), 1620-1647. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131911.2023.2285253
Barnett, G. A., & Nam, Y. (2024). A network analysis of international migration: Longitudinal trends and antecedent factors predicting migration. Global Networks, 24(2), e12455. https://doi.org/10.1111/glob.12455
Bello, V. (2023). Introduction—The Spiralling of the Securitisation of Migration in the EU: From the Management of a ‘Crisis’ to a Governance of Human Mobility? In The Spiralling of the Securitisation of Migration in the European Union (pp. 1-18). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003366782-1
Bilecen, B. (2024). Linguistic capital and social inequalities: Experiences of international Chinese students in Germany. Population, Space and Place, 30(1), e2725. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2725
Bourdieu, P. (2011). The forms of capital. In Handbook of Theory and Research for the Sociology of Education (1986) (pp. 241- 258). New York: Greenwood.
Foreman-Peck, J., & Zhou, P. (2025). Migration and the National Economy. In Applied Economics in Globalised Economies: Problems and Policies (pp. 305-329). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-85621-1_11
Hayashi, R. (2026). Migration: The Most Effective Population Policy? In Demographic Change and Policy Responses: The Case of Japan (pp. 45-67). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0460-6_3
Higuchi, N. (2025). Migration Ethics in East Asia. In Handbook of Migration Ethics (pp. 33-48). Springer Science and Business Media LLC. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-89877-8_3
Immigration Services Agency of Japan. (2024). Statistics on foreign residents. Ministry of Justice. Available from: https://www. moj.go.jp/isa/policies/statistics/toukei_ichiran_touroku. html [Last accessed on March 11, 2026].
Karki, S. (2025). Nepali Students In Japanese Language Schools: Investigating Motivations And Experiences Of Educational Mobility. Journal of International and Comparative Education (JICE), 63-76. https://doi.org/10.14425/jice.2025.14.2.0913
Kim, B. C., Ll, L., Do, N. H., & Lee, S. H. (2025). Declining fertility rates and stratified reproduction among women in East Asia: what can we learn from the cases of China, Japan and South Korea? Journal of Asian Public Policy, 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1080/17516234.2025.2600310
Kraly, E. P., Menjívar, C., & E. Reed, H. (2024). International migration review at 60: Evolving and emerging models of international migration research. International Migration Review, 58(4), 1619-1644. https://doi.org/10.1177/01979183241274751
Li, W., Lo, L., & Lu, Y. (2024). Introduction: The intellectual migration analytics. In Intellectual Migration (pp. 1-21). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003532934-1
Li, W., Lo, L., Lu, Y., Tan, Y., & Lu, Z. (2023). Intellectual migration: considering China. In New Theoretical Dialogues on Migration in China (pp. 149-169). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003364054-9
Lim, L. (2024). Defining migrants: Invisibilities, im/mobilities, integration. AILA Review, 37(1), 10-34. https://doi.org/10.1075/aila.24007.lim
Liu-Farrer, G. (2023). The logics of staying for highly skilled Asian migrants in Japan. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 32(1), 105-128. https://doi.org/10.1177/01171968231168137
López Blanco, J. D. (2025). Do languages open doors? A theoretical model of linguistic capital and (im) mobility and its application in Spanish youth migration. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 51(3), 565-582. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2024.2359676
Maniglio, F. (2023). Migration in knowledge aging societies. Differentiating labor force and discriminating people. Critique, 51(1), 37-49. https://doi.org/10.1080/03017605.2023.2238447
Massey, D. S. (2023). The shape of things to come: international migration in the twenty-first century. In Migration and integration in a post-pandemic world: Socioeconomic opportunities and challenges (pp. 29-81). Cham: Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-19153-4_2
Minbaeva, D., Narula, R., Phene, A., & Fitzsimmons, S. (2025). Beyond global mobility: how human capital shapes the MNE in the 21st century. Journal of International Business Studies, 56(2), 136-150. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-024-00755-x
Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. (2024). Statistical report on Chinese students studying abroad. Available from: http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/gzdt_ gzdt/s5987/ [Last accessed on March 11, 2026].
Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. (2025). Summary of the Notification Status of Foreign Employment as of the End of October 2024. Available from: https://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/ newpage_50256.html [Last accessed on March 11, 2026].
Ministry of Justice, Immigration Services Agency of Japan. (2024). Statistics on foreign residents in Japan. [Last accessed on March 11, 2026]. https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/policies/ statistics/
Mohsin, L. (2025). Uncharted Frontiers: Migration, Diasporas, and Security in East Asia. In Handbook of Migration, International Relations and Security in Asia (pp. 1-19). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-8001-7_20-1
Ortiga, Y. Y. (2023). Student mobility, employability, and unlikely education destinations in Asia. In International Handbook on Education Development in the Asia-Pacific (pp. 907-921). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2327-1_65-1
Ovchinnikova, E., Mol, C. V., & Jones, E. (2023). The role of language proximity in shaping international student mobility flows. Globalisation, Societies and Education, 21(4), 563-574. https://doi.org/10.1080/14767724.2022.2070132
Peltokorpi, V., & Xie, J. (2025). When little things make a big difference: A Bourdieusian perspective on skilled migrants’ linguistic, social, and economic capital in multinational corporations. Journal of International Business Studies, 56(2), 203-229. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41267-023-00598-y
Shakuto, S. (2025). From aspiration to crisis management: rethinking education migration with Japanese migrants in Southeast Asia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1-18. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2025.2594863
Shi, T. (2024). Translocating trajectories, transnational mobilities: The cross-border migration and livelihoods of hmong in the tri-state area between China, Vietnam, and Laos. China Perspectives, (138), 21-31. https://doi.org/10.4000/12fwf
Sprenger, E. (2024). What makes us move, what makes us stay: the role of language and culture in intra-EU mobility. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 25(4), 1825-1855. https://doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.3953129
Tan, Y., Li, W., & Tsuda, T. (2023). Cross-border im/mobility of skilled migrants from the US to China: a capital-mobility framework. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 49(13), 3327-3347. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2022.2075839
Tan, Y., Lo, L., Li, W., & Pang, G. (2024). Intellectual capital and student mobility. In Intellectual Migration (pp. 65-85). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003532934-4
Tsegay, S. M. (2023). International migration: Definition, causes and effects. Genealogy, 7(3), 61. https://doi.org/10.3390/genealogy7030061
Turnbull, C. (2026). Migration literacy and commercial intermediaries: the debt financed labour migrations of Chinese working-class tradesmen in boomtime Australia. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183x.2026.2630306
Wong, L. L., & Guo, S. (2023). Brain drain, brain gain and brain circulation: emerging trends and patterns of Chinese transnational talent mobility. Journal of Chinese Overseas, 19(1), 1-33. https://doi.org/10.1163/17932548-12341477
Xu, W. (2024). International students’ linguistic entrepreneurship: motivation,‘Chinese fever’and the neoliberal burden. Research Papers in Education, 39(6), 918-935. https://doi.org/10.1080/02671522.2023.2248613
Xu, W., Stahl, G., & Cheng, H. (2023). The promise of Chinese: African international students and linguistic capital in Chinese higher education. Language and Education, 37(4), 516-528. https://doi.org/10.1080/09500782.2022.2074797
Yang, W. (2025). From “disposable labour” to “desirable citizen”: Chinese migrant worker-turned-marriage migrants negotiating citizenship pathways in Singapore. In Migration and Citizenship pathways in/beyond Asia (pp. 141-158). Informa UK Limited. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003662471-9
Yu, W., & Xu, W. (2024). Language ideologies and linguistic entrepreneurship in inter-Asian mobility: Voices from international students at Chinese universities. Current Issues in Language Planning, 25(2), 193-211. https://doi.org/10.1080/14664208.2023.2240483
Zhang, Q., & Wang, X. (2024). The globalization-migration nexus across China’s internal and international human movements. Handbook of Migration and Globalisation, 215-233. https://doi.org/10.4337/9781800887657.00023
Zhao, X., Akbaritabar, A., Kashyap, R., & Zagheni, E. (2023). A gender perspective on the global migration of scholars. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 120(10), e2214664120. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2214664120