Gracia Liu-Farrer

Visiting Toronto Metropolitan University

Fall 2025

Research focus while a CERC Scholar - Visualizing multiculturalism and cities

Gracia has recently been exploring the making of transnational labor markets between Indonesia and several major receiving regions of Indonesian workers. While at CERC Migration, she will conduct data analysis to understand how the intersection of ethnicity, religion, gender and class create historical patterns of regional inequality in Indonesia, and such inequality has shaped regional patterns of migration and sustained and reproduced by intermediaries. Having mostly studied migration in Asia, while at CERC Migration, Gracia hopes to gain broader understanding on transnational labor mobility and skill construction processes through exchanges and collaboration with researchers investigating migration in other world regions.

Career Achievements

Gracia Liu-Farrer is a Professor of Sociology at the Graduate School of Asia-Pacific Studies and the Director of the Institute of Asian Migration at Waseda University, Japan. Her research has investigated post-war immigration to Japan and the country’s transition into an immigrant society. She examines migration patterns, the economic activities of immigrants, their social integration, and their sense of belonging and identity in Japan. Another aspect of her work looks at the mobility of educational and labor migrants within and beyond Asia. She studies the actors and processes involved in shaping transnational labor markets as well as in assessing, utilizing and developing migrants skills in cross-border labor contexts. She has participated in various Japan- and EU-funded projects on education and labor migration and mobilities. Her publications, including books, book chapters, and journal articles, have brought Asian perspectives into discussions on international migration.

Relevant Publications

Liu-Farrer, G. (2025). Social construction of skill in international migration: Perspectives from Asia. Annual Review of Sociology, 51. (forthcoming)

Liu-Farrer, G., Pearlman, W., & Al-Masri, M. (2024). Neoliberal humanitarianism: Contradictory policy logics and Syrian refugee experiences in Japan. Migration Studies. https://doi.org/10.1093/migration/mnae007 (external link) 

Liu-Farrer, G., Green, A. E., Ozgen, C., & Cole, M. A. (2023). Immigration and labor shortages: Learning from Japan and the United Kingdom. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 32(2), 336–361.

Liu-Farrer, G. (2023). The logics of staying for highly skilled Asian migrants in Japan. Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, 32(1), 105–128.

Liu-Farrer, G., & Shire, K. (2021). Who are the fittest? The question of skills in national employment systems in an age of global labour mobility. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 47(10), 2305–2322. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1731987

Liu-Farrer, G., Yeoh, B. S., & Baas, M. (2021). Social construction of skill: An analytical approach toward the question of skill in cross-border labour mobilities. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2020.1731983 (external link) 

Liu-Farrer, G. (2020). Immigrant Japan: Mobility and belonging in an ethno-nationalist society. Cornell University Press. ISBN: 9781501748622

Liu-Farrer, G. & Tran, A.H. (2019). “Bridging the Institutional Gaps: International Education as a Migration Industry,” International Migration. Volume57, Issue3, 235-249, doi: 10.1111/imig.12543

Liu-Farrer, G., & Yeoh, B. S. A. (Eds.). (2018). Routledge Handbook of Asian migrations. Routledge.

Liu-Farrer, G. (2011) Labor Migration from China to Japan: International Students, Transnational Migrants. London: Routledge.