Kazue Takamura

Kazue Takamura is Faculty Lecturer at McGill’s Institute for the Study of International Development. She joined ISID in September 2014. Takamura’s research is centered on the precarious mobility of migrants from developing countries, with a particular focus on Asia. Her research engages especially with questions of rights, gender, migrant vulnerabilities, and surveillance regimes. As a 2012-14 FRQSC Postdoctoral Fellow at McGill’s School of Social Work, Takamura pursued research on Filipina migrant caregivers in Quebec and their distinct vulnerabilities that are inherent in Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program. In April 2017, She received an international research grant from the Toyota Foundation for a project entitled, “Ethnography of Immigration Detention and Migrant Advocacy in Japan and Canada.” Her research pays attention to the mechanism of migrant surveillance regimes, the plight of detained migrants and asylum-seekers, and the role of migrant advocacy groups. Takamura has co-authored an ISID Policy Brief with Erik Kuhonta entitled, “Human Rights of Non-Status Migrants in Japan” that is based on her fieldwork in 2017. Takamura is currently working on a journal article examining the distinct characteristics of Japan’s migrant surveillance regime. She has also an edited book project that unpacks the intersection between migrant vulnerabilities, neoliberal promotion of labor flexibility, and punitive immigration laws in Asia. Takamura is a recipient of the Arts Undergraduate Society Teaching Excellence Award (2018) as well as the International Development Studies (IDS) Most Outstanding Faculty Award (2018).