Displaced learners in Japan :Student evacuees and policy liminality

Genocide, environmental crises and armed struggles in the last ten years have resulted in the highest ever recorded number of displaced people worldwide: over 100 million (UN News, 2022). Waves of displaced learners – a broad grouping including people with refugee, asylee and a variety of temporary protected statuses – have led to a suite of relevant services in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). These initiatives include evaluation of credentials and prior learning, bridging and pathway programmes providing language training, mentorship programmes, legal clinics and so on (e.g. Hartley et al., 2018; Sontag, 2019). This brief considers HEI support for displaced learners in Japan, a topic lacking comprehensive data. We analyse how international officers in Japanese HEIs describe the enrolment of displaced learners and support for them. This work draws on an expansive understanding of security as discussed by Rothschild (1995) among others, and moves beyond a construction of security as relevant to nation states to consider people’s economic, social and political security.