By treating the household as a primary unit of analysis and social production, this article considers the mutually influential ways in which migrant families shape the educational pathways and experiences of Brazilian children living in Japan. Through an ethnographic exploration of relations between parents, children and their working siblings I examine the extent to which educational choices are shaped by the availability or otherwise of employment opportunities in Japan. A focus on Brazilian migrant households on these terms provides insights, in turn, into the ways in which these experiences of education and employment are entangled with the broader influences of a (Brazilian) state-sanctioned transnational educational system that is nevertheless a reflection of the displaced circumstances of migrant life and specific school policies in Japan.