Abstract
China rewards Mainlanders with technology who return to China. Among entrepreneurs and scientists, technology is generating today’s reverse migration as the rewards for bringing back technology are significant. Many returnees do not bring the latest international technology; technology that is new for China suffices to create a comparative advantage in the domestic market, making the transfer of technology a key strategy for becoming a successful reverse migrant. This article shows statistically that those who said that they had returned because they possessed a new technology (55% of our sample) were less likely to have a new international technology than a technology that was new only for China.
La Chine récompense les Chinois continentaux qui retoument au pays avec des moyens techniques. Les récompenses pour avoir rapporté des éléments technologiques étant significatives, c’est la technologie qui favorise la migration de retour actuelle chez les entrepreneurs et les scientifiques. Nombreux sont les rapatriés qui ne rapportent pas le dernier cri international en technologie; il suffit de revenir avec des moyens techniques qui sont inconnus en Chine pour créer un avantage comparé dans le marché intérieur. Ainsi, le transfert de technologies constitue une strategie privilégiée dans la réussite des rapatriés. Nos statistiques indiquent que chez ceux qui étaient retournés au pays parce qu¡ls y introduisaient une nouvelle technologie (soit 55% de notre échantillon), il était moins probable pour eux d’avoir de nouveaux moyens techniques intemationaux que de moyens techniques qui représentaient une nouveauté en Chine seulement.
Access this article
We’re sorry, something doesn't seem to be working properly.
Please try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, please contact support so we can address the problem.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Baark, E. (1999).The Chinese quest for advanced technology. Unpublished manuscript.
Baark, E. (2002). China needs software not hardware.South China Morning Post, October 1.
Borjas, G., & Bratsberg, B. (1996). Who leaves: The outmigration of the foreign-born.Review of Economics and Statistics, 78(1), 165–176.
Cao, C. (2004). China’s efforts at turning ’brain drain’ into ’brain gain.’East Asian Institute Background Brief, No. 216, November.
Cassarino, J.-P (2004). Theorising return migration: The conceptual approach to return migrants revisited.International Journal on Multicultural Societies, 6(2), 255.
Cerase, F. P. (1974). Expectations and reality: A case study of return migration from the United States to southern Italy.International Migration Review, 8(2), 245–262.
Chang, S. L. (1992). Causes of brain drain and solutions: The Taiwan experience.Studies in Comparative International Development, 7(1), 27–43.
Chen, C, & Zweig, D.Dui wai kai feng yu Zhongguo daxue (China’s open policy and Chinese universities).Gaodeng jiaoyu yanjiu (journal of Higher Education), 77 (1), 50–56. (Reprinted inXinhua wenzai, 4 (1998), 158-162).
Chen Yun-cheng, C. (2005).Technology transfer between Silicon Valley and Zhongguancun: The role of China’s transnational technology community. Paper presented at the conference People on the Move: The Transnational Flow of Chinese Human Capital Center on China’s Transnational Relations, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Cong, C. (2005, October).China brain drain and brain gain: Why first rate overseas Chinese academics still hesitate to return or be deeply involved in China. Paper presented at the conference People on the Move: The Transnational Flow of Chinese Human Capital Center on China’s Transnational Relations, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Deng Xiaoping (1980). Why China has opened its doors.Bangkok Post, February 10, p. 5. InForeign Broadcast Information Service, China, 12 February 1980, pp. L1-L5.
Haiming, W. (2002). Come back from overseas! The ’talent reflux’ era has arrived.Zhongguo daxuesheng (China Campus: March 2002), translated inChinese Education and Society, 37(2), 7–11.
Hamrin, C. L. (1990).China and the challenge of the future. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.
Jinn-Yuh Hsu, J. Y., & Saxenian, A. (2000). The limits ofguanxi capitalism: Transnational collaboration between Taiwan and the USA.Environment and Planning A, 32 1991–2005.
Li, M., & Bray, M. (2005, October).Social class and cross-border higher education: Mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong and Macau. Paper presented at the People on the Move: The Transnational Flow of Chinese Human Capital Center on China’s Transnational Relations, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology.
Li, X. (2003) A study by the Chinese Academy of Sciences on the benefits of study abroad (Zhongguo kexueyuan chuguo liuxue xiaoyi yanjiu).Chuguo liuxue gongzuo yanjiu (Research on Work Concerning Overseas Studies), 1, 25–35.Chinese Education and Society, 37(2), 61-87.
OECD Observer. (2002). International mobility of the highly skilled.Policy Brief (July), p. 6.
Overseas Section of the Department of International Affairs of the Ministry of Education and the Intellectual Development Research Institute of the Shanghai Educational Sciences Research Academy. (2003). The present state of overseas students returning to China to found undertakings and a study on policy.Chuguo liuxue gongzuo yanjiu (Research on Work Concerning Overseas Studies), 2, translated inChinese Education ana Society, 36(2), 18.
Saravia, N. G., & Miranda, J. F. (2004). Plumbing the brain drain.Bulletin of the World Health Organization, 82, 608–615.
Saxenian, A (1999).Silicon Valleyr’s new immigrant entrepreneurs. San Francisco, CA: Public Policy Institute of California.
Schwartz, B. (1964).In search of wealth and power: Yen Fu and the West. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
Sigurdson, J. (2002). A new technological landscape in China.China Perspectives, 42, 37–53.
Special report on Shenzhen. (2001).Chinese Education and Society, 34(3), 87–88. Originally published inJiedao (Street), 5 (1998).
Stark, O., & Bloom, D. E. (1985). The new economics of labor migration.American Economic Review, 75(2), 173–178.
Vanhanocker, W., Zweig, D., & Chung, S. F. (2006). Transnational or social capital? Returned scholars as private entrepreneurs. In A.S. Tsui, Y Bian, & L. Cheng (Eds.),China’s domestic private firms: Multidiscipinary perspectives on management and performance. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.
Weihai shi xiyin iiuxue renyuan youhui zhengce, October 1992. (Weihai city government’s preferential policies for attracting overseas scholars). (2003). InLiuxue huiguo gongzuo wenjian huibian (A collection of articles on work relating to overseas studies and returnees. Beijing: Ministry of Education.
Wong, B. P. (2006).The Chinese in Silicon Valley: Globalization, social networks and ethnic identity. Toronto, ON: Rowman and Littlefield.
Xinhua. (2003). Fair for returned overseas students draws wide attention. January 2.
Zweig, D. (2002).Internationalizing China: Domestic interests and global linkages. Cornell Series in Political Economy. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Zweig, D. (2006). Learning to compete: China’s efforts to encourage a reverse brain drain.Inter national Labour Review, 145(1-2), 65–90.
Zweig, D., Rosen, S., & Chen, C. (2004). Globalization and transnational human capital: Overseas and returnee scholars to China.China Quarterly, 179 (September), 752.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Zweig, D., Chung, S.F. & Vanhonacker, W. Rewards of technology: Explaining China’s reverse migration. Int. Migration & Integration 7, 449–471 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02934904
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02934904