‘Falling Leaves Return To Their Roots’: Taiwanese‐Americans Consider Return Migration

Abstract

Because technical innovation is the engine of growth, nations are eager to attract and retain skilled migrants. This paper uses survey data to explore the intention to return among a highly skilled migrant population: Taiwan-born household heads in the US. The inquiry is guided by expectations drawn from neoclassical economics (NE) and the New Economics of Labour Migration (NELM). Multivariate analysis firsts predicts the intention to return, then distinguishes among motives. The results of the first analysis yield some findings consonant with NE and others consonant with NELM, but the results of the second indicate that only respondents motivated by a desire to invest fit the pattern articulated by NELM. Most of the remainder fit the pattern described by NE. Because potential investors comprise just 8.6% of the sample, the paper concludes that NE does a better job predicting the expectations of Taiwanese household heads than does NELM. Yet, most return migration occurs within 5 years of arrival, while the present sample represents all Taiwanese households, regardless of time in the US. Thus, the sample underrepresents migrants with the greatest propensity to return. Consequently, the findings of this research generalise only to relatively settled Taiwanese-Americans. a Omitted category is 'return to one's roots', that is, retirement. S. Model

Remain or return home: The migration intentions of first‐generation migrants in Italy

“…As far as the transnational variables are concerned, the higher the frequency of return visits the higher the likelihood of intending to return to the home country. According to previous research (e.g., De Haas & Fokkema, ; Fokkema, ; Model, ), migrants are likely to return home if they maintain strong ties with their former place of settlement and make frequent return visits, the latter being viewed as a form of “symbolic transnationalism” (Barber, ). Indeed, return visits can prepare the migrants' return to the home country, but they also suggest forms of pendulum migration, consisting of spending parts of the year in the country of origin and parts of the year in the country of destination (De Haas & Fokkema, ; Şenyürekli & Menjívar, ).…”

“…Migrants with a high degree of satisfaction in the Unites States are significantly more likely to intend to naturalise and, therefore, less likely to intend to return. In her analysis of the intention to return among highly skilled Taiwan‐born household heads in the Unites States, Model () found that economic downturns increase the likelihood of intending to return to the home country. Moreover, a temporary visa and a single trip to Taiwan are positively associated with the intention to return.…”

The Impact of Socio-Cultural Integration on Return Intentions: Evidence from a Survey on Romanian Migrants

“…Work possibilities, skills and the degree of labor market integration in the country of residence can make a difference. Employment on a continuous basis deters the intention to return, while unemployment, occupations of jobs below migrants' capabilities or the status of dependent worker can have the opposite effect (Constant and Massey, 2002;Olofsson and Malmberg, 2011;Model, 2016;Bettin, Cela and Fokkema, 2018;Bonifazi and Paparusso, 2019). The partnership formation, bi-national marriages, reunited families or childbirth (Koelet and Valk, 2014;Bonifazi and Paparusso, 2019) can negatively influence the intention to return.…”

política y las condiciones de repatriación de investigadores en México (1991-2017)

“…Canales y Meza (2018) encontraron que la migración de retorno a México desde Estados Unidos presentó un considerable crecimiento como resultado de la crisis económica de 2008, aunada a políticas migratorias que favorecieron las deportaciones, pero los retornados a los que se refiere este estudio fueron principalmente personas jóvenes con baja escolaridad, procedentes principalmente de regiones rurales de México. También, mediante modelos de regresión lineal para predecir la migración de retorno se ha visto que esta experiencia se daría principalmente entre hombres jóvenes con baja escolaridad, indocumentados, que han vivido pocos años en el extranjero sin seguridad laboral y que suelen enviar remesas (Labrianidis y Vogiatzis, 2013; Gungor y Tansel, 2014; Carling y Pitersen, 2014; Model, 2016).…”