Return Migration: A Case Study of Sea Turtles in Shanghai

This dissertation, "Return Migration: a Case Study of "sea Turtles" in Shanghai" by 黃曄丹, Yedan, Huang, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: ABSTRACT Abstract of thesis entitled "Return Migration: A Case Study of 'Sea Turtles' in Shanghai" Submitted by HUANG Yedan for the degree of Master of Philosophy at the University of Hong Kong in January 2008. In the age of globalization, the flow of migration is becoming a normal phenomenon with increasing diversity of various kinds. With a noticeable trend for more and more Chinese overseas, most of whom are professional and business people, to return to the Mainland China as their place of birth in recent years, reports and studies on this group of returnees have also increased. However, most of the studies are either journalist reports or conducted in countries outside China. On the contrary, researches in academic field of migration studies that have actually been carried out in China on people who have returned seem comparatively few. To fill the research gap, this study aims to explore the contemporary individually-determined return movement from overseas to the Mainland China with a particular focus on the group of returnees called "haigui" or "Sea Turtles" in Chinese. It relies on qualitative research methods of multiple-case study and semi-structured, in-depth interviews, so as to obtain the returnee's self account of their migration experience. 12 haigui returned from overseas and chose Shanghai as their destination of settlement were interviewed in the five-month field research in 2005. Under the framework of "Migration System" theory and with reference to such key concept as "social capital," "return and circulatory migration," "identity" and "re-adaptation," relevant key issues is to be discussed as the macro-level historical background of trends of out- and return- migration, the micro-level perspective of the uniqueness as well as diversity of the returned Chinese overseas-educated scholars, professionals or businessmen with a comparison with other migration groups of Chinese overseas, the etic and emic influencing factors causing this flow of return movement, the social re-adaptation process of these "Sea Turtles" and their sense of identity. With such focuses, this study helps to shed light on the future research on the trans- and circulatory migration studies. (305 words) DOI: 10.5353/th_b3955862 Subjects: Returned students - China - Shanghai Chinese students - Foreign countries