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<p>Leveraging a two-stage model of migration, this paper seeks to advance an emic account of how voluntariness is lived and constructed within the accelerating return of Chinese academic expatriates studying and sojourning overseas. Empirical analysis of interviews with 36 early career returnees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines highlights the heterogeneous aspirations embedded in their undertaking of an international PhD and differentiates between individuals for whom return constitutes a morally endorsed project and those who regard return as an opportunity-maximising strategy or the only acceptable option pursued under transnationally interlocking crises, constraints, and contingencies. For most participants, return is marked less by long-term preparation than by improvised response and deliberate resistance to the labour market disadvantage, racialised (un)belonging, and permanent residency impediments operating in their developed host countries. Evidence further suggests that women, postdocs, and participants with migration desires tend to invest greater emotional labour in legitimising their return as a voluntary choice, not least relative to male returnees whose return comes with the attainment of a tenure-track position. The study contributes to critical engagements with academic return migration broadly set against the backdrop of the Global North transforming into an increasingly exclusionary context of reception and China emerging as an attractive destination for high-skilled talents.</p>

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Rethinking the voluntariness of academic return migration in times of crisis: the case of Chinese early career scientists

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年11月21日

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  • Xiujuan Sun,
  • Luhan Huang,
  • Hantian Wu

摘要

Leveraging a two-stage model of migration, this paper seeks to advance an emic account of how voluntariness is lived and constructed within the accelerating return of Chinese academic expatriates studying and sojourning overseas. Empirical analysis of interviews with 36 early career returnees in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) disciplines highlights the heterogeneous aspirations embedded in their undertaking of an international PhD and differentiates between individuals for whom return constitutes a morally endorsed project and those who regard return as an opportunity-maximising strategy or the only acceptable option pursued under transnationally interlocking crises, constraints, and contingencies. For most participants, return is marked less by long-term preparation than by improvised response and deliberate resistance to the labour market disadvantage, racialised (un)belonging, and permanent residency impediments operating in their developed host countries. Evidence further suggests that women, postdocs, and participants with migration desires tend to invest greater emotional labour in legitimising their return as a voluntary choice, not least relative to male returnees whose return comes with the attainment of a tenure-track position. The study contributes to critical engagements with academic return migration broadly set against the backdrop of the Global North transforming into an increasingly exclusionary context of reception and China emerging as an attractive destination for high-skilled talents.