Doctoral Dissertation Research: Transnational Migration and the Global Circulation of Talent

李莎·温斯坦张颖灿东北大学据报道，近年来越来越多在美国接受教育的中国人回国。中国官方媒体强调了这些海归的繁荣前景，并承认他们对中国向知识经济转型的重要性。随着中国各城市竞相吸引有才华的海归，人们对这些城市的战略是如何运作的，以及回流的熟练劳动力在中国城市发展中真正发挥的作用知之甚少。本文研究了中国城市为实现刺激城市发展的目标而招募受过美国教育的中国人才的方式，以及这些招聘举措如何反过来影响目标海归的移民决策和再融合体验。这项研究解决了三个问题：1)希望走向全球的中国城市如何招募在美国接受过培训的中国人才参与发展项目；2)这些招聘项目如何影响在美国接受过教育的中国人才的移民决定以及回国后的归国经历；3)中国当地政府和归国人员对“价值”和“贡献”概念化的方式之间的分歧如何影响他们相互作用的方式。为了研究这些主题，研究人员将以中国东部一个主要城市为案例进行研究，并采用半结构化访谈、参与式观察和二次分析作为主要调查方法。本研究具有以下潜在影响。首先，它将为理解新自由主义时代城市发展的复杂性提供一个关键案例，并展示具体的国家发展政策如何影响高技能专业人员的搬迁和定居模式，从而有助于城市发展、全球城市和跨国移民的社会科学研究。其次，本研究将为政策制定者和城市规划者提供启示。研究结果将有助于在全球化世界中相互激烈竞争的城市更好地了解吸引人才的战略如何在实践中发挥作用，以及这些战略是否确实促进了发展。此外，该项目将告知如何在当代保持具有全球流动性的高竞争力劳动力。由于来自亚洲的高技能移民在美国整体移民中所占的比例越来越大，美国的政策制定者必须了解这些过程，以便在总体上做出明智的移民改革决策，特别是关于吸引和留住高技能移民的政策。

SES-1519268 Liza WeinsteinYingchan ZhangNortheastern UniversityAn increasing number of U.S.-educated Chinese have reportedly returned to China in recent years. Chinese state-run media emphasize the prosperous outlook for these returnees and the state's recognition of their importance for the country's transition to a knowledge economy. As Chinese cities compete to attract talented returnees, little is known about how the municipal strategies work and what roles returning skilled labor indeed play in Chinese cities' development. This dissertation research studies the ways in which Chinese cities recruit U.S.-educated Chinese talent to achieve their goal of stimulating urban development, and how these recruitment initiatives in turn affect the migration decisions and reincorporation experiences of the targeted returnees. This study addresses three questions: 1) how Chinese cities, in the hope of becoming global, recruit U.S.-trained Chinese talent back for development projects 2) how these recruitment programs affect the migration decisions of U.S-educated Chinese talent in the U.S. and the reincorporation experiences of the returnees in China 3) how the disjunctures between the ways the local Chinese state and the returnees conceptualize "value" and "contribution" influence the ways in which they interact with each other. To examine these themes, the researchers will conduct a case study of a major city in eastern China and utilize semi-structured interviews, participant observation and secondary analysis as the main methods of investigation. This study has the following potential impacts. Firstly, it will contribute to social science research on urban development, global cities, and transnational migration by presenting a critical case for understanding the complexities of urban development in the neoliberal era and demonstrating how specific state development policies affect the relocation and settlement patterns of highly skilled professionals. Secondly, this study will provide implications for policy makers and urban planners. The findings will help cities that fiercely compete with each other in a globalizing world to better understand how the strategies of attracting talent work in practice and if these strategies do foster development. Moreover, this project will inform how to retain a highly competitive workforce that is globally mobile in nature in the contemporary era. As highly-skilled immigrants from Asia consist of an increasing part of the overall immigration to the U.S., it is essential for U.S. policy makers to understand these processes in order to make informed decisions about immigration reform in general and about policies to attract and retain highly skilled immigrants in particular.