Intellectual Migration Dynamics Between China and the U.S.

该项目旨在了解受过高等教育的移民的迁移动态。本研究以“智力迁移”为框架，通过实证将中国和美国联系起来，旨在了解智力迁移的对象、原因和地点，并考察具体国家的政策如何影响智力迁移。这个项目将有助于人们了解国家之间的人口流动及其动机，并从地理角度了解受过高等教育的人的迁移。这个项目意义重大，因为近几十年来，中国一直是美国国际学生和外国专业人士的主要来源国。更好地了解这些受过高等教育的移民的动态，可以为促进互利的智力移民的政策提供信息。研究结果将有助于美国国家、地方和机构领导人保留/建立一支由不同背景和不同领域的美国培训的多元化劳动力队伍，从而促进地方、区域和国家的经济发展。本项目将由一个跨学科的国际研究团队开展，采用多层次、多方法的方法，将调查和深度访谈与二手数据分析和GIS制图相结合，研究三组移民群体的横断面样本：中国的国际移民前学生、在美国的中国出生的国际学生和教师，以及在中国出生和在美国培训的教师和专业海归。本研究的结果有望推动流动性和跨国主义的理论，并将为理解高学历移民增加地理维度。调查结果将有助于进一步研究，以便将来与其他主要高学历移民输出国和接收地进行比较分析。

This project seeks to understand the migration dynamics of highly educated migrants. Using the "intellectual migration" framework and empirically connecting China and the United States, the research aims to understand the who, why, and where, of intellectual migration and examine how country-specific policies impact intellectual migration. This project will contribute to ideas about the movement of people between countries and what motivates them, and adds a geographical dimension to the understanding of the migration of the highly educated. This project is significant as China has been a main source of international students and foreign-born professionals in the U.S. in recent decades. A better understanding of the dynamics of these highly-educated migrants can inform policies that facilitate mutually beneficial intellectual migration. Findings will help US national, local and institutional leaders to retain/build a diverse US-trained workforce of different backgrounds and in different fields which enhances local, regional, and national economic development. This project will be conducted by an interdisciplinary and international team of researchers and employs a multi-level and multi-methods approach, integrating surveys and in-depth interviews with secondary data analysis and GIS mapping to study a cross-sectional sample of three groups of migrants: pre-international-migration students in China, China-born international students and faculty in the U.S., and China-born and US-trained faculty and professional returnees in China. Results from this study are expected to advance theory on mobility and transnationalism, and will add a geographical dimension to the understanding of the migration of the highly educated. Findings will facilitate further research to conduct comparative analysis with other major highly-educated migrant sending and receiving locations in the future.