Why Do Immigrants from Hong Kong to Canada Stay Or Leave?

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Why Do Immigrants from Hong Kong to Canada Stay Or Leave? WHY DO IMMIGRANTS FROM HONG KONG TO CANADA STAY OR LEAVE? Nuowen Deng B.A., Simon Fraser University, 2004 PROJECT SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS In the Department of Economics O Nuowen Deng 2007 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY Spring 2007 All rights reserved. This work may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name: Nuowen Deng Degree: M. A. (Economics) Title of Project: Why Do Immigrants From Hong Kong To Canada Stay Or Leave? Examining Committee: Chair: Ken Kasa Don Devoreb Senior Supervisor Alex Karaivanov Supervisor Steeve Mongrain Internal Examiner Date Approved: Tuesday, January 23,2007 .. 11 SIMON FRASER UNIVE~IW~ibrary DECLARATION OF PARTIAL COPYRIGHT LICENCE The author, whose copyright is declared on the title page of this work, has granted to Simon Fraser University the right to lend this thesis, project or extended essay to users of the Simon Fraser University Library, and to make partial or single copies only for such users or in response to a request from the library of any other university, or other educational institution, on its own behalf or for one of its users. The author has further granted permission to Simon Fraser University to keep or make a digital copy for use in its circulating collection (currently available to the public at the "Institutional Repository" link of the SFU Library website <www.lib.sfu.ca> at: <http:llir.lib.sfu.calhandlell8921112>) and, without changing the content, to translate the thesislproject or extended essays, if technically possible, to any medium or format for the purpose of preservation of the digital work. The author has further agreed that permission for multiple copying of this work for scholarly purposes may be granted by either the author or the Dean of Graduate Studies. It is understood that copying or publication of this work for financial gain shall not be allowed without the author's written permission. Permission for public performance, or limited permission for private scholarly use, of any multimedia materials forming part of this work, may have been granted by the author. This information may be found on the separately catalogued multimedia material and in the signed Partial Copyright Licence. The original Partial Copyright Licence attesting to these terms, and signed by this author, may be found in the original bound copy of this work, retained in the Simon Fraser University Archive. Simon Fraser University Library Burnaby, BC, Canada Revised: Spring 2007 SIMON FRASER UNI~ERS~Ibrary STATEMENT OF ETHICS APPROVAL The author, whose name appears on the title page of this work, has obtained, for the research described in this work, either: (a) Human research ethics approval from the Simon Fraser University Ofice of Research Ethics, (b) Advance approval of the animal care protocol from the University Animal Care Committee of Simon Fraser University; or has conducted the research (c) as a co-investigator, in a research project approved in advance, (d) as a member of a course approved in advance for minimal risk human research, by the Office of Research Ethics. A copy of the approval letter has been filed at the Theses Office of the University Library at the time of submission of this thesis or project. The original application for approval and letter of approval are filed with the relevant offices. Inquiries may be directed to those authorities. Bennett Library Simon Fraser University Bumaby, BC, Canada ABSTRACT A significant percentage of Hong Kong immigrants to Canada have now left Canada to return to Hong Kong. In this study, survey data generated by the Chinese Stayer- Returnee Project is used to compare "stayers" and "returnees" originally from, and those who may have returned to, Hong Kong to examine the gap between their expectations and their realities faced in Canada and Hong Kong. Evidence from the survey suggests that substantial demographic differences exist between the "stayer" and "returnee" groups. However, their responses to the key questions regarding their degree of integration into Canada's economy and society are similar. Finally, a logit analysis is used to try to identify the underlying factors that help explain the differences between the stayer ' s and returnee's expectations and realities. Key Words: Chinese Immigrant, Human Capital, questionnaire, Hong Kong, Canada, brain circulation, logit. I dedicate this paper to my devotedparents, Wanying and$urnin. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I offer my deepest gratitude and thanks to all of the members in RIIM and the Department of Economics at Simon Fraser University. Financial support from RIIM is greatly appreciated. I record here special thanks and appreciation to Dr. Don DeVoretz who has supervised my project with great effort, and for his vital encouragement and support. In addition, I like to thank Dr. Alexander Karaivanov, who has provided priceless advice, assistance, and motivation to shape up this paper. I am grateful to Dr. Steeve Mongrain and Dr. Ken Kasa for their contribution and support in the Committee. I acknowledge Dr. Don DeVoretz's and Dr. Shibao Guo's original work and are greatly appreciated for sharing their dataset of the stayer-returnee project. Participants in my RIIM seminar also provided very helpful feedbacks. Lastly, I appreciate the help of Phillip Wong, Ronald Ng and Penny Simpson for their editing and technical support. TABLE OF CONTENTS .. Approval ............................................................................................................................ 11 ... Abstract ............................................................................................................................ ill Dedication ......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................v Table of Contents .............................................................................................................vi List of Figures .................................................................................................................. vii.. ... List of Tables .................................................................................................................. vui 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................1 . Organization of the paper .....................................................................................................3 2 Literature Review .......................................................................................................4 3 Triangular Theory of Return Migration Based on the Human Capital Model ...........................................................................................................................5 Human Capital Theory of Migration ...................................................................................7 Some Hypotheses ...............................................................................................................10 4 Questionnaire Data ................................................................................................... 11 Section 1: Demographics ...................................................................................................12 Section 2: Experience in Canada .......................................................................................17 Section 3 Experience in destination country ......................................................................23 5 Logistical Regression Analysis for Stayer-Returnees ...........................................29 Model setup ........................................................................................................................29 Logit result interpretations .................................................................................................30 6 Conclusions ...............................................................................................................40 Appendices ........................................................................................................................42 Appendix A Questionnaire for Stayers ..............................................................................43 Appendix B Questionnaire for Returnees ..........................................................................53 Reference List ...................................................................................................................62 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Simple Brain Circulation ................................................................................6 Figure 2 . Human Capital Analysis of Onward Migration .............................................7 Figure 3 . Age distribution for stayers and returnees ....................................................13 Figure 4 . Marital Status for stayers and returnees .......................................................13 Figure 5 . Gender breakdown for stayers and returnees ...............................................14 Figure 6 . Education Level Distribution of stayers and returnees ................................ 16 Figure 7 . Origin of Education of stayers and returnees ...............................................16 Figure 8 . (a) Length of stay for stayers and returnees and (b) How
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