After Work or Study Abroad: Chinese Return Migration and Kunming’s ‘Jia Xiang Bao’ - Hometown Babies A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Seth E Werner IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Frances Vavrus and Gerald W. Fry, Co-Advisers January 2012 © Seth E Werner 2012 i Acknowledgements I will start and finish these acknowledgements by expressing my appreciation and gratitude to my wife; Ann Meier. She has the distinction of appearing twice, once at the beginning and again at the end, because of the dual role that she has played in the production of my doctorate. I am quite fortunate in that she has, not only been supportive of my efforts, entitling her to the commonly found line in acknowledgments: “…without the love, support and understanding…” to be addressed later, but perhaps more importantly, she has been a role model of how to succeed in such an endeavor. Having earned both an undergraduate and a master‟s degree I had, of course, been exposed to people with a PhD. However, being a part of Ann‟s life as she progressed through her doctoral program provided me with not only insights as to how to be successful, but also ignited the intellectual curiosity within me that one needs to embark on such a journey. It is clear to me that, while there are many people that have helped me along the way to complete my doctorate, without Ann, it probably would never have gotten started. The list of people that have helped along the way, include people that are both formally and informally affiliated with my work. Those that are formally affiliated include people like my co-advisers: Fran Vavrus and Gerry Fry. They have both been instrumental in helping me to grow as a student and as a teacher. Their careful attention to my work and detailed feedback has improved my scholarship. Having taken classes from each of them, I have gained great pedagogical insights that have translated directly into my own teaching. I have adapted many activities and even teaching philosophies to my classrooms. I would also like to thank the other dissertation committee members: Yanjie Bian, Deanne Magnusson, and Amy Garrett-Dikkers for each of their unique contributions to my dissertation success. The Minnesota Population Center and their wonderful staff and affiliates were instrumental in helping me to conceptualize and frame my work. I greatly benefited from their technical assistance, data access and financial support through an Interdisciplinary Doctoral Fellowship. My classmates in the doctoral program have also provided great inspiration and support. Jessica Werner (no relation) - my sole cohort mate – kept me abreast of all need- to-know gossip and provided an avenue for stress and comic relief, and the occasional swap of class notes or reading summaries. As a scholar of a Chinese topic, I was very fortunate to have many native Chinese people in my program including: Li Yang, Cao Yi, Liu Ya. Each of them helped me to be better at studying the phenomenon by helping with issues related to language, culture, making introductions, recommending readings or even just hosting me and my family for dinner during my frequent visits to China. During the course of my field work, there were several people that helped facilitate my research. Some, simply by making me feel welcomed and others with direct support in the form of referrals and recommendations – A special thanks to Prof. Yu HeSheng at Tsinghua University and Cece and the whole Black Dragon Coffee Shop crowd in Dali, China. Naturally, the participants in my study were of paramount importance as they offered great insight into their lives and the decisions that they have made. ii Turing to the people that were not formally affiliated with my research, I would like to thank Sarah Tschida and Christine Anderson (both fellow CIDE students) and the Learning Abroad Center for their support of my Global Seminar programs which have helped me to remain globally engaged and China current. Turning to my family, my Mom deserves some special recognition as she, like Ann, is a role model of mine. If you want to know what „support‟ really looks like, contact my Mom. No matter what your goal, she will support you in your effort. Always setting her personal needs and wants aside, she makes her family her number one priority helping to ensure that success is within our grasp. Thanks Mom! Finally, returning to Ann and her well deserved “…without the love, support and understanding…” accolade. Ann has truly done both: shown me how and why to earn a doctorate and provided the love, support and understanding while I had done it. Our daughter Kiri (or An KaiLi, if you prefer) also deserves a nod of recognition as she too has provided her own contributions to the success of my doctorate. Born shortly after I began my doctoral program, she is really too young to fully appreciate our shared experiences with her, however I am not. Now that I am done with the final chapter of this dissertation I am excited about the next chapter of my life. Thanks to all of you that have made this possible. iii Abstract The process of migration has long been framed as a unidirectional process comprised of arrival, settlement, citizenship and assimilation motivated by economic necessities. This dissertation moves beyond these limited views and utilizes an interdisciplinary approach to explore the process of return migration of Chinese nationals to Kunming, China. By utilizing in-depth interviews and observation to explore the motivations of a specific group of returnees to Kunming, a rapidly changing city in China‟s developing western region, this study has identified three insights that can contribute to a better understating of the return migration process. The first two key findings – jia xiang bao „hometown babies‟ and the desire to be a „big fish in a little sea‟ – can motivate future policy decisions that seek to attract returnees. The third, unexpected finding – xiao xiong xin or „little ambition‟ of younger generations – acknowledges the perceived heterogeneity among returnees. Further research and policy efforts that recognize heterogeneity by age group and other potentially important but, as yet unstudied factors will be able to develop a more nuanced understanding of the ever larger and inevitably more diverse returnee population. iv Table of Contents Chapter (content) Page Number Acknowledgements i Abstract iii List of Tables v List of Figures vi Glossary of Chinese Emic Terms vii Chapter One: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Chinese Return Migration 1 Chapter Two: A Critical Review of Economic Migration Literature and an Introduction to Alternative Migration Concepts 38 Chapter Three: Research Site and Study Protocol 71 Chapter Four: Findings about Returnees to Kunming 88 Chapter Five: Revisiting Reasons for Return and Looking Ahead 139 References 151 Appendix 159 v List of Tables 1. Table 1: Participant Profiles 76 vi List of Figures 1. Figure 1: Conceptual Framework of Migration Decisions 3 2. Figure 2: Number of Returnees by Year 23 3. Figure 3: Chinese Immigrants in the U.S.A. 27 4. Figure 4. Sex Ratio of Chinese Immigrants in the U.S.A. 29 5. Figure 5: Lexis Diagram: China 1940 – 2010 58 6. Figure 6: Network Map of Participant Referrals 75 vii Glossary of Chinese Emic Terms balinghou – refers to people that were born in the 1980s guanxi – a concept similar to the western notion of relationships between people haidai – literally „seaweed,‟ but in the context of return migration it refers to a person that has returned to China, but is not viewed as being successful haigui - literally „sea turtle,‟ but in the context of return migration it refers to a person that has returned from overseas haiou - literally „seagull,‟ but in the context of return migration it refers to a person that is simultaneously living in China as well as overseas and is commuting back and forth. Often associated with a man that is conducting business in China and has a spouse and child living overseas. hukou – a Chinese household registration permit identifying the legal residence of a citizen jiaxiang bao – literally „hometown baby,‟ a person that has strong ties to a specific place. In the context of this dissertation, that place is Kunming. jiulinghou – refers to people that were born in the 1990s linglinghou – refers to people that were born in the 2000s mianzi – a concept similar to the western notion of „face‟ as in „to save face‟ ningwei jitou, buwei fengwei – it is better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix tubie – refers to Chinese citizens that have never left China for work or study XiBu DaKaiFa – Western Development Policy, a Chinese national level government policy that seeks to increase the development of the western region of China xiao xiong xin – a phrase used to describe a person as having little ambition 1 Chapter One: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding Chinese Return Migration “Return migration is the great unwritten chapter in the history of migration.” -Russell King, Professor of Geography and Dean of the School of European Studies at the University of Sussex Introduction According to recently published statistics from the Chinese Ministry of Education (MOE), approximately 1.4 million Chinese students and scholars went abroad between 1978 and 2008. It is estimated that 390,000 have since returned, and, of these returnees, almost half have done so from 2005 to 2008 (Ministry of Education, 2010). While it is not unusual that some migrants would eventually return to China, the recent dramatic increase in the number of returnees is unprecedented.