Settlement intentions among Taiwanese skilled migrants in Tokyo and Hong Kong

Abstract

ABSTRACT While many countries now prioritise accepting skilled migrants to meet labour demand in a globalised economy, retaining them has been a challenge. Low retention is often attributed to immigration policy failures and/or skill mismatches in the labour market. This paper argues that besides career issues, skilled migrants’ cultural aspirations and their sense of ‘civic belonging’ are significant factors when evaluating migration outcomes and the prospect of staying. This paper is based on 44 in-depth interviews with Taiwanese college-educated migrants working in Hong Kong and Tokyo, two major Asian global cities known for attracting foreign talent. The paper found that ambivalence towards staying prevails, due to unfulfilled aspirations for cosmopolitanism—in the case of Tokyo—and frustrations with a limited ‘social contract’—in the case of Hong Kong. The implications of these findings could extend the scope of factors to be considered in investigating what shapes migrants’ settlement decisions in demographic research.