Comparing Chinese academic returnees in Chengdu and Guangzhou: reasons for return, choice of destination and onward migration intention

ABSTRACTThis is a comparative study on Chinese academic returnees in Chengdu and Guangzhou, China. Adopting the concepts of intellectual gateway (IG), intellectual node (IN) and intellectual capital (IC) from the intellectual migration (IM) framework, as well as the amenities perspective in migration studies, this article conceptualises Chengdu as an emerging IG and Guangzhou as a typical IG. Through analysing macro-level public data and first-hand interviews and survey data at the micro level, it explores academic returnees’destination choice and if urban amenities and individual preferences influence their onward migration intention. It concludes that academic returnees’choice of destination is not only highly related to their pursuit of IC development and economic capital, but is also influenced by their preferences of different types of cultural amenities. Chengdu’s cultural amenities tend to attract and retain more personal-life-oriented academic returnees, while Guangzhou is favoured by professional-life-oriented returnees. Furthermore, compared to returnees in Guangzhou, those in Chengdu are more likely to stay for longer terms. It is suggested that building rich cultural amenities and intellectual networks can be potential advantages for emerging IGs in attracting and retaining intellectual migrants.KEYWORDS: Academic returneesdestinationreturn migrationonward migrationamenity AcknowledgementsThe authors wish to extend their sincere appreciation to the editors and reviewers, for their careful reading as well as detailed and insightful comments. This research is supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (41971183; 42371229;41971184).Disclosure statementNo potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).Notes1 YTTP is a sub-program of TTP launched in 2011 to attract overseas top-tier scientists under the age of 40.2 Sichuan area refers to the geographic area of Sichuan, thus it includes Chongqing.