5 - Return to the Future or the Past?

Summary

This chapter discusses the return decision-making process for Asian scientists trained in the West, to understand the factors driving the recent increase in return migrations. The factors which influence Asian scientists’ return decisions are organized along three axes of influence:

1. 1. Integration, meaning the degree of social exclusion and cultural belonging Asian scientists experienced in the West, compared to what they imagined they would feel back in Asia

2. 2. Familial obligation to their parents (often still in Asia) versus an obligation to their spouse and their children (in the West)

3. 3. Ambition, which references their particular scientific and professional goals for themselves as individual scientists versus as citizens pursuing science for their country.

This chapter shows how ambitious Asian scientists may now choose to return to Asia because they believe that they can better fulfill their personal research goals in Asia. The chapter also introduces alternative return migration arrangements that are emerging, including leaving the West and moving to an Asian country other than one's birth country, as well as establishing a transnational, split-household arrangement.