Residential preferences: A brain drain study on Chinese students in the United States

This dissertation is a report and analysis of a brain drain study of some Chinese students and scholars in America. The study consists of two separate questionnaire surveys conducted in 1989 and 1990 each including over 500 students and scholars. Previous studies of brain drain were based mostly on foreign students from non-communist countries and areas; they considered financial factors such as higher salaries and better living conditions as the major contributors to foreign students' stay in the United States. This present study explores the hypothesis that for the (mainland) Chinese students in America brain drain is primarily a political matter.;This study has investigated these issues: (1) whether a brain drain will occur from China involving Chinese students in America; (2) whether political factors are the primary concerns of the Chinese students in their residential preferences; and (3) whether age, gender, family background, places of growing up, field of study, visa type, and/or length of stay in the U.S. make any significant difference in the Chinese students' residential preferences.;The major findings include the following: (1) political factors in China's social/political system, the CCP government's tight control on going abroad, and the political instability in China are the primary concerns for the surveyed Chinese students; (2) given the current political climate in China, only a small minority (3%) of the students would like to return to China immediately, some of them (17%) would opt never to go back, while the overwhelming majority of them (80%) would choose to return at a later time, in 5 to 10 or more years, until the political situation in China improves; (3) stronger preference of returning to China is observed among the following groups: those who came from farmers' families and/or grew up in rural areas, social sciences and humanities majors, J-type visa holders, older students, and more recent arrivers in the United States.;Findings from this study suggest that China does not have to be rich to persuade its overseas students to return home and that a potentially severe brain drain from China can be prevented/stopped if the political conditions in China evolve in a positive direction.