英文摘要 |
Many highly skilled migrants do not begin a fixed or immobile livelihood after migrating to a host country. Instead, the tendency is to show a continuing and two-way movement in a transnational social space. This paper analyzes migration experiences of transnational professionals: Taiwanese managers in the Shanghai area. The theoretical background is drawn from transnationalism approaches that complement the prevailing focus on the movement of professionals, which is categorized as a 'brain drain/gain or circulation' between sending and receiving countries, and leading to the neglect of analyzing migratory process at the micro level. Empirical data for this study are generated from a three-stage field research, in which narrative interviews were conducted with 52 Taiwanese managers and 4 of their spouses. Using typological analysis, three different migration patterns of Taiwanese managers were distinguished: 1) long-term settled 2) for-reasons-of-job settled, and 3) cross-border marriage. Nevertheless, these professionals are common during the migratory process, meaning that they continually travel back and forth between societies of origin and settlement to use local material and social resources, establish transnational social networks, and span pluri-local connections, which contribute to their having stable, transnational lives. The emphasis on the transnational linkage of social practices, as well as both symbolic and material resources in migratory lives, could serve as indicators explaining why Taiwanese expatriates in the Shanghai area are neither cosmopolitan elites nor homeless diasporas, but rather, transmigrants who continually return home. |