Contextualizing migration decisions: Migration decision making of Chinese and Taiwanese scientists in the United States.

Abstract

This dissertation is a social-psychological study of how people make migration decisions, with a focus on Taiwanese and Chinese scientists in the United States. The study challenges current migration and decision theories and provides a new viewpoint on how migration decision making can be conceptualized theoretically and examined empirically. Through in-depth interviewing, participant observation, and document analysis, this study explored the subject from both micro- and macro-sociological perspectives. It investigated the social and cultural contexts in which migration decisions are shaped, highlighting how individuals perceive and respond to constraints and opportunities in making migration decisions. Additionally, it examined the unique nature and characteristics of migration decision making, including the dynamic process by which people make decisions and the roles of social agents involved in such processes through networks of social relationships. The major findings show that migration decision making is contextually dependent and involves a sequential process of development and change. The regional sources and development of science and technology in the global scientific community establish an arena in which the migration of highly-trained science personnel intertwines with the dissemination and exchange of scientific knowledge and resources. In this arena, economic and political systems institutionalize the procedures of decision making and the choices feasible to individuals. Chinese cultural emphases on education, along with the dominant cultural ideology, practice, and social norms of migration in China and Taiwan, underlie the contexts in which individuals' migration decision are formed. Moreover, migration decision making is constructed through social interactions. Social networks operate in various ways to transmit, maintain, and challenge dominant cultural and social values, as well as to mediate between structural constraints and individuals' freedom of choice. In the process of making migration decisions, individuals also strive for autonomy by utilizing various strategies to resist situational constraints. Furthermore, migration decision making can be considered as a collective performance based on the audience for whom individuals choose to perform and feel accountable for their migration decisions.