Return Migration and Identity
Return Migration and Identity: A Global Phenomenon, A Hong Kong Case
Nan M. Sussman
Copyright Date: 2010
Published by: Hong Kong University Press
Pages: 364
https://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt1xwfcd
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Book Info
Return Migration and Identity
Book Description:

The global trend for immigrants to return home has unique relevance for Hong Kong. This work of cross-cultural psychology explores many personal stories of return migration. The author captures in dozens of interviews the anxieties, anticipations, hardships and flexible world perspectives of migrants and their families as well as friends and co-workers. The book examines cultural identity shifts and population flows during a critical juncture in Hong Kong history between the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984 and the early years of Hong Kong’s new status as a special administrative region after 1997. Nearly a million residents of Hong Kong migrated to North America, Europe and Australia in the 1990s. These interviews and analyses help illustrate individual choices and identity profiles during this period of unusual cultural flexibility and behavioral adjustment.

eISBN: 978-988-8053-56-8
Subjects: Sociology
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  1. Front Matter
    Front Matter (pp. i-iv)
  2. Table of Contents
    Table of Contents (pp. v-vi)
  3. List of Illustrations
    List of Illustrations (pp. vii-viii)
  4. Preface and acknowledgments
    Preface and acknowledgments (pp. ix-xii)
    NMS
  5. About the author
    About the author (pp. xiii-xiv)
  6. Introduction: “Anna” migrates and returns home
    Introduction: “Anna” migrates and returns home (pp. 1-10)

    Anna (a pseudonym) was 35 years old when she and her husband decided to move to Australia in 1991. They returned to Hong Kong two and a half years later. Anna described herself as Hong Kongese before she emigrated, distinguishing this cultural identity from that of Chinese. “There is a kind of cultural difference … Like my grandparents, they are really typical Chinese. I didn’t really share the real feeling of behavior like this. They are traditional. But the Hong Kongese … they are energetic, enthusiastic, and they are eager on the job and career development.”

    Like many residents of...

  7. 1 A short history of two hundred years of Hong Kong migration and identity
    1 A short history of two hundred years of Hong Kong migration and identity (pp. 11-36)

    In order to understand the experiences of return Hong Kong immigrants in 1999, one needs to examine the complexity of their Chinese identity, which began to form in 1841. The British had claimed the island of Hong Kong at the terminus of their first Opium War with the Chinese. Yet while the battles ceased more than 150 years ago, the identity turmoil continues today. To comprehend the early development of the identity of the Hong Kong Chinese, though, one must first look at Hong Kong’s location, bounded by the sea and adjacent to a vast continent. In his groundbreaking book...

  8. 2 Sojourner adjustment and adaptation to new cultures: Art, literature, and the social science perspective on identity
    2 Sojourner adjustment and adaptation to new cultures: Art, literature, and the social science perspective on identity (pp. 37-58)

    Humans are a peripatetic species, traveling widely for food and territory. Recent biological anthropology research indicates that 3,500 years ago, residents of coastal China migrated eastward across the Pacific Ocean, populating hundreds of islands that make up Micronesia and Polynesia.¹ No doubt, early clans and tribes experienced problems in maintaining rigid boundaries and separate identities from neighboring groups. Early documents reveal in some instances the struggle to assimilate into other societies, while in other situations the admonitions by community leaders were to avoid such integration. Individual internal struggles to blend cultural identities introduced through proximity and enculturation, political change and...

  9. 3 Returning home: Cultural transitions and the identity model
    3 Returning home: Cultural transitions and the identity model (pp. 59-90)

    Until recently, a popular and stubbornly persistent myth existed throughout the world: once individuals emigrated from their home countries, they were unlikely to return to those countries of origin. This belief was held no more fervently and embedded itself no more passionately into the national psyche than in the United States. As a country of immigrants, the narrative of the myth wove a story of impoverished families in their native lands, victims of vicious prejudice and injustice, who overcame near overwhelming odds to make their way to New York, Atlanta, Chicago, or San Francisco. The closing lines of the story...

  10. 4 Results from the Hong Kong Remigration Project: Departing, adjusting, returning
    4 Results from the Hong Kong Remigration Project: Departing, adjusting, returning (pp. 91-130)

    During the Hong Kong Remigration Project, 50 respondents were interviewed resulting in over 100 hours of tape-recorded discussion. Each respondent was asked the same questions, but the ensuing conversations varied as their different answers led to unique follow-up questions. The full interview schedule can be viewed in Appendix A. The recordings were transcribed and coded for specific information and cultural transition domains. See Appendix B for details on the coding process. The transcription is exact and does not correct for grammatical mistakes on the part of the interviewee. Although native English speakers may find clarity moderately impaired, it was important...

  11. 5 Additive identity
    5 Additive identity (pp. 131-160)

    Albert Cheng, a prodemocracy radio personality, declared his candidacy for the Hong Kong legislature in 2004. While stories of his open criticism of the Hong Kong government and Beijing’s meddling appeared almost daily in the South China Morning Post, Cheng’s exploits were also covered by the Canadian newspapers primarily because Cheng was a Canadian citizen and Hong Kong remigrant. As reported in Toronto’s Globe and Mail,¹ Cheng stated that he was fighting for the liberal values he had learned in Canada: “I have to stand up against violence and against any evil force that wants to shut me up …...

  12. 6 Subtractive identity
    6 Subtractive identity (pp. 161-176)

    There is a long record of both historical and fictional accounts of remigrants feeling uncomfortable on their return home. The Old Testament describes the anguish of the Jews returning to their homeland following the Babylonian exile. Cervantes, the Spanish novelist, described in 1613 the psychological and romantic difficulties of an Estramaduran, who returned to Spain after twenty years of living and prospering in South America. His psychological readjustment was complicated when he discovered his former friends were now dead.¹

    The Cultural Identity Model suggests that one common response to cultural transition is adaptation and a shift in identity away from...

  13. 7 Global and affirmative identities
    7 Global and affirmative identities (pp. 177-198)

    The Cultural Identity Model (CIM) suggests a third possible identity profile that develops following a cultural transition. The global identity commences from a novel point of departure. Individuals with this profile are multiple sojourners prior to their immigration; that is, over time they have moved in and out of their home countries, primarily for work assignments, and consequently have a keen sense of themselves as cultural beings. Thus, they begin their migration journey with an awareness of how their values, beliefs, customs, and preferences are shaped by their home culture.

    Among Hong Kong multiple sojourners, cultural salience starts at a...

  14. 8 Remigrants and family life
    8 Remigrants and family life (pp. 199-214)

    Just as migration can change the social landscape of a country in the domains of social structure, religion, language, and politics,¹ so can return migration. Macro-level shifts will invariably occur in Hong Kong as a result of the unprecedented number of returnees. However, micro-level, individual transformations are the source of the larger societal changes. In particular, remigrants have altered their values and their beliefs about family life and relationships between spouses, parents and children, and siblings — the core relationships in traditional Chinese culture.

    For example, one might speculate that social institutions such as marriage can be shattered through the experience...

  15. 9 Remigrants and professional life
    9 Remigrants and professional life (pp. 215-232)

    Earlier chapters have focused on the identity profiles of return migrants. Hong Kongers have overwhelmingly adopted an additive identity, superimposing their newly learned Canadian or Australian values and customs onto their layered Chinese/British/Hong Kong self-concepts. As we have seen, identity profiles influence a wide range of remigrants’ thinking, acting, and decision making — the choice of naming practices, of the neighborhood in which to live, of how to conduct extended family relationships, of where to educated one’s children’s education, and of parenting style.

    The immigrant experience also has a profound influence over workplace behavior, relationships between employees and employers, and productivity....

  16. 10 Confucius and Socrates: Ancient philosophies, migration, and cultural identity
    10 Confucius and Socrates: Ancient philosophies, migration, and cultural identity (pp. 233-248)

    Geography, history, politics, economics, and psychology intersect with any investigation of Hong Kong identity. When cultural transitions are added to the mix, the outcome is understandably complex. Flexibility and pragmatism, hallmarks of Hong Kong society, set the tone for overseas adaptations and for repatriation accommodations. The resultant additive identity allows Hong Kongers to feel comfortable whether in the Western diaspora or back home in Hong Kong. In both large and small decisions, the behavioral consequences of the additive identity were enacted. This investigation predicts that in the future Hong Kongers will continue to be both geographically and psychologically mobile, returning...

  17. 11 The new Hong Kong boomerang
    11 The new Hong Kong boomerang (pp. 249-262)

    The Hong Kong Remigration Project estimates that 500,000 people have returned to live and work in Hong Kong. Speculation, however, is that a portion of these remigrants are not permanent residents but rather belong to a growing global group of transnationals. Participants in this investigation confirm that they have strategic plans for the future regarding their place of residence. But now, in light of Hong Kong’s tranquil political scenario and stable and growing economic outlook, one may well ask why all Hong Kong immigrants do not return to their homeland, prepared to settle in through retirement.

    There are multiple reasons...

  18. Appendix A Hong Kong Remigration Project questionnaire and psychological scales
    Appendix A Hong Kong Remigration Project questionnaire and psychological scales (pp. 263-278)
  19. Appendix B Methods, sample, and qualitative analysis
    Appendix B Methods, sample, and qualitative analysis (pp. 279-289)
  20. Appendix C Quantitative analysis
    Appendix C Quantitative analysis (pp. 290-302)
  21. Appendix D Demographic characteristics of research participants
    Appendix D Demographic characteristics of research participants (pp. 303-308)
  22. Notes
    Notes (pp. 309-316)
  23. References
    References (pp. 317-330)
  24. Index
    Index (pp. 331-349)
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