Wang Wenbin, Li Xiaohan
School of Philosophy and Sociology, Jilin University, Changchun City, Jilin Province, China.
PLoS One. 2025 Mar 19;20(3):e0320013. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0320013. eCollection 2025.
China is transitioning from an immigrant-exporting country to an immigrant-importing country. To attract and retain global, it is necessary to analyze the factors influencing the settlement intentions of high skilled migrants to formulate policy support and tailor the management of transnational communities to their characteristics. This study used the Changchun sample from the Survey on Foreign Residents in China (SFRC 2017-2019) to examine the influence of social networks and social engagement on settlement intentions. It also considered differences in the classification of social networks and engagement strength, as well as classification by country of origin. This study identified that social networks and social engagement in the destination country play an essential role in the willingness of high skilled migrants to stay in Changchun. Additionally, international enclaves negatively affected their willingness to stay. Furthermore, the relative strength of migrants' social networks and social engagement in the destination country exerted varying effects on the intensity of their settlement intentions. That is, using high skilled migrants with strong Chinese social networks and social engagement as the reference group, relying solely on a strong social network in China while lacking social engagement significantly reduced their willingness to settle. A weak social networks and low social engagement also significantly decreased their willingness to settle. Moreover, settlement intentions of the high skilled migrants differed significantly by country of origin. If we selected the same reference term, the willingness of expatriates from developed countries to stay decreased significantly. In the sections concerning comparison and robustness checks, national data were employed (SFRC 2019). Highly skilled expatriates in Guangzhou, Hangzhou, and Yiwu demonstrated the synergistic interaction between ethnic communities and work units (danwei), whereas those in Changchun exhibited a certain uniqueness, embedding themselves in Chinese society through their own human capital and danwei affiliations.
中国正在从一个移民输出国转变为移民输入国。为了吸引和留住全球人才，有必要分析影响高技能移民定居意愿的因素，以制定政策支持，并根据他们的特点对跨国社区进行管理。本研究使用了《在中国外国居民调查》（2017 - 2019年）中的长春样本，来考察社会网络和社会参与对定居意愿的影响。研究还考虑了社会网络分类和参与强度的差异，以及按原籍国的分类。本研究发现，目的地国的社会网络和社会参与在高技能移民留在长春的意愿中起着至关重要的作用。此外，国际飞地对他们的留任意愿产生了负面影响。此外，移民在目的地国的社会网络和社会参与的相对强度对其定居意愿的强度产生了不同的影响。也就是说，以在中国拥有强大社会网络和社会参与的高技能移民作为参照组，仅在中国拥有强大的社会网络而缺乏社会参与会显著降低他们的定居意愿。社会网络薄弱和社会参与度低也会显著降低他们的定居意愿。此外，高技能移民的定居意愿因原籍国的不同而有显著差异。如果我们选择相同的参照条件，来自发达国家的外籍人士的留任意愿会显著降低。在比较和稳健性检验部分，使用了全国数据（2019年《在中国外国居民调查》）。广州、杭州和义乌的高技能外籍人士展示了族群社区与工作单位（单位）之间的协同互动，而长春的高技能外籍人士则表现出一定的独特性，他们通过自身的人力资本和单位归属融入中国社会。
