Master Thesis The Challenge of Return: Net effects of Social and Political Factors
Coach: Prof. Dr. Barbara Krug
Co-reader: Drs. Johannes Meuer
Xing Gu
Student No: 305817
Rotterdam School of Management
Erasmus University Rotterdam
MScBA Human Resource Management
June 2009
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The author declares that the text and work presented in this Master thesis are original and
that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in
creating the Master thesis.
The copyright of the Master thesis rests with the author. The author is responsible for its
contents. RSM Erasmus University is only responsible for the educational coaching and
beyond that cannot be held responsible for the content.
3
Acknowledgments
The process of writing thesis was a „painful‟ long journey, many things affected my time
schedule and it took me longer to finally complete the thesis. During the writing process,
many questions were jumping in my head and many bottlenecks I met were indeed
beyond my expectations. Luckily, I have the following persons out there helping me
during the writing process.
I would like to first thank Prof. Dr. Krug for being my coach - the first western person I
know who is so familiar with almost all Chinese-related knowledge as well as Chinese
language. She confirmed my research interest and provided me with many constructive
ideas, advice and feedbacks on my thesis. Dr. Meuer, thank you for being my co-reader
and helping me out whenever I was looking for guidance and feeling desperate. What you
have done in helping me was more than what a co-reader needs to do. I would also like to
thank Mr. Drs. Duco le Clercq for spending five hours on proofreading my thesis which
made my thesis look better structured with better grammar. Furthermore, I want to thank
my parents and friends for contacting respondents and supporting me along the writing
process as well as all the respondents I interviewed, thank you all for doing this with me
especially with some of you we talked over phone for more than one hour. Last but not
least, I want to give my special thank to Ka Shing Cheung, thank you for bearing my bad
temper and taking great care of me in these five months, which supported me to go
through the whole process.
At this moment when I am writing this word of appreciation as the last thing in my whole
life as student, I suddenly feel a little strange. I am no longer a student after handing this
thesis and I have to enter the real society, an environment totally different with university.
But I believe that after seven years alone in the Netherlands, I am well prepared for any
challenges that are waiting for me.
Time to move on!
Rotterdam, May 2009
Xing Gu
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Executive Summary
Since 2002, over 100,000 Chinese students leave China and go for higher education in
foreign countries. Many of them have chosen to come back to China and in fact, the
number of returned Chinese overseas students has drastically increased in the last few
years and it is estimated that in 2008, there were in total 50,000 returnees. (MOE, 2008)
Hai Gui is a special name that local Chinese created for those returnees from overseas.
They have played an important role in all walks of life in China, the ideas, values,
knowledge, skills and experiences that these returnees have brought back to their native
land will contribute to China in all aspects. (Li, 2006) To attract these talents back to
China, the government and province has been introducing a range of policies and
incentives. (Antal and Wang, 2003) These preferential policies are believed to be political
factors that are related to positive discrimination but however, Hai Gui still encountered
problems after returning to China, the wake of emerging evidence show that overseas
Chinese may experience special difficulties on the Chinese mainland. (Selmer, 2002)
Social factors such as re-entry culture shock and treatment by neighbors have influenced
Hai Gui negatively on discrimination in terms as they experience a period of transition
entailing some degree of anxiety, confusion and disruption. (Malcolm et al, 2007) Some
Hai Gui are also perceived by locals as arrogant, unrealistic in high expectations and
unfamiliarity with local markets thus causing conflicts between Hai Gui and local
counterparts.
This research will show the net effect of social factors and political factors. It is
discovered that the positive discrimination of preferential policies does not exist because
current policies are unclear to many Hai Gui and most of the policies are focusing only
on limited groups of people such as scholars; people with high technical background and
entrepreneurs. Re-entry shock is shown as strong negative social factor influencing Hai
Gui since most Hai Gui experienced re-entry culture shock after returning to China and it
took them more than one year to readjust to their home culture again. Moreover,
discriminatory treatment by neighbors is also found but only on small groups of Hai Gui
in terms of high expectations from local counterparts, unpleasant relationship with locals
and etc. Hence the negative effect is weak as well. Furthermore, Hai Gui‟s own features
concerning their years abroad, major of studies, degrees obtained and prior working
experience were taken into consideration when determining the relationship between
political/social factors and net effect of both.
Although negative net effect is examined, there are suggestions and recommendations to
weaken this negative effect for example: Hai Gui should be familiar with updated
governmental and provincial policies; have a balanced state of mind and do not hold too
high expectations; learn to manage personal relationship well and be open for more
choices.
Keywords: Hai Gui, Overseas Chinese Returnees, preferential policies, re-entry culture
shock.
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List of Figures and Boxes
Figures 1. Introduction
Figure 1: Number of students studying abroad and returned students…………… 9
2. Literature Review
Figure 2: Distribution of Hai Gui majors………………………………………… 17
Figure 3: Hai Gui salary and enterprise salary…………………………………… 20
Figure 4: Median salary by state or province…………………………………….. 20
Figure 5: Median salary by years of experience…………………………………. 21
Figure 6: Median salary by company size……………………………………….. 21
5. Results
Figure 7: Countries studied and/or worked……………………………………… 41
Figure 8: Working experience in China………………………………………… 41
Figure 9: Hai Gui major of study……………………………………………….. 42
Figure 10: Stay or leave your company………………………………………… 53
Boxes
5. Results
Box 1: Motivations to return to China…………………………………………… 43
Box 2: Preferential policies Hai Gui benefited from..…………………………… 44
Box 3: Perceptions of preferential policies……………………………………….. 46
Box 4: Differences Hai Gui experienced in China……………………………….. 48
Box 5: Differences Hai Gui experienced in the working environment……………. 51
Box 6: Reasons to leave your company………………………………………….. 53
Box 7: Difficulties Hai Gui encountered…………………………………………. 54
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Table of Contents
Executive Summary……………………………………………… 4
1. Introduction……………………………………………………. 8 1.1 Research Background………………………………………………….…. 8
1.2 Research Purpose and Outline………………………………………......... 10
1.2.1 Problem Definition……………………………………………………… 10
1.2.2 Research Question………………………………………………………. 11
1.2.3 Research Aim………………...…………………………………………. 12
1.2.4 Research Methodology………………………………………………….. 13
2. Literature Review……………………………………………… 15 2.1 A Short Introduction of Hai Gui…………..……………………………… 15
2.2 Hai Gui in Literature: I Leave, I See, I Learn, I Reconstructure…..……... 15
2.2.1 I Leave and Return…………..………………………………………….. 15
2.2.2 I See & I Learn.…………………..……………………………………… 16
2.2.3 I Reconstruct...…………………………………………………………... 18
2.3 Discrimination………….…………………………………………………. 23
2.3.1 A General Overview of Discrimination………..……………………….. 23
2.3.2 Positive and Negative Discrimination………………………..…………. 24
2.3.3 Non Discrimination……………………………………………………… 25
2.4 Political Factors as Positive Discrimination…………………..................... 26
2.4.1 Current National Preferential Policies………………….………………. 26
2.4.2 Current Provincial Preferential Policies…………..…………………….. 28
2.5 Social Factors as Negative Discrimination….……………………………. 30
2.5.1 Re-entry Culture Shock………………………………………………….. 30
2.5.2 Treatment by Neighbors…………………………………………………. 31
3. Conceptual Framework……………………………………….. 33 3.1 Conceptual Model……………………..………………………………….. 33
3.2 Independent Variable..……………………………………………………. 33
3.3 Moderating and Control Variable………..……………………................... 34
3.4 Dependent Variable…..………………………………………………….... 35
4. Research Design……………………………………………….. 36 4.1 Method and Sampling……………………………………..………………. 36
4.1.1 Research Method………...……………………………………………… 36
4.1.2 Research Sampling………………………………………………………. 36
4.2 Data Source……………...………………………………………………… 37
4.3 Data Collection…………………………………………………………….. 37
4.3.1 Data Gathering…………….…………………………………………….. 38
4.3.2 Data Collection Method………………………………………………… 38
4.4 Data Analysis………………………………………………………………. 39
5. Results……………………………………………………….. 40
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5.1 Hai Gui……………………….………………………………………….. 40
5.1.1 I Leave……………..………………………………….………………… 40
5.1.2 I See & I Learn……………..…………………………………………… 41
5.1.3 I Return……………..…………………………………………………… 42
5.2 Political Factors- Preferential Policies………………….…………………. 44
5.2.1 Preferential Policies Returnees Benefited from………….……………… 44
5.2.2 Knowledge about Preferential Policies………………………..………… 45
5.2.3 Perceptions of Preferential Policies………………..……………………. 46
5.3 Social Factors……………………………………………………………... 48
5.3.1 Re-entry Culture Shock………………..………………………………... 48
5.3.2 Treatment by Neighbors…………………………………..…………….. 51
5.4 Perceptions from Local Employees………………...……………………… 55
5.4.1 Perception of Hai Gui…………………………………………………… 56
5.4.2 Perception of Different Treatment………………………………………. 56
5.4.3 Perception of the Cooperation Process….……………………………… 56
5.4.4 Perception of Relationship with Hai Gui……………………………….. 57
6. Conclusion…………………………………………………….. 58 6.1 Summary of Main Findings…………….…………………………………. 58
6.1.1 Political factors as positive discrimination……………………………… 58
6.1.2 Social factors as negative discrimination………………………...……… 58
6.1.3 Hai Gui features as moderating variables………………………...……… 59
6.1.4 Firm specific factors as control variables………...……………………… 60
6.1.5 Net Effect of Political and Social Discrimination Factors on Hai Gui……. 61
6.2 Managerial Implications and Recommendations…………………………….. 61
6.3 Limitations and Future Research……………………………………………... 64
References………………………………………………………… 66
Appendices………………………………………………………... 72 Appendix 1: Number of Postgraduates and Students going abroad…………… 72
Appendix 2: Hai Gui, Re-entry Culture Shock and Years abroad…………….. 73
Appendix 3: Firm Specific Features as Control Variable……………………… 74
Appendix 4: Interview Questions- Overseas Chinese Returnees……………… 75
Appendix 5: Interview Questions- Local Employees………………………….. 77
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1. Introduction
1.1 Research Background
It has been more than 100 years since China started to send out students and scholars to
study abroad. (MOE, 2008) After the establishment of modern China, beginning from the
1960s, with the change of international political climate, the central government
accordingly made adjustments in policies related to sending students and scholars abroad.
(Zweig, 2006) More and more students left China with a strong responsibility of “I leave,
I see, I learn, I reconstruct” (Wang, 2007) until Mao Tse Dung‟s policy of Self-Reliance
policy, which closed the door to the West for almost 30 years. In year 1978, Deng
Xiaoping- the prominent Chinese revolutionary leader introduced significant reforms;
expanding the numbers of sending students and scholars sent abroad. Over 30,000
students have taken advantage of government sponsorship to study abroad. (Antal &
Wang, 2003)
The latest statistics from Ministry of Education show that from 1978 to 2007, a total of
1.2 million Chinese students went abroad and 275,000 returned to China (MOE, 2008),
approximately 25% of the total outbound numbers. The returning trend is increasing with
stunning speed for instance in 2000, there were 9,121 returnees, the number doubled to
20,152 in 2003, doubled again in 2006 to 42,000. Especially during year 2004 to 2006,
the return rate increased every year at 20%. (See Figure 1)
Recent figures from China Statistic Yearbook 2008 (see appendix 1) show the number of
students studying abroad in 2007 increasing drastically to 144,000 which means 7.94%
more students compared to 2006. The number of returned students in 2007 increased by
4.79% compared to 2006 as well. It is estimated that the total number of returnees in
2008 will historically exceed 50.000. Figure 1 shows the number of both students
studying abroad and returned students since 1978.
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Figure 1 Number of students studying abroad and returned students Source: China Statistic
Yearbook (2008)
During the past 30 years, the CPC (Communist Party of China) and the central
government have continually been making efforts on the work related to students and
scholars studying abroad. (Zweig, 2006) The Ministry of Education (MOE) has also been
strictly implementing the guideline of “supporting students and scholars studying abroad,
encouraging them to return to China after their completion of studies and guarantee them
the freedom of coming and going”. (MOE, 2008) MOE together with CAS and other
related ministries has been focusing on creating programs to attract and assist returnees
with their careers. (MOE, 2008) Diverse programs were established between 1990s and
2000s such as “Program for Training Talents toward the 21st Century”, “The Chunhui
program”, “Changjiang Scholar Incentive Program”, “Program of Academic Short-
return for Scholars and Research Overseas” and so on. Nowadays, MOE has a plethora
of organizations, which are engaged in encouraging more returnees or in assisting those
who have returned to settle down in China more comfortably. (Zweig, 2006)
Hai Gui Phenomena
Hai Gui1, which translated directly into English means “Sea Turtles”, is an abbreviation
that refer to Chinese returnees from overseas.2 The pronunciation also suggests the
1 Hai Gui and returnees are interchangeable in this research.
2 In this research, Hai Gui are referred to those who return to mainland China, not including Hong Kong,
Macau and Taiwan.
0
20000
40000
60000
80000
100000
120000
140000
160000
1978 1980 1985 1991 1995 2000 2002 2004 2005 2006 2007
Number of students Studying Abroad
Number of returned students
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Chinese phrase for sea turtles that were born on the shore, grew up at sea, but eventually
returned to the shore again. (Wattanavitkukul, 2002) Hai Gui refers to those who have
studied abroad, either having obtained a university degree abroad or having spent more
than one year abroad under the frame of an exchange program. (Le Bail & Shen, 2008)
Human resource specialists predict that within the next few years, about a quarter of the
managers working for multinationals in China will be Chinese returnees (Hai Gui), these
returnees will be armed with experience in Western and other developed overseas
markets. (Gross and Connor, 2007)
1.2 Research Purpose and Outline
1.2.1 Problem Definition
The enthusiasm of Chinese Hai Gui has cooled off, instead they face unexpected
problems after they come back to China They started to wonder if they made the right
choice to go abroad and whether their status had been devaluated. Some of those who
have already returned in fact are facing many difficulties. The wake of emerging
evidence show that overseas Chinese expatriates may experience special difficulties on
the Chinese mainland. (Selmer, 2002)
On one hand, the government and province has been introducing a range of policies and
incentives, particularly noticeable since 1994. (Antal and Wang, 2003) In order to
facilitate Overseas Chinese return and offer promising career developments, the
government has taken a multipronged approach: it provides both monetary and non-
monetary rewards to returnees who work as employees as well as who chose to work as
entrepreneurs. Monetary rewards include wage, incentives bonuses, tax
deductions/exemptions; project funding; non-monetary rewards are offered in means of
position, status, free or discounted accommodation facilities, spouse employment,
children schooling, medical subsidies. As for entrepreneurs, science parks and incubators
are created with an eye to drawing returnees interested in setting up their own businesses.
These preferential policies seem to positively discriminated Hai Gui as they are being
treated better than locals but are these policies clear and transparent to all returnees? Do
Hai Gui really benefit from them? In the meantime, more and more Hai Gui start to feel
that these preferential treatments tend to create tension between returners and local
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employees, promoting envy and competition rather than cooperation between them.
(Wang, 2002)
On the other hand, after living years away from home country, many Hai Gui found out
China is no longer the China they used to be familiar with. Overseas Chinese expatriates
who come to live and work in China commonly experience a period of transition
entailing some degree of anxiety, confusion and disruption. (Malcolm et al., 2007) They
experienced re-entry culture shock and it seemed to add more unforeseen difficulties in
finding employment as well as during work. Moreover, local people perceive Hai Gui
differently nowadays compared to decades ago. Some of them think for granted that Hai
Gui shouldn‟t have any problems in adjusting to Chinese culture. The perceived cultural
closeness of Chinese returnees seemed to build up expectations of easy and quick
adjustment, which resulted in frustration, resentment, and withdrawal when not
accomplished. (Selmer, 2002) Hai Gui usually have a sense of “feeling different” from
mainstream society with respect to their physical appearance, behavioral signs,
interpersonal styles, and manners of speaking (Kidder,1992) This “feeling different” has
led to problems and conflicts between Hai Gui and local counterparts as well. Therefore,
this research is going to examine the net effect of both political factors and social factors
that have an discrimination impact on Hai Gui after they return to China.
1.2.2 The Research Question
Derived from the problems above Hai Gui are encountering nowadays, the central
research question is formulated as follow:
How does the co-existence of social factors and political factors lead to a new
constellation of positive and negative discrimination against Hai Gui?
In order to get a better insight of into this question, research and especially the data-
gathering process will be guided by the following sub-questions:
1) How do Hai Gui perceive discrimination after returning to China?
What are the reasons that encourage Hai Gui to return to China and whether they
perceive themselves as being discriminated or not? And if yes, are they positively
discriminated or negatively discriminated?
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2) What are the preferential policies and are they helpful to Hai Gui?
After returning to China, are Hai Gui benefiting from preferential policies? If yes, what
are the preferential policies they are entitled to? Are the preferential policies transparent
to Hai Gui and are they helpful to Hai Gui?
3) Which social factors contribute to discrimination?
Besides the political factors, what are the social factors that influence the discrimination?
Do Hai Gui experience re-entry culture shock after returning to China? Is China still the
same one before they left? What are the differences in working environment? What
difficulties did they meet after coming back?
4) What are the moderating factors that influence the relationship between
social/political factors and discrimination?
Are there any moderating factors that have effect on the relationship between
social/political factors and discrimination? What are these factors? Are they related to
Hai Gui‟s own features?
5) How is the communication and cooperation process between Hai Gui and local
employees in the company?
Do Hai Gui have a good relationship with their local counterparts? Are the
communication and cooperation processes smooth and efficient? Are Hai Gui being
perceived and treated differently by locals? What are local employees‟ impressions of
Hai Gui? Are Hai Gui‟s own features playing a role in the process?
The sub-questions are formulated so as to gain a better understanding of the influence of
social and political factors on discrimination and when the sub-questions are examined
and answered, the central research question will be answered as well.
1.2.3 Research Aim
This study‟s substantial and original objective is to find out the net effect of positive and
negative discrimination on Hai Gui. Political factors as preferential policies are assumed
to be positively linked to discrimination while social factors like re-entry culture shock,
treatment by neighbors are considered as being negatively related to discrimination. The
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presence of discrimination that occurs to Hai Gui Returnees will be investigated and the
influence of Hai Gui‟s own features will be examined as well. Reviewing the literature,
it turns out that there are few academic papers researching on the net effect of
discrimination phenomenon Hai Gui encounter, therefore the research aims of this thesis
are:
To examine the consequences of national and provincial policies towards Hai Gui,
together with the re-entry culture shock, treatment by others they face, subsequently to
investigate the net effect of both positive and negative discriminations. Finally
recommendations are given to Hai Gui to respond on the discrimination.
The thesis firstly has relevance for Hai Gui - who are now in China themselves and who
are considering coming back as well as who are planning to go abroad, as it offers them
an overview of the findings of the current situations of Hai Gui; it analyzes current
preferential policies on both national and provincial level; it also helps them to realize the
effect of social factors, especially the re-entry culture shock and treatment by neighbors
they might encounter after returning to China, and in the meantime the net effect of
positive and negative discrimination which is directly related to Hai Gui. The
recommendations are helpful to Hai Gui as well when they run into similar situations
after coming back to China.
Secondly, as for academic contribution, current literature concerning Hai Gui contains
mostly the governmental policies towards returnees and influence of re-entry culture
shock. Few mention whether discrimination fact exisits or not, if it is positive
discrimination or negative discrimination as well as net effect of both. This thesis could
provide researchers with some basic findings concerning discrimination phenomena in
the future.
1.2.4 Research Methodology
The purpose of this study is mainly to examine the net effect of positive discrimination
by political factors and negative discrimination by social factors. This study is an
exploratory research, thus requiring a huge amount of literature research. Moreover,
14
multiple case studies will be selected as the main research strategy. A case study is a type
of research during which the researcher tries to gain a profound insight into one or
several objects or processes that are restricted in time and space. (Verschuren and
Doorewaard, 2005)
Within this framework respondents will be chosen and interviewed using a semi-
structured questionnaire through telephones. Conducting by telephone, however, is in its
turn preferable to sending a questionnaire because when the subject is tricky, you stand
the risk of only a small number of the questionnaires being returned, whereas the
reliability of the answers to the questionnaires that will be returned is probably low.
(Verschuren and Doorewaard, 2005)
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2. Literature Review
2.1 A Short Introduction of Hai Gui
Enhanced human capital developed overseas must be useful in the original source country
if it is to lead to the return of people, otherwise they would stay in their new country.
(Bjoras and Bratsberg, 1996) In China, Hai Gui have played an important role in all
walks of life, the ideas, values, knowledge, skills and experiences that these returnees
have brought back to their native land will not only profoundly contribute to the
country‟s coming of age in the years to come, but may also change both China‟s image in
the international community and how China interacts with the outside world. (Li, 2006)
To attract these talents back to China, the government and province has been introducing
a range of policies and incentives. (Antal and Wang, 2003)
The returned students and scholars have leading positions in areas like education, S&T,
high-tech industries, finance, insurance, trade and management etc, and serve as a driving
force for the country's economic and social development.
2.2 Hai Gui in Literature: I Leave, I See, I Learn, I Reconstruct
During the literature review, three data sets are mainly used as they provide an insight on
different aspects concerning Hai Gui returnees. The first data set is derived from Zweig‟s
research in 1993 and 2004. These two researches discussed the reasons why overseas
Chinese scientists chose not to come back to China in 1993 and why the number of
returnees increased after 10 years. The second data set being used is obtained from
Beijing DongFangHuiBo Research Academy‟s publication of Current Situation of
Chinese Overseas Returnees Research in 2007. 452 enterprises and 1216 overseas
Chinese returnees from all over China were being interviewed on issues related to Hai
Gui returnees. Payscale‟s salary reports are being used as the third data set since they
give a good indication of salary based on different criteria. All three data sets will be
further discussed in the following chapters.
2.2.1 I Leave and Return
Zweig‟s research in 1993 showed the issues that stopped people from returning to China
and those who wanted to leave China. (Zweig, 2006) Among which the first reason was
16
lack of political stability if we link it to the famous 1989 Tiananmen Square Campaigns.
The effects of this affair had a direct impact on the decisions to return. No opportunity for
career development in China and poor work environment ranked at the top of the reasons
as well that caused people to refuse to go back. Low living standard, lack of modern
equipment and a better future for children overseas also kept overseas Chinese staying
abroad. However, as economic and social conditions began to liberalize and improve, as
China‟s government becomes more proactive in recruiting, and if the post-Deng era
proves to be relatively stable, Chinese students and scholars will return to their homeland
in larger numbers than today. (Zweig and Chen, 1995) 30 years ago, government
sponsored-students went to countries such as US, England, Australia, Canada, Germany,
France and Japan. (Antal and Wang, 2003) These countries are still the most popular
destinations for most Chinese who want to go abroad. Besides these states, many other
countries also opened their doors to welcome Chinese students. From 1978 to 2003, a
total number of 700,200 Chinese students and scholars studied in 108 countries and
regions all over the world, covering almost all disciplines. (MOE, 2008)
Ten years later, Zweig‟s second research in 2004 towards the reasons why the number of
returnees increased showed clearly that many of the above problems have since been
addressed, if not totally resolved. (Zweig, 2006) The unstable political situation has been
relatively improved and the booming of Chinese economy especially after entering WTO
(World Trade Organization) in 2001 indeed enhanced the issues which were revealed in
1993. According to his interview with CAS (Chinese Academy of Sciences) scientists, 58%
chose China‟s rapid economic development while 47% believed that the Chinese
government was making huge progress in implementing government policies towards
returnees. 42% of the respondents opted for “good opportunity to develop new
technology in China” because the rapid development of China absolutely needs the
importation of superior technology from developed countries. Moreover, “hard to find
good opportunities overseas” and “glass ceiling overseas for Chinese” were also main
reasons why more returnees are willing to go back to the mother land. (Zweig, 2004;
Zweig, 2006)
2.2.2 I See & I Learn
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- Years Abroad
Different countries have their own education systems which in turn require different
lengths of study years. Recent research of Current Chinese Overseas Returnees (Hai Gui)
2007 from Beijing DongFangHuiBo Research Academy showed 31.91 % of Hai Gui
stayed abroad for 1-2 years, 26.97% stayed for 3-4 years while approximately 23.03% of
people stayed abroad for more than 5 years. (DongFangHuiBo, 2007)
- Degrees
The degrees Hai Gui obtained abroad are relatively high. Master degree holders form a
total of 60 % of Hai Gui returnees while bachelor degree holders account for 30%. Hai
Gui with PhD degrees are as low as 6.58 % and the remaining 3.62% of Hai Gui possess
associate or other degrees. This shows most Chinese students go abroad mainly for
master degrees and therefore explains one of the reasons why most Hai Gui stayed abroad
for 1-2 years. (DongFangHuiBo, 2007)
- Major of Study
57.2% of Hai Gui studied Economic Management abroad. Information Management
ranks the second which 13.16% of Hai Gui chose to study abroad. Language and Arts
account for more than 8% of all majors. Figure 2 shows the percentage of majors Hai Gui
studied.
Figure 1 Distribution of Hai Gui Majors Source: DongFangHuiBo Research (2007)
- Working Experience
57,24%
13,16%
8,88%
6,58%
2,63% 3,95%
4,93%
2,63%Economic Management
Information Management
Language & Arts
Engineering
Law & Politics
Natural Science
Bio-medical
Others
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“Most of the multinational companies in China, what they really need are people who had
already gained some experience working in China before they went abroad, and had also
worked abroad for couple of years after they graduated.” (Chinatalents, 2005) Through
this returnees are well acquainted with both domestic and international operations of
companies while they are familiar with both cultures as well. Nevertheless, Hai Gui with
no working experience or only with part-time/short-time experience form almost 50% of
the total number of Hai Gui. About 32.89% of Hai Gui worked 1-2 years abroad and 3-5
years‟ working experience accounts for 13.16%. The percentage of those who have
worked over 5 years is only 3.62%. This shows a trend that Overseas Chinese tend to
study abroad and go back to China for work, but due to their lack of practical working
experience, most of them are not familiar with foreign enterprises and business
environment.
2.2.3 I Reconstruct
2.2.3.1 Hai Gui’s Positions in Different Areas
Hai Gui have built up strong positions in different areas such as political, scientific,
technological, educational and business.
- On the political side
The returnees who serve in public offices, in the leadership of both the government and
Party, are particularly relevant. Unlike other groups of returnees who usually have
influenced China‟s development outside the political establishment, returnees-turned-
officials can have a more direct impact on the political process within decision-making
circles. (Li, 2005) A significant number of the CPC cadre is now made up of Hai Gui
technocrats. (Yang and Tan, 2006) In 2005, a total of 581 Chinese ministerial level
officials, 48 people, or 8.2% of the total are returnees. (Wang, 2008)
- On the science, technology and education side
The returnees have brought China their innovations in management as well as superior
technological skills, capital, talents and a new mentality. The Chinese Academy of
Sciences hires 81% of its members from Hai Gui scholars, while the Chinese Academy of
Engineering hires about 54%. In the 9th Five-year Plan, China‟s top scientists involved in
19
the National “863 Plan” consisted of 72% Hai Gui scholars. (Yang and Tan, 2006; Le
Bail and Shen, 2008) In addition to those, 78% of the university presidents in China are
returnees, as are 94 % of the prestigious Yangtze Scholars. (Wang, 2008) Moreover,
approximately 72% of directors in China who are in charge of state and provincial key
research centers and labs are returnees as well. (Le Bail and Shen, 2008) The returnees
have brought back to China important contributions in leading edge research in nuclear
engineering, superconductor technologies or gene mapping and some other key
researching fields.
- On the business side
With fewer political and institutional barriers, the largely level playing nature of
entrepreneurship has also enabled many Hai Gui talents to utilize their expertise to set up
IT and hi-tech companies. (Mu and Heng, 2006) Commonly known as “technopreneurs”,
they are now contributing much to China‟s burgeoning hi-tech sector. (Mu and Heng,
2006) Returnees also started businesses which brought the mechanism of venture capital
to China. The high rate of enterprise creation by returners in the science parks and
incubator is impressive. (Wang and Antal, 2003) 5,000 returnees have set up 2,000 new
high-tech firms in Zhong Guan Cn Science Park (ZSP), China‟s Silicon Valley and
Shanghai Zhangjiang High Tech Park in 2006. (Wang, 2007) Not only do the returnees
contribute to business in entrepreneurship, they also helped Chinese business in different
ways. Large number of elite returnees have become the heads of multinational enterprises
in China, such as Microsoft, UBS, Google, Blackberry etc; they are also active in the
service industry of China including financial consultants, law specialists, IT talents and
many on creative areas; Returnees also begin to help Chinese SOE and private enterprises
and improve the efficiency of these enterprises; furthermore, returnees play a positive and
leading role in Chinese culture and the trend of starting business. (Wang, 2008)
2.2.3.2 Hai Gui Salary
Hai Gui‟s expectations of salary became more and more rational, not just asking for high
salaries blindly. The salary offered by most companies more or less matches Hai Gui‟s
expectations. Among all industries, Real estate and IT companies pay higher salaries.
20
Besides, salaries differ a lot between private enterprises and listed companies as well;
foreign-owned enterprises pay the highest salary.
Figure 2 Hai Gui Salary and Salary that Enterprise Offers in CNY Source DongFangHuiBo Beijing
(2007)
Almost half of Hai Gui reached an annual salary of 100,000-200,000 CNY (€11,500-
€23,000) and 6.70% of Hai Gui reached either as low as below 60,000 CNY (€7,000) or
above 500,000 CNY (€55,000). The reasons for the huge differences in salary depend on
many factors such as years experience; state or province; company size and etc. The
following figures provide us with better insights into these differences.
Figure 3 Median Salary by State or Province Source: PayScale, 2009
1,00%
21,90%
55,20%
17,20%
4,80%6,70%
17,30%
44,90%
24,40%
6,70%
0,00%
10,00%
20,00%
30,00%
40,00%
50,00%
60,00%
Enterprise
Individual
21
Tianjin ranks in first place with an average year salary of 242,266 CNY; in Shanghai
people earn 236,313 CNY per year while in Jiangsu Province, the average year salary is
approximately 221,227 CNY. However, in northern part of China such as Liaoning
Province, the average annual salary is 95,946 CNY which is only 40% of average salary
in Tianjin. Thus, salary differs as the location of company differs.
Figure 4 Median Salary by Years of Experience source: Payscale, 2009
As shown above, years of experience have tremendous influence on one‟s salary. People
with over 20 years‟ working experience earn as much as 805,593 CNY per year which is
almost 8 times more than the salary of people with less than 4 years‟ working experience.
Figure 5 Median Salary by Company Size Source Payscale 2009
22
Large companies with more than 2000 employees pay on average 300,000 CNY per year
which is twice as many as one can earn in small sized companies. Therefore, company
size influences the pay level as well. In addition to the above mentioned three factors,
there are many other factors influencing the salary as well for example degrees; job type;
employer type and etc.
Comparing Figure 3 with Figure 4, 5 and 6, Hai Gui returnees are positioned more or less
the same in yearly average salary scheme if compared to other local Chinese. However,
the location of companies; company size and Hai Gui‟s years of experience might lead to
differences in salaries.
2.2.3.3 Advantages and disadvantages of Hai Gui
With rising quality of local talents, Hai Gui have to show superior knowledge and
capabilities otherwise they will lose in the “war for talents”. Research from
DongFangHuiBo revealed that 57.83 % of the companies agree that Hai Gui have better
international insight which is probably related to their overseas experience. Familiarity
with both Chinese and Foreign markets became the second advantage of Hai Gui as
56.63 % of the companies agree on that. Foreign language ability accounts for 55.42 %
which is undoubtedly regarded as the advantage of Hai Gui. In addition, Hai Gui show
strong abilities in communication skills; creative consciousness; adaptability to diverse
cultures and learning ability as well. (DongFangHuiBo, 2007)
On the other hand, too high expectations, unfamiliarity with the domestic market and
trouble fitting in the company ranked as the top three reasons for some companies to
reject hiring Hai Gui. 38.71% of Hai Gui are believed to have high expectations of salary,
post, promotion and development chances. Furthermore, 25.81% of companies view Hai
Gui as lacking in domestic experience because a large proportion of Hai Gui went abroad
directly after senior high schools, thus, when they returned to China, they had limited
experience and knowledge about domestic markets. Trouble fitting in the organization
forms 9.68% of the reasons that Hai Gui are not being recruited as the companies feel
that many Hai Gui have difficulties in adapting to Chinese culture after years spent
abroad. (DongFangHuiBo, 2007)
23
2.3 Discrimination
2.3.1 A General Overview of Discrimination
Discrimination is defined as “any distinction, exclusion or preference made on the basis
of race, color, sex, religion, political opinion, national extraction or social origin, which
has the effect of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in
employment or occupation.” (Tomei, 2003) Discrimination includes any conduct based
on a distinction made on grounds of social categories that have no relation either to
individual merit or to the concrete behaviors of the individual person. (Amiot and
Bourhis, 2003) Discriminatory behaviors can range from avoidance, antilocution,
differential allocation of outcomes, physical attacks, hate crimes and extermination.
(Allport, 1954)
Becker‟s theory of discrimination aimed at a general theory for the analysis of the effects
of discrimination in a market economy. He analyzed the economic effects of
discrimination on, for instance, wage differences. (Wadensjö and Eskil, 1984)
Researchers also confirmed that Becker‟s models is based on the premise that the
existence of a wage differential between equally productive workers (e.g., blacks and
whites) arises because white economic agents can only be induced to associate with black
workers if they receive monetary compensation to offset the nonpecuniary costs of such
associations. (Alexis and Medoff, 1984) Discriminatory employers maximize a
combination of money profits and personal utility, with utility inversely related to the
extent to which employers associate with minority workers (Becker, 1971). Baldwin and
Johnson (1992) suggested that small firms in which employers and workers have frequent
contacts are the best examples of Becker‟s model, but the model also applies to large
firms in which prejudice is part of a “corporate culture” rather than the belief on one
manager. Since the publication of Becker‟s work, discrimination has been one of the
most intensely studied topics in economics; theorists have posited different explanations
for racial wage gaps, including many that do not depend on racial animus, and there have
been hundreds of empirical studies devoted to measuring and attempting to explain wage
differences. (Charles and Guryan, 2008; Alexis and Medoff, 1984)
24
Social discrimination is another type of discrimination which refers to a difference in
treatment based on the personal characteristics of an individual. They would be
discriminated irrespective of whether that individual‟s profile matches the requirements
of a particular job. (Taomei, 2003) This difference in treatment puts him or her at a
disadvantage or limits his or her access to benefits and opportunities available to other
members of society. This difference in treatment leads to the so-called social
discrimination. Social discrimination is a common phenomenon in human societies for
instance when a white skin provides better occupational prospects than a colored skin or
when men get higher salaries than women. (Buhl, 1999) Social discrimination is also
defined as displaying favoritism toward one‟s ingroup over an outgroup in a manner that
is perceived to be illegitimate by the outgroup in question. (Mummendey and Otten, 2001)
Whenever social context suggests an equality norm (e.g., in minimal groups) social
discrimination is given as soon as ingroup favoritism occurs. (Sassenberg, 2002) When
ingroup members perceive treatment as unfair, social discrimination against outgroup
members is likely to be generated. Dissimilarity or “foreignness” has a Janus-faced
character as it may elicit either attraction or aversion. They also assume that the
evaluation of intergroup difference is of critical importance for the quality of
relationships between social groups.(Mummendey and Wenzel, 1999) It may occur
among groups that have no previous history, that are constructed arbitrarily, and that have
no realistic basis for conflict. (Hodson et al., 2003) The social identity theory suggested
that people want to evaluate themselves positively and that this motivation extends to
“that part of the individual‟s self- concept which derives from his or her knowledge of his
or her membership of a social group (or groups) together with the value and emotional
significance attached to that membership.” (Tajfel, 1972) Therefore, establishment of
positive distinctiveness of an in-group from a relevant out-group is seen as one important
basis of social discrimination. (Reynolds et al., 2000)
2.3.2 Positive and Negative Discrimination
Discrimination can be taken to mean acting, either consciously or unconsciously, on the
basis on knowledge in a way that either adversely or positively affects the individual
acted upon. (Simon, 2004) Positive discrimination, also called affirmative action, can be
understood as discriminating on the basis of acquired characteristics, like race or gender,
25
but with a positive purpose- namely, establishing greater fairness or justice. (Clabaugh,
2000) Positive discrimination in favor of a particular category of persons is the same as
discrimination against those who are not in that category. It also means employing
someone because they come from a particular deprived group in preference to others
equally or better qualified. (de Gay, 2008) Positive discrimination has been successful in
improving the representation of minority groups in the workforce, particularly in the
United States.
In contrast to positive discrimination which is to be understand as discrimination that
benefits a group of people, negative discrimination can be taken to be any discrimination
that harms a group of people. (Simon, 2004) Negative discrimination is often based on
stereotypes and which include the above mentioned race, color, sex, religion, political
opinion, national extraction or social origin. Thus when talking about negative
discrimination, it refers to negative, often aggressive behaviors aimed at a person and
based on that person‟s membership in a group. (Wallace, 2004)
Becker‟s formulation of the discrimination problem builds on the notion of a taste for
discrimination against a particular group, which is the discriminating group acts as if it is
willing to incure a cost for not associating with this particular category of people.
(Wadensjö and Eskil, 1984) This is „discrimination‟ or, „negative discrimination‟. It may,
however, also be the case that the unequal treatment takes place because the
discriminators put a premium on associating with their own kind. (This is „positive
discrimination or, „nepotism‟). (Wadensjö and Eskil, 1984) In this research, negative
discrimination refer to the negative influence of re-entry culture shock and Hai Gui’s
being isolated or excluded as well as wrongly perceived by other local counterparts after
returning to China while positive discrimination is related to preferential governmental
and provincial policies that Hai Gui are entitled to if they choose to settle down in China.
2.3.3 Non Discrimination
In this research, non discrimination means that Hai Gui are neither positively
discriminated by preferential policies nor are they negatively discriminated by their
neighbors.
26
2.4 Political Factors as Positive Discrimination
To be able to attract overseas Chinese talent to come back and bring technology to China,
the government has created a range of preferential policies to reward those who have
returned with upgraded overseas knowledge and skills. In addition to governmental
policies, Chinese government claims that each province is entitled to set up their own
preferential policies and systems to draw the attention of outstanding Hai Gui to work for
the province. Preferential policies can be distinguished in between monetary rewards
usually referring to income, funding incentives, or tax subsidies, and non-monetary
rewards such as facilitation of licensing or enterprise registration. The following sub
chapters introduce national and provincial preferential policies accordingly.
2.4.1 Current National Preferential Policies
National monetary policies affect income, funding and taxtation. Due to the variations in
different companies and different cities, the income and compensations that Hai Gui
returnees are being offered differ also depending on their skills and experiences which
they gained during their studying and/or working experience overseas. However, there
exists still a wage gap between the Chinese returnees and local Chinese. (Le Bail and
Shen, 2008) Returnees are perceived as a popular choice among foreign investment
enterprises because they are bilingual and bicultural workers who are originally from
China but have lived, studied, and/or worked in Western countries. The salary for a local
Chinese who graduated from a top Chinese university with ten years of accounting
experience and excellent English skills at a Foreign investment enterprise amounts to
$60,000 while the salary of Chinese returnees with five years‟ experience in accounting
in China and another five years working in the US can reach up to $70,000 in Shanghai.
(Gross and Conner, 2006)
Numerous state programs give overseas students and scholars financial support if they
return. (Zweig, 2006) The existing programs include “The Fund for Returnees to Launch
S&T Researches” which has provided financial with an amount of more than
350,000,000 CNY, “Financial Support for Outstanding Young Professors Program” with
a total of 144 million CNY fund. “The Chunhui Program” has funded more than 8000
individuals and 90 groups of scholars and researchers to serve the country on short-term
27
visit. (MOE, 2008) Moreover, in 2002 alone, the MOE awarded 14 projects under this
program to seven universities for a total of 670,000 CNY. (Zweig, 2006) The Ministry of
Finance has give CAS funds for its “100 talent‟s Program” and winner of this fellowship,
allots 2 million CNY to the awardees; 20% can go for extra salary. (Zweig 2006)
To those Hai Gui returnees who want to set up their own company in China, several
funding programs have also been launched to support those returnee entrepreneurs. The
most well-known program was the set up of business development parks and incubators,
where returnees receive help navigating the bureaucratic maze that new business face.
(Zweig, 2006) Up till 2006, China has built up approximately 130 returnee‟s enterprise
zone to support them starting their own business faster and easier. (Antal and Wang, 2003)
The Ministry of Education has been striving to strengthen the development of enterprise
parks for those returned from overseas studies and establish fine marketing mechanism
and comprehensive circumstances, through the “Supporting Fund for Starting Enterprises
for Outstanding Talents who Return from Overseas Studies” and favorable policies
concerning the procedures for starting an enterprise. (MOE, 2008) Chinese government
has also granted returnees the permission to remit their earnings (after tax) out of the
country, a right otherwise reserved for foreigners working in China. (Antal and Wang,
2003)
National non-monetary preferential policies affected among others registrations and
permit application, information flow between returnees and their home countries. Early
in 1992, the Ministry of Personnel responded to Deng Xiaoping‟s initiative and
announced a strategy to entice returnees back under the slogan of “improving services for
returned students.” (Zweig, 2006) The new preferential policies include giving returnees
more living space and higher professional titles; letting family members move to new
cities where returnees found jobs and permitting students who had signed two- or three-
year contracts with their research centers to switch jobs once their agreements expired.
(Zweig, 2006) The Chinese government has also worked on simplifying the procedure of
residence permit applications. (Bail and Shen, 2008) This suggests that Chinese
authorities also seek to facilitate the stay of overseas Chinese who no longer are Chinese
nationals. For research fellows and professors in this category, China proposes a five year
visa with multiple entries. In August 2004, a permanent residence permit (green card)
28
was also created. It does not only target former Chinese nationals, but may be used by
this category of ethnic Chinese. (Bail and Shen, 2008)
The Chinese government has continuously improved the information flow and advisory
services to Overseas Chinese as well. There are currently 58 education sections, part of
the Chinese Diplomatic Missions abroad in 39 countries. These Education Sections are
staffed by government officials from the MOE, to assist students abroad, and provide
support to firstly state-sponsored Chinese students but now extended its service to all
students, whether public or privately financed. (Bail and Shen, 2008; Zweig, 2006)
2.4.2 Current Provincial Preferential Policies
Even though the Chinese government built up the guideline on how Hai Gui are treated,
diversity in preferential policies at local level is of vital importance to different provinces.
Before Hai Gui return to China, they usually already decided a location they want to
work at, thus, local governments are offering various incentives to compete themselves
for talented overseas returnees. The preferences they grant include: housing discounts,
imported cars, computers, free office or factory floor space, jobs for wives and special
schools for their children, and residence permits for foreign passport holders, which
allows them to come and go freely, without having to relinquish their foreign citizenship.
(Zweig, 2006) Some provincial governments have promised temporary tax reductions or
tax exemptions, and favorable import regulations for the companies created by returners,
and have provided special funds for start-up projects. (Antal and Wang, 2003) Shanghai
and Beijing are the most attractive city to work at among returnees, while Shanghai
attracted 32.37% Hai Gui and Beijing is ranked at No.2 with 27.67 %. Shen Zhen takes
No.3 which attracts 12.13% Hai Gui. (Chinatalents, 2007)
Shanghai is one of the most successful cities which attract lots of returnees. (Zweig, 2006)
Early in 2002, more than 10,000 have settled in the Shanghai area, according to
government data, and they have founded more than 150 companies, mostly small
enterprises. (Clendenin, 2002) Shanghai government has been continuously improving
preferential policies towards Hai Gui: Shanghai was among the first cities to establish
long-term residence visas for returnees with foreign passports. (Zweig, 2006) The
government also encourages municipal governments to set up returnee children class
29
which will focus on the schooling problem or returnees. The most famous policy was
introduced in 2006 which was called “Pu Jiang Plan”, it put 500 million US dollars each
year to support Hai Gui working or setting up own business in Shanghai. The highest
subsidies one can receive is up to 60,000 US dollars. The Hai Gui entrepreneurs who
decided to set up business in Pu Dong area can be entitled to 25,000 US dollars interest
free loan from Pu Dong area government. (Chinatalents, 2007)
Beijing, as the capital of China has been the Chinese political, economical and cultural
center which yields a huge attraction to the returnees. Preferential policies offered by
Beijing government include publishing “Regulations to encourage Overseas Chinese to
Beijing”; returnees who come to Beijing for entrepreneurship and work are entitled to
residence permit, housing, insurance and children schooling preferential policies. As for
entrepreneurial returnees, there are currently 17 enterprising tech-parks among which
Zhong Guan Cun Science Park is the most famous one which has attracted 9,800
returnees until 2009 and 4,200 enterprises were set up by returnees. (Liuxuenet, 2008)
Beijing government has put 60 million US dollars in 2006 to reward those outstanding
entrepreneurs and high-tech parks. There are various preferential policies in the tech-
parks as well such as in Zhong Guan Cun Science Park, returnees can open the business
in two days and Hai Gui only needs to prepare the required documents, the service center
in the park will in charge of all other procedures for free. (Bail and Shen, 2008) In Beida
Science Park, all the enterprises established by Hai Gui are entitled to “three free three
half” policy: since the first day of establishment, the first three years‟ VAT is exempted,
fourth to sixth year will be charged at half VAT which is around 7.5%. (Pkusp, 2008)
Shen Zhen’s is also among one of the top destinations Hai Gui chose to return to. The
launch of famous “1+6” document has raised 25 detailed measures to emphasize on
problems on build-up Shen Zhen Hai Gui talents market especially some “bottleneck”
problems such as housing, children schooling, spouse work and subsidies for academic
exchange. (Sznews, 2008) The document‟s emphasis on striving for talented returnee is
worth mentioning: the government has especially created some job posts for overseas
talents which recruit professional overseas Chinese specialists in areas like city
30
development; architecture; environment and education to work for Shen Zhen, and the
government also set the starting year salary of 500,000 CNY, not more than 1 million
CNY as the competitive income for talented Overseas Chinese professionals. (Sznews,
2008) To those returnee entrepreneurs, Shen Zhen has been providing 4 million US
dollars yearly to fund start-up companies and projects by returnees. (Antal and Wang,
2003) Shen Zhen government indicates that currently the government is investing 3
billion CNY to build returnees business building which the government believes will
attract even more talents in the future. (Chinatalents, 2003)
2.5 Social Factors as Negative Discrimination
Studies to date have been based on returnees‟ self-reports, and have shown that “feeling
different” is a key factor in describing the returnee experience. (Kidder, 1992) After
returning to their home country, many returnees struggle with lasting adjustment and
identity issues. (Minoura, 1988) At the core is a sense of “feeling different” from
mainstream society with respect to their physical appearance, behavioral signs,
interpersonal styles, and manners of speaking. (Kidder, 1992).
2.5.1 Re-entry Culture Shock
The most famous reverse culture shock model was created by Gullahorn and Gullahorn
(1963) which was also called the W-curve theory. It described four elements a repatriate
experience after his/her return to home country: euphoria, culture shock, acculturation
and the stable state. Szkudlarek (2008) pointed out that these four stages are accompanied
by strong affective responses, which in turn influence repatriates‟ readjustment to their
home-country environment and their performance in work place. According to Malcolm,
Li and Goodall‟s research in 2007 on the expatriate managers in China, Overseas Chinese
expatriates who come to live and work in China commonly experience a period of
transition entailing some degree of anxiety, confusion and disruption. It is generally
expected that returnees might need two to three years to fully adapt to the Chinese market
and systems, and five to ten years to fully realize their professional potential. Fan (2008)
mentioned the same situations as the China those students return to is not always the
China they left. The phenomenal economic growth here has led not only to the
31
development of villages and towns, but to a shift in Chinese values and priorities.
Meanwhile, the sea turtles have experienced changes of their own. According to
Szkudlarek (2008), the challenge of returning home is related to issues such as the
unexpectedness of the difficulties encountered; a lack of preparation of reentry; or grief
for the lost expat. Gullahorn and Gullahorn (1963) pointed out that the main difference
between reverse culture shock and culture shock was the expectations of the sojourners.
Sojourners often expected to return to an unchanged home as unchanged individuals,
which was not the case. Stelling (1991) agreed that the returnee expects no difficulties as
he/she is returning home, expects friends and family to have not changed and to welcome
them, and expects the home culture to have remained unchanged and welcoming. For
returnees who have spent most of their lives abroad, the expectations are based on what
they think home is supposed to be as communicated by others (i.e., parents, peers, media)
The return to one‟s home culture demands a type and degree of reorganization of
cognitive, affective and behavioral patterns similar to those required by the initial
departure and acculturation of the sojourn. (Marvin et al., 1986)
2.5.2 Treatment by Neighbors
Treatment by neighbors refers to the treatment Hai Gui receive from locals in China
including colleagues, companies and media. Two most commonly cited causes of
problems among returnees and their peers came from differences in their interpersonal
styles, specifically in their patterns of self-assertion and the relationship between the
individual and the group. (Minoura, 1988) Returnees, especially the ones who lived in
Western cultures, had a tendency to be direct and assert their opinions freely. (Yoshida et
al., 2002) It is also noted that Hai Gui are being treated differently since granting
returnees preferential policies creates bad blood between Hai Gui and people who have
not gone overseas. (Zweig, 2006) Articles in the press and on websites in China refer to
this confrontation as well. Li Qingyuan, Director-General of the Research Center of the
China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC), spoke frankly: “The gap between the
„returnees‟ (overseas trained doctors) and „homegrown scholars‟ (domestically educated
doctors) has been greatly narrowed. Therefore, it is not necessary to separate returnees
from their homegrown counterparts.” Zweig‟s interviews with CAS scientists in 2002 and
2004 showed that returnees and their locally educated counterparts took very different
32
views of government policies more local academics than returnees thought that the
government overemphasized returnees. (Zweig, 2006) Similarly, more locals than
returnees felt that the latter got much more research funding, much better housing and
much faster promotions. (Zweig, 2006) Furthermore, the appearance of the term “Hai Dai”
(seaweed in English), is a sarcastic way of calling returnees who couldn‟t find themselves
a job also make returnees feel discriminated. This term, unlike "Hai Gui", has not become
standard usage yet, but as a homonym of "seaweed", it elicits even more hilarity.
Moreover, some Hai Gui believe that they are perceived by locals as arrogant, unrealistic
in their expectations and unfamiliar with local market. An individual, conspicuously from
a very different culture, may be positively encouraged, and given the benefit of a doubt
going through the arduous process of trying to adjust to the strange culture. (Selmer, 2002)
However, an expatriate from a similar, or presumed identical culture, could be treated
with less patience, and given less latitude for deviant social behavior. (Selmer, 2002) Hai
Gui are often presumed to be familiar with both Chinese and western culture, so when
they return to China, locals judge them as fully understanding Chinese culture and society
and expect them to have an easy and quick adjustment. “A Hong Kong Chinese may be
judged by different standards and more harshly than a foreigner for any mistake made
because he is presumably knowledgeable about Chinese etiquette and manners and would
be expected to fully understand the appropriate social protocol, and behave accordingly.”
(Hung, 1994) The perceived cultural closeness of Chinese returnees seemed to build up
expectations of easy and quick adjustment, which resulted in frustration, resentment, and
withdrawal when not accomplished. (Selmer, 2002)
33
3. Conceptual Framework
There exist many aspects concerning Hai Gui however in this research, the main focus
will be on the discrimination impact of political factors such as preferential policies as
well as social factors such as treatment by the neighbors.
3.1 Conceptual Model
Derived from the literature study, there are in four variables in the conceptual framework.
The Independent variables are: Social Factors and Political Factors. The moderating
variable is Hai Gui Features. Finally, the dependent variable is net effect of both positive
and negative Discrimination against Hai Gui.
3.2 Independent Variable
Social factors include both re-entry culture shock and treatment by the neighbors that Hai
Gui experience after returning to China. These social factors are assumed to be linked to
negative discrimination that will influence the net effect of both positive and negative
factors. Since it takes different length of time for each Hai Gui to readjust to the current
Chinese culture and corporate culture, the consequence of the adaptation process and the
problems that occur along with this adaptation may result in negative discrimination. The
treatment by the neighborhood is considered as influencing the discrimination negatively
as well. Due to Hai Gui‟s special identities, locals perceive them as arrogant, unrealistic
Social Factors
(IV)
Political Factors
(IV)
Net Effect of Positive and Negative
Discrimination on Hai Gui
(DV)
Hai Gui Features
(MV)
34
in their expectations and unfamiliar with local market. Thus, the social factors influence
the net effect of both positive and negative discrimination.
Political factors refer to preferential policies provided by national and/or provincial
authorities. Preferential policies include both monetary rewards such as for example
salary, compensation, house subsidies and also non-monetary rewards such as status, post,
family assistance, and residency card. Many overseas Chinese returnees are attracted by
these policies and choose to come back. Therefore, those preferential policies are
assumed to be positively related to discrimination.
3.3 Moderating and Control Variable
Hai Gui features is referring to a moderating variable in the framework. It shows the
features of Hai Gui themselves, such as for example: years abroad; degree; salary;
working experience which might influence the relationships between 1) political factors
such as preferential policies and discrimination against Hai Gui; 2) social factors and
discrimination against Hai Gui.
However, there remain possibilities in this research that the relationships and results
might be influenced by external variables, namely firm- specific factors.
First of all, firm location might have an effect on different kinds of preferential policies
that are available to Hai Gui. As mentioned above, different provinces have their own
preferential policies- therefore the location of the firm Hai Gui work in or start up
influences the preferential policies they might receive. Furthermore, the salary Hai Gui
receives might also be influenced by the location of firm as median salary varies a lot as
shown in figure 4.
Secondly, firm ownership type can influence the results as well because foreign owned
enterprises tend to need talents who posses good foreign language skills, familiar with
both Chinese and Western cultures and markets. Hai Gui exactly match these
requirements thus in foreign owned enterprises more Hai Gui tend to be recruited,
treatment by local colleagues might be different as well as working environment and the
process of cultural adjustment may be shortened as well.
35
Thirdly, firm size might influence the treatment by others and re-entry culture shock Hai
Gui experience as well. In small sized companies, it is easy to communicate with
everyone and the cooperation process will be smoother while in medium or large sized
companies, there are too many colleagues and Hai Gui might find it hard to cooperate
with them at the starting phase.
These firm specific control variables need to be taken into consideration when analyzing
the interview results.
3.4 Dependent Variable
Dependent variable in this research refers to the net effect of positive and negative
discrimination on Hai Gui. We will examine the sum of both positive and negative
discrimination. The negative discrimination in this interaction is likely to be driven by
social factors- re-entry culture shock and treatment by neighbors. Political factors- such
as preferential policies are regarded as positive discrimination on Hai Gui.
36
4. Research Design
4.1 Method and Sampling
4.1.1 Research Method
The purpose of this study is mainly to examine the net effect of positive discrimination
by political factors and negative discrimination by social factors. Multiple case studies
will be selected as the research strategy. A case study is a type of research during which
the researcher tries to gain a profound insight into one or several objects or processes that
are restricted in time and space. (Verschuren and Doorewaard, 2005) Due to the
exploratory nature of this research, cases to be studied thus are of vital importance.
According to Vershuren and Doorewaard (2005), there are two options when selecting
cases either showing a minimum number of differences or a maximum number of
differences. Since there is little knowledge about the subject in this case, it is well
advised to look at cases that on the whole, show a lot of similarities with minimal
variation.
4.1.2 Research Sampling
Sample in this research are being divided into two separate pools. Both Hai Gui returnees
and local employees will be interviewed. Hai Gui returnees are those who have studied
and/or worked abroad and returned to China for career development- either as employees
or entrepreneurs. These people have both overseas experience and domestic experience
therefore, they will be able to answer the questions in a more accurate and precise way
related to their own situation. Local employees who are selected to be interviewed have
at least one Hai Gui colleague, in this way they can tell their impression of Hai Gui
generally as well as the one they are working with. The target amount of the combined
pools of candidates is 25 with 20 Hai Gui returnees and 5 local employees selected and
interviewed. Both Hai Gui returnees and local employees are contacted by the following
methods:
- Through personal networks. These people were contacted directly via E-mails and
telephones.
37
- Through networks of family and friends. After they contacted Hai Gui or local
employees they knew and those people were willing to cooperate, they were then
contacted via E-mails and telephones as well.
Through the above two methods, 25 respondents were reached and interviewed within a
short time. 20 Hai Gui respondents were interviewed which included 13 male and seven
female. There are 11 of them currently locating in Shanghai and 4 in Beijing, 2 in Tianjin
while Guangzhou, Nanning and Qingdao each has one Hai Gui currently working there.
As to the size of the companies these Hai Gui work for, 11 of them work in large
companies, which have more than 250 employees. Another 3 Hai Gui are being
employed in medium sized companies, with 50-250 employees and 6 of them work in
companies that are small-sized. There are 4 Hai Gui currently working in state-owned
enterprises while 7 working in private enterprises. Another 9 of them work in foreign-
owned enterprises.
In addition, 5 local employees were interviewed which 3 of them are male and 2 are
female. There are 4 currently working in Shanghai and one in Beijing. Among the
companies they work for, 3 are large-sized firms and 2 are small-sized firms. The
ownership types of the firms are private-owned (3) and foreign-owned (2).
4.2 Data Source
Most of the secondary data was gathered by archive research where Web of Science;
Business Source Premier Database and Erasmus Library were mainly used to search for
relevant articles on the subject. The key words used to search were: „Chinese Returnees‟,
„Discrimination‟, „Re-entry Culture Shock‟, „Government Policy” and “Sojourners”.
In the actual research, the telephone interview was the main tool to get the information
directly from respondents therefore, the interviews results are treated as primary data.
Due to the qualitative nature of the research, it is more reliable to conduct interviews by
asking candidates questions directly through the phone.
4.3 Data Collection
4.3.1 Data gathering
38
The process of gathering data was smooth and quick since the respondents are either
within personal networks or networks from family and friends. Most people contacted
were willing to take the interview over the phone. All the interviews were conducted over
the period of December 2008 to February 2009. However, there might exist bias in data
gathering process since the results of this research are generated from only 20 Hai Gui
respondents and 5 local employees. Among them 10 used to study in the Netherlands and
11 of them are currently working in Shanghai. In addition, only some of them actually
benefited from preferential policies from both government and province. Therefore, the
outcomes of this research might be to some extent biased and cannot generalize for all
overseas Chinese returnees who come back to China. Moreover, most of the respondents
in this research were contacted through personal network, thus bias may also be resulted
from the nature of the respondents who agreed to be interviewed. The interviewee might
provide a partial „picture‟ of the situation that casts himself or herself in a „socially
desirable‟ role, or the organization for which they work in positive fashion. (Saunders, et
al., 2003) Nevertheless, the interview results are still representative as it gives the
impression and general idea of Hai Gui returnees in China.
4.3.2 Data collection method
The main data collection method was telephone interviews by asking respondents the
questions from a semi-structured questionnaire. The online VOIP (Voice over IP)
software- VoIP Stunt and Skype were used for conducting telephone calls. The
questionnaire is semi-structured as more questions can arise as a result of discussion. For
instance when asking respondents the biggest difference in China before they left and
after they came back‟, the answer mentioned „the quality of people has improved‟, led to
respondents being asked to elaborate on his/her answers. More information and new
insights were provided to understand the topic.
However, the telephone interviews were not being recorded due to lack of facilities and
equipment. All the answers from the respondents were entered to the computer first and
saved as Microsoft Word document for future data analysis. Interviews that were
conducted in Chinese were entered in Chinese during the interview; the data were
translated into English afterwards by the interviewer. Simultaneously, a Microsoft Excel
39
form was created to put all the answers to each interview questions together for a clear
view of the answers.
4.4 Data Analysis
Data that has been gathered in this research is qualitative in nature. All the questions
except the basic information of the respondents are open-end questions. Through case
studies, profound insight will be given to the topic. Each respondent is being treated as a
separate case. Data will be interpreted holistically as it draws the conclusions based on
the text on a whole. (Verschuren and Doorewaard, 2005) Raw data of the interview are
being interpreted in order to seek linkage between research project and the results, as well
as the relation to the research questions. Moreover, through the analysis process, new
insights or opportunities will be taken into consideration as well.
40
5. Results
The following results are being discussed in this chapter: reasons why Chinese students
go abroad and relevant information about their studying/working abroad experience, their
motivations to come back, Hai Gui‟s perception of preferential policies and treatment by
neighbors. Difficulties Hai Gui met after returning. Moreover, insights from local
counterparts will also be discussed.
5.1 Hai Gui
5.1.1 I Leave
Each year the number of Chinese students going abroad and coming back is increasing.
When asking the respondents3 why they chose to go abroad, 95% of them mentioned the
same reason: to increase human capital by broadening horizons and visions, receiving
professional education and experiencing different cultures. It is clearly that most of Hai
Gui believe studying abroad will not only increase their specific knowledge about certain
areas but also their life experience through seeing the outside world. 8 respondents4 also
mentioned overseas experience would be helpful for their future career development
because the development of the Chinese economy needs people who have overseas
experience. Another 5 respondents went abroad to improve their English or other foreign
language skills, as they thought the best way to learn language was to go to that country
which speaks the language. In addition to the above mentioned top reasons, fame of the
university, parents‟ expectation, better research environments and government
sponsorship were pointed out by the respondents as well.
The countries they used to study or work in are widely spread all over the world. (See
Figure 7) 10 of the respondents used to study and/or work in the Netherlands, 3 went to
UK and Singapore. U.S. and Australia accounted for 2 each, Germany, New Zealand,
Sweden and France are also among the list. Among 20 respondents, 3 of them stayed in
different countries.
3 To keep the privacy of respondents, their names and actual company names are being hided in this
research.
4 Hai Gui, returnees, respondents are interchangeable from here on. Local employee respondents will have
local employees in front of respondents.
41
Figure 7 Countries Hai Gui Studied and/or Worked
5.1.2 I See & I Learn
Hai Gui‟s own features such as years abroad, working experience and degree obtained
were also collected. These factors are considered as moderating variables which might
have influence on the relationship between political/social factor and net effect of
positive and negative discrimination.
5.1.2.1 Hai Gui- Years of Experience Abroad
Years respondents spent abroad varied from the shortest 1 year, to the longest 16 years.
However, the average number of years they studied and/or worked is approximately 5
years. (See Appendix 2)
5.1.2.2 Hai Gui- Working Experience
Among the 20 Hai Gui that were interviewed, 11 used to work in China before they went
abroad, none of their former employer sponsored their study abroad however 2 Hai Gui
were being offered to work for the company again after coming back. The other 9 Hai
Gui didn‟t have any working experience before leaving China. (As shown in Figure 8)
Figure 8: Working Experience in China
10
33
2
2
1 11 1
Hai Gui- Countries Studied and/or Worked
the Netherlands
UK
Singapore
Australia
US
Germany
New Zealand
Sweden
France
42
5.1.2.3 Hai Gui- Major of Study & Degrees Obtained
As shown in Figure 9, 65% of respondents chose Business Management as their major of
study in areas like finance, marketing, and business studies. Law is ranked as the second
as 3 chose to study abroad, 2 chose Information Technology and another 2 chose Bio-
chemical Engineering. Clinical Medicine accounts for 1 as well.
As for degrees obtained abroad, 10 respondents completed a bachelor‟s degree, 8
obtained a master‟s degree and another 2 graduated with a PhD. Some of the respondents
obtained either a bachelor‟s and master‟s degrees or a master‟s and a PhD degrees abroad.
Figure 9: Hai Gui- Major Field of Study
5.1.3 I Return
As shown in Box 1, family reasons (60%) became the most important factor when they
measured the pros and cons of returning to China. Due to the government policy on
9
2
9
Working Experience in ChinaYes, but without sponsor ship or job offer
Yes, without sponsor but job offer
No working experience
15; 65%3; 13%
2; 9%
1; 4%2; 9%
Hai Gui - Major Field of Study
Business Management
Law Studies
Information Techonology
Clinical Medicine
Bio-chemical engineering
43
birth-rate control, many young returnees are the only child in the family; therefore they
face great pressure to return.
One Hai Gui who came back from the Netherlands said:
“I had no other choice but coming back because my dad was 75 years old
already and mom passed away 10 years ago. After my graduation I
considered millions of times whether I should stay in the Netherlands for
several years’ more working experience or just go back. Finally, I made up
the decision to come back because I don’t want to see my dad being alone
anymore.”
This also applied to several other returnees as they went back to China because they felt
homesick when they were abroad; they said they had the responsibility of taking care of
their parents and accompanying them in China.
The booming economy in China creating better opportunities became the second most
important reason that motivated 5 Hai Gui to come back as one returnee from New
Zealand mentioned “As China is growing stronger and the economy is also booming, I
see opportunities rising so I chose to come back”. Another returnee who had working
experience in both Singapore and Australia said “I have seen more and more
opportunities in China as the Chinese booming economy brought in lots of foreign
investment as well as foreign companies.”
Also, 5 of the returnees pointed out the better career development in China was one of the
important reasons when deciding to come back. “China is the biggest potential market in
the world, especially cities like Beijing and Shanghai will have better, and more
Box 1. Motivations to Return to China
Family reasons 60%
Better opportunities in China 45%
Better career development 25%
Hard to find employment abroad 25%
Hard to be involved in foreign culture 20%
44
promising career development chances,” said from two returnees who are working in
Beijing and Shanghai.
There are 5 returnees chose hard to find employment overseas and 4 chose trouble fitting
in foreign culture as one of the reasons they decided to come back, since working abroad
require residence permits and working permits. While the former is easy to get, the latter
is considered to be rather difficult. A returnee who stayed in France for five years
mentioned, “The upper development space in Europe is narrow and if you want to stay
for long term purpose, there are a lot of policy limitations and permits regulations which
makes working in Europe very hard for those who don‟t posses EU passport/citizenship.”
Some returnees experienced difficulties in adjusting to a foreign culture as they felt the
life abroad was boring and they are more accustomed to life in China.
5.2 Political Factors- Preferential Policies
Questions about preferential policies were asked during the interview and the results are
shown in below.
5.2.1 Preferential policies returnees benefited from
70% of the respondents answered “none” when asking them if they had benefited from
any of the preferential policies on both national and provincial level. The following box
shows a better insight of the results.
Among all the Hai Gui interviewed, 2 of them started their own company in Beijing and
Shanghai, both of them benefited from some preferential policies from government and
Box 2. Preferential Policies Hai Gui Benefited From
Government tuition fee sponsorship 10%
Funding and support for entrepreneurs 10%
Tax exemptions and reductions 5%
Housing subsidies 5%
Tax free car 5%
None 70%
45
province. As one Hai Gui who now owns his own bio-tech company in Zhong Guan Cun
High- tech Park said during the interview:
“My company was established in 2005 in Zhong Guan Cun High-tech Park.
I was entitled to several preferential policies both from government and
local province. I received non-remunerated funds from both Beijing
government and Zhong Guan Cun for innovation project; I also used the
express path for company registration in the Park; moreover, I am also
entitled to preferential tax policies that the taxes are eliminated in the first
two years and from the 3rd
year on, there is 50 percent deduction on tax.”
There were also two Hai Gui who benefited from government sponsored tuition fees
which enabled them to study in Sweden and Germany. However, the latter sponsorship
program has been canceled 3 years ago. Another Hai Gui, who established his own
medical company in Shanghai commented:
“I now receive over 10,000 CNY (€around 1,100) as a housing subsidy
from the Shanghai government, and I was also funded by the government
when I started my company however, the amount of funds was small
because too many Hai Gui returnees are applying for it but the total
amount of funds are limited. You can’t expect the government to give you 5
million CNY because that 5 million are being distributed to many
applicants.”
Although there were only few Hai Gui who benefited from the preferential policies, the
question still remains as whether those Hai Gui know the existence of these preferential
policies and whether the contents of the preferential policies are clear to them?
5.2.2 Knowledge about preferential policies
When the respondents mentioned that they didn‟t benefit from any preferential policies,
they were immediately asked whether they know any of the preferential policies. Those
who had benefited from preferential policies were also being asked if they are familiar
with any other policies. As shown in Box 3, there were still 7 Hai Gui who couldn‟t name
any of the policies, 3 mentioned they knew some but couldn‟t remember the names. 6
46
respondents knew the policy for buying a tax free car, 2 mentioned the supporting fund
from Zhong Guan Cun High-tech Park for entrepreneurs. Only 1 respondent who is
currently working in Beijing mentioned several policies that he knew such as “100 talent
plan” (Bairen Jihua) and “Changjiang Program” (Chang Jiang Xuezhe Jihua) however, he
wasn‟t entitled to any of them. The above mentioned respondent who owns his own bio-
tech company in Zhong Guan Cun High-tech Park provided some other policies he knew
such as Ministry of Science & Technology innovation funds and the Beijing Municipal
Science & Technology Commission, but he wasn‟t successful in applying for any of
funds.
It seemed that most of the respondents in this research neither benefited from the
preferential policies nor did they know any of the policies. Is this finding contradicting
other researchers‟ findings that preferential policies were treated as positive factors that
helped many returnees after returning to China? The third question therefore focused on
what these returnees think of the policies.
5.2.3 Perception of preferential policies by Hai Gui
The answers from the Hai Gui returnees in this research questioned the positive
discrimination effect on Hai Gui. Asking Hai Gui their opinions on the current
preferential policies gave us some better insights into this problem.
Firstly the results of advantages are being shown in Box 3.
More than 50% of the Hai Gui agreed that the existence and establishment of these
preferential policies have an influence in attracting more overseas talents to come back.
Box 3. Perceptions of preferential policies
Attracting more overseas talents 54%
Strong support for entrepreneurs 15%
Unclear policies and application procedures 40%
Target only on some of returnees 35%
Too few preferential policies 30%
Unknown policies 15%
47
Another 3 mentioned that the preferential policies provided for entrepreneurs are strong
and useful. These are regarded as advantages of preferential policies.
On the other hand, 8 respondents considered the policies and their application procedures
as unclear, vague and not transparent enough. One respondent who is working in a large
foreign bank in Shanghai said:
“Maybe preferential policies are good for Hai Gui; however, they are not clear
to us, we don’t know what we are entitled to and where we should turn to for an
application.”
Another Hai Gui who owns his own company in Shanghai commented:
“…they have too many limitations and are hard to apply due to many rules and
regulations. Moreover, the procedure is not totally transparent. I only learned of
the housing subsidy policy a year ago but I could have already benefited from it
6 years ago. The policies are unclear, and no one knows them.”
Targeting on only some of the returnees became the second disadvantage of preferential
policies as mentioned by 7 Hai Gui. They had the feeling that the current national and
provincial policies are only aiming at limited target groups of returnees, considering the
huge amount of Hai Gui returning every year. One respondent from France mentioned:
“The preferential policies have limited target groups of people; they are aiming
at those who have a high-technology background or a professional background.
Those who are entitled to the policies are usually professors or engineers etc. As
for those who have a business background returnee like me, there aren’t so many
preferential policies.”
6 Hai Gui also felt there were too few preferential policies available to all returnees
especially since the number of returned students is increasing every year.
3 Hai Gui mentioned that unknown policies are also a problem of current preferential
policies. As one Hai Gui from New Zealand said:
“If I don’t even know and I haven’t even heard of those policies, how can it still
be called preferential policy?”
48
5.3 Social Factors
Social factors are assumed to have a negative influence on discrimination toward Hai Gui.
During the interview, respondents were asked to answer whether they have experienced
re-entry culture shock. If they did experience such a shock, they were asked to elaborate
on it. Regarding the effect of treatment by neighbors, respondents were asked questions
such as “could you describe the differences in working environment in China” or “What
difficulties are you encountering as a Hai Gui in China?”
5.3.1 Re-entry culture shock
11 of the respondents had experienced re-entry culture shock after they returned to China
whilst 5 are still trying to readapt. (For complete figures, see Appendix 2) The results of
Hai Gui‟s experience with changes in China provided detailed information about the
culture shock they encountered.
As shown in Box 4, returnees experienced various kinds of re-entry culture shocks. 11 of
the respondents were surprised to see the changes in local Chinese: common descriptions
when explaining these changes were “more open”, “more international” or “more willing
to accept new things”. Not only people, but also living standards were improved
according to 8 respondents. The living quality of the population became better as one
returnee from US said:
“The changes in China are obvious. China is more and more westernized and
has adopted a lot of cultural elements from abroad. For instance, the Oscars,
NBA games and even the Super Bowl are now being broadcast in China. Chinese
Box 4: Differences Hai Gui Experienced in China
Improved living standards 40%
Openness of people 55%
Modernized with better infrastructure 25%
Rising buying power 15%
Crowded cities 10%
Indirect communication method 15%
Fierce competition 20%
Bad relationship with family 35%
49
people become more and more open and willing to accept new things as well. It
is not a bad thing because in the meantime, the Chinese still keep the good
traditional essence.”
Other culture differences mentioned by the respondents included a modernized China
with better infrastructure (5) and rising buying power (3) They noticed the booming
economy enabled China to be more modern and more internationalized with better
infrastructure. Some respondents mentioned that the speed of urban development was
rapid which increases the quality of life as well. One returnee from France gave an
example of the appearance and common use of vending machine in China:
“Although a vending machine is just a tiny little machine, it shows more meaning,
as the development of technology and the adoption of modern forms of society.”
A few Hai Gui found out that with the development of Chinese economy, people had
stronger buying power as well as one returnee in Shanghai said,
“Living standards have been raised to a high level and consumer goods
became more and more expensive. It is no longer proud for women in Shanghai
who own a luxury bag. You can see Shanghai streets full of Louis Vuitton and
Gucci nowadays while you barely saw any of them 4 or 5 years ago. Buying
power was strengthened to a high level.”
Two respondents indicated that when they came back from abroad, they had to face the
huge population and the crowded environment in cities like Beijing and Shanghai.
Compared to their life overseas where they saw quiet streets at night and shopping malls
without crowds of customers, „life in Shanghai is good, but noisy and crowds are a bit
annoying to me,‟ one respondent mentioned.
Indirect communication with locals was also a problem three Hai Gui returnees
perceived. After years abroad, they were accustomed to direct ways of talking but after
they came back, they discovered that direct way of communication was no longer
acceptable to some local Chinese. A Hai Gui returning to Tianjin said:
50
“I’m not used to a communication pattern that people don’t like to express their
opinions directly, especially to their boss. Too direct could be a kind of shock for
Chinese people and sometimes you have to pretend yourself.”
Moreover, about four Hai Gui stated their worries about the current fierce competition for
talents. One of them from Singapore said,
“Due to the high population in China, the competition is naturally fiercer than in
foreign countries. After coming back, I noticed more and more Chinese people
have overseas experience in terms of studying, working, business travelling,
family visits. Many outstanding overseas Chinese came back to China.
Compared to when I left, the competition for talents has become severe
especially with the current global recession. ”
Significant changes in the perceived quality of relationships among friends and family of
returnees are identified. (Martin, 1986) This was being found as well during the
interviews: bad relationships with family were proven to have occurred to 7 Hai Gui
unexpectedly, as one of them from France mentioned,
“Since I came back, I always argue and dispute with my parents. They tried to
control me and my personal life, get involved in my daily life. The way of
thinking is totally different between me and my parents. It is hard for me to get
reaccustomed to the Chinese way of living especially in aspects such as
independence, freedom and democracy.”
There were also some respondents mentioning that since they came back to their family,
they were no longer free to do anything as they could have when being alone abroad.
They had to take the responsibilities for their families and work.
The above mentioned culture shock that Hai Gui had experienced or are experiencing at
the moment require them to re-adjust and readapt to the culture of home country. It is
generally expected that returnees might need two to three years to fully adapt to the
Chinese market and systems. (Malcolm et al., 2007) In this research, Hai Gui
respondents were also asked about the length of their readjustment to Chinese culture as
51
well, and among eleven of them who already finished the adaptation process, it took
them an average of 14 months. (See Appendix 2)
5.3.2 Treatment by neighbors
Several questions were designed to ask the respondents whether treatment by neighbors
leads to negative discrimination of Hai Gui. Respondents were asked questions on the
following topics:
- Changes in Chinese working environment;
- Whether they want to stay with the company in the next 3 years, and if not, what
are their reasons for leaving;
- Difficulties they met after coming back.
While examining treatment by their neighbors, people near them such as local colleagues,
managers and companies play an important role in it.
5.3.2.1 Changes in the working environment in China
Box 5 shows the answers from Hai Gui on whether they perceived any differences in
their working environment. Of all the answers, emphasis on personal relationship was
considered to be the main issue in the company, especially when dealing with local
colleagues: 7 of the respondents indicated that they had met problems in their relationship
with colleagues. One Hai Gui returnee who currently works in a small private firm in
Beijing said:
Box 5: Differences Experienced in the Working
Environment
Personal relationships 35%
Fierce competition 20%
Complex environment 20%
International atmosphere 20%
No problem 15%
52
“With some of them we are good friends but on the other hand, some colleagues
think differently and look at you differently. It is just hard to become friends with
them because they have a totally different way of thinking. In most cases, I find
my colleagues are very conservative and will only communicate with you about
business.”
Another returnee who was appointed as a professor in a famous university in China
shared his thoughts on this issue as well:
“In Chinese universities, you can see supplantation (isolation) and suppression
almost everywhere in your colleagues. Local officials sometimes just expel those
who have real talents; they also have direct control over all kinds of resources
and people. The working environment I experienced was dark.”
In addition to the relationship with locals, the complex environment in Chinese
companies was commented on by four respondents as well. They had the feeling that
working in China was different, such as there being a lot of work, pressure, and many
constantly changing regulations and rules that are difficult to cope with. One Hai Gui said
the complex working environment might also relate to persons that you are working with.
Fierce competition was mentioned by four respondents who were aware of the fact that
nowadays Hai Gui are no longer being valued as before: more and more returnees
returned to China with outstanding skills as well as superior knowledge of their own area
of expertise. The competition for talents thus started to be a common phenomenon in
Chinese companies. A more international atmosphere was another change in the working
environment as four said the booming Chinese economy attracted many foreign investors
to enter the Chinese market. Therefore, you have to deal with people from different
backgrounds and diverse cultures from all over the world.
In spite of the above difficulties and differences in their working environment, 3 Hai Gui
didn‟t any problems with working in China. However, they all thought the reason for this
was due to the nature of their companies. All of them work in an international company
where many colleagues share an international background: the communication and
cooperation were said to be efficient and effective.
5.3.2.2 Stay or leave the company
53
When asking the respondents whether they will stay in the company, the results are
shown in Figure 10. 9 respondents said they would stay in the company for the next three
years. Four of them said they are uncertain at the moment: whether to stay or leave
depends on many other factors. 6 chose to definitely leave the company in the next 3
years. As to those eleven respondents who answered with yes or it depends, the follow-up
question what the reasons are that you want to leave was asked immediately. The results
of the answers are further shown in Box 7 (based on 11 answers).
Figure 10: Stay or Leave Your Company in the next 3 years?
Low salary is the top reason that 82% of Hai Gui want to leave their current company.
Some of them mentioned although their salary cannot be compared to Europe or America,
they still think their capabilities should be worth a higher salary. 7 are not really satisfied
with their current working environment and they prefer to work in an environment more
challenging. Only one respondent mentioned that the main reason he wanted to leave is
because of unpleasant relationship with his local counterparts. 3 discovered there is little
9; 45%
5; 25%
6; 30%
Stay or Leave Your Company?
Yes, I will stay for another 3 years
It depends
No, I will change a job
Box 6: Reasons to Leave Your Company
Low salary 82%
Working environment 36%
Development chances 18%
Doesn’t match personal interest 18%
54
room for development in the company, therefore, they want to leave and another 3
respondents hoped their next job would be more in line with their personal interest.
5.3.2.3 Difficulties Hai Gui Encountered
When asking respondents about the difficulties they encountered as Hai Gui in China, 10
respondents had encountered difficulties with high expectations as shown in Box 7. 7 of
them thought their own high expectations were the main problem while only five
encountered difficulties from others‟ high expectations. Their own high expectations are
expressed in terms of salary and jobs. Before Hai Gui returned, they have expectations of
finding an employment with a good salary but many of them were disappointed. One Hai
Gui who currently works in Beijing said,
“It is so hard to find a dream job. Maybe it is related to my high expectations;
however I’m not satisfied with my job in terms of salary, atmosphere and the job
I do. Moreover, I think these are common problems for many Hai Gui as well.”
This result of high expectations of the salary corresponds to the findings in Box 7, the
top reason that induces Hai Gui to leave the current company is also salary.
Not only do some Hai Gui have high expectations of themselves, other locals they meet
such as colleagues and managers also have high expectations and requirements of them.
Hai Gui are often linked naturally with capabilities like good English, familiarity of both
Chinese and Western culture, ease adjusting to the corporate culture, etc. This situation is
in accordance with the existing literature that the perceived cultural closeness of Chinese
returnees seemed to build up expectations of easy and quick adjustment, (Selmer, 2002)
A returnee in Beijing told his own experience:
Box 7: Difficulties Hai Gui
Encountered
High expectations 50%
Personal relationship & network 40%
Unclear policies and rules 15%
No difficulties 20%
55
“…yes, my local counterparts perceive as differently, such as that I shouldn’t
make mistakes in my work because I have foreign experience, I earn a good
salary and I am supposed to do things right. Sometimes I feel unhappy and upset.”
Another Hai Gui currently located in Nanning said,
“Chinese economic growth might have brought a lot of opportunities, however, it
also requires Hai Gui to possess more abilities than locals. Sometimes there are
just too many expectations and requirements of Hai Gui.”
A lot of Hai Gui mentioned also that Hai Gui should try to balance their own mentality,
do not have too high expectations, upgrade themselves with new knowledge and skills
that are expected or required.
Some of the answers given by Hai Gui overlapped or inter-related with the difficulties
they experienced in their working environment. (See Box 5) For instance, personal
relationships were mentioned again by 8 of Hai Gui, stating that it was regarded the
biggest difficulty which was similar to the biggest differences they discovered in the
working environment. One returnee from the Netherlands mentioned:
“It’s not only the relationship with your colleagues but also your own network.
This is the hardest part for Hai Gui because when we came back, we hardly knew
anyone from business, and it takes a huge amount of time to build a personal
network especially in business.”
Three respondents encountered problems as they met difficulties in the relevant rules and
regulations for companies. These policies were not as same as the preferential policies
towards Hai Gui but just normal Chinese government rules that applied to everyone. For
example they mentioned the policies for Hu Kou (Chinese residence permit which varies
per province or city); company registration; tax regulations and also industrial policies
were not clear to them and these regulations are important in China. Another four
respondents, however, didn‟t meet any difficulties.
5.4 From Local Employees’ Perspective
56
Since treatment by neighbors includes treatment from local employees who work together
with Hai Gui, 5 local employees were interviewed on their opinions about working with
Hai Gui.
5.4.1 Perception of Hai Gui Characteristics
While being asked about Hai Gui‟s main characteristics as perceived by them, all of them
agreed that Hai Gui returnees have strong foreign language skills, three mentioned that
Hai Gui‟s international experience is one of their main characteristics. More confident
and outgoing are mentioned by two local employees and one indicated good
communication skills of Hai Gui as well.
5.4.2 Perception of different treatment
Whether local employees and Hai Gui employees are being treated differently in the
company was asked during the interview. However, all of them mentioned there are no
differences at all between local employees and Hai Gui employees in the company. One
local employee from Shanghai said,
“Years ago, the treatment towards Hai Gui and the focus on Hai Gui was a
lot better and a lot more compared to nowadays. With more and more Hai Gui
coming back to China, the emphasis is now equal on both local talents and Hai
Gui. Maybe in a few multinational or international companies, they tend to
prefer Hai Gui more since they need integrated talents who can speak fluent
foreign language and who are familiar with foreign culture.”
5.4.3 Perception of the cooperation process
The cooperation process is always important within a company, especially where both
Hai Gui and local employees are working together. Three of the local employees
mentioned that there is no problem at all cooperating with Hai Gui employees in their
company as they perceive Hai Gui to have good communication skills. Another local
employee thinks the cooperation processes is related to one‟s own characteristics such as
outgoing or introvert personality and that there is no direct linkage to being a Hai Gui.
One local employee from Shanghai however, indicated that,
57
“Hai Gui are usually not sensitive to notice the relationship between people.
They would rather focus on how to resolve problem.”
5.4.4 Perception of relationship with Hai Gui
Three local employees perceive relationship between them and Hai Gui employees to be
good, harmonious, equal and friendly. The other two employees mentioned that some
relationships are good, some are just normal but overall, there is no bad relationship
existing.
58
6 Conclusions
6.1 Summary of Main Findings
6.1.1 Political factors as positive discrimination
The Ministry of Education estimated that there were more than 50,000 overseas Chinese
returnees in 2008. It seems that the preferential policies have played a role in that,
especially when comparing the results with Professor Zweig‟s research. (Zweig, 2006)
While in his interview with returnees, 47% chose good government policy, in our results
when asking Hai Gui about their motivations to come back, surprisingly none of them
mentioned preferential policies. Even after they came back, 70% of them still didn‟t
benefit from any of the preferential policies and 7 Hai Gui can‟t even name one
preferential policy that they know or they have heard of.
Combined with the results of Hai Gui‟s perception of preferential policies, the presumed
positive discrimination of Hai Gui by the influence of political factor-preferential policies
does not exist since majority of the respondents didn‟t benefit from either
governmental or provincial preferential policies. Therefore, the positive effect is regarded
as not existed. Hai Gui are not being discriminated by governmental or local preferential
policies. Furthermore, the current preferential policies contain the following drawbacks
that Hai Gui perceive:
- Current policies have unclear rules and less transparent application procedure;
- Only a few policies are available to those Hai Gui who return for employment in
enterprise; most current preferential policies are mainly focusing on scholars,
people with high technical skills and entrepreneurial returnees.
- Many Hai Gui are still not aware of any preferential policies that they are entitled
to. They don‟t even know how to find these policies.
6.1.2 Social factors as negative discrimination
Based on the analysis of interview results, it can be concluded that most of Hai Gui
returnees experienced re-entry cultural shock to different extents after coming back to
China. In total 60% of Hai Gui experienced re-entry culture shock and another 4 of them
59
are still undergoing the readjustment process when some of them even found it hard to
adapt to the Chinese culture again. This proves that Overseas Chinese expatriates who
come to live and work in China commonly experience a period of transition entailing
some degree of anxiety, confusion and disruption. (Malcom et al., 2007) Moreover, the
culture shock that Hai Gui experienced or are experiencing at the moment required them
to re-adjust and readapt to the culture of home culture again. According this research, it
will take on average 1 year and 2 months to readjust to the culture of the home country.
This is consistent with the literature review that it is generally expected that returnees
might need two to three years to fully adapt to the Chinese market and systems. (Malcolm
et al., 2007) Therefore, the assumed negative relationship between re-entry culture shock
and discrimination is confirmed as re-entry culture shock has a negative influence on Hai
Gui .
Based on the results of the questions about treatment by others, the negative effect of
treatment by others which leads to discrimination is found by some Hai Gui in terms of
high expectations from local counterparts, unpleasant relationship with locals due to
different interpersonal styles and a bad working environment occurred to some of the Hai
Gui as well. This explained well that two most commonly cited causes of problems
among returnees and their peers came from differences in their interpersonal styles,
specifically in their patterns of self-assertion and the relationship between the individual
and the group. (Minoura, 1988) However, this negative treatment from locals is
experienced by a limited number of Hai Gui, as most of the other Hai Gui are still willing
to stay in the current company for the next three years saying they have a harmonious
relationship with their local counterparts. Moreover, local respondents confirmed that
there were no conflicts or different treatments between them and returnees. Therefore, the
negative effect of treatment by neighbors does exist but such an effect is believed to be
weak when compared to the strong negative effect of re-entry culture shock.
6.1.3 Hai Gui features as moderating variables
- Hai Gui’s years stayed abroad as a moderating variable;
While comparing the length of each respondent‟s readjustment process and Hai Gui‟s
own features, their years of overseas experience are confirmed to have an influence on re-
60
entry cultural shock and negative discrimination. Appendix 2 shows the figures
comparing the years Hai Gui spent abroad and length of adjustment they took to readapt
to Chinese culture. It indicates that in most situations, the longer Hai Gui studied and/or
worked abroad, the longer the adaptation time they need to readjust to re-entry cultural
shock, and vice versa. This finding suggests that the length of Hai Gui‟s experience
abroad moderates the relationship between re-entry culture shock and net effect of
positive/negative factor, as the longer time Hai Gui spent abroad, the negative effect of
re-entry culture shock will be strengthened, and vice versa.
- Hai Gui’s prior working experience in China as moderating variable;
Compared to the results of treatment by neighbors in Appendix 2, Hai Gui who had prior
working experience in China tend to perceive less negative treatment from their local
counterparts compared to Hai Gui who hadn‟t worked before in China. Therefore,
working experience in China has a moderating effect on the relationship between
treatment by others and negative discrimination on Hai Gui. If a Hai Gui has working
experience before leaving, the negative effect of treatment by others will be weakened.
- Hai Gui’s degree obtained and major of study as moderating variables;
Preferential policies from both national and provincial level are proven to be positive
discrimination targeting only a small proportion of Hai Gui returnees. When comparing
Hai Gui‟s major and degree with those who benefited from preferential policies, most of
Hai Gui who have benefited from preferential policies obtained their master and PhD
degrees with a major in a high-tech related area such as bio-chemical engineering,
information technology and clinical medicine. Therefore, the weak relationship between
preferential policies and positive discrimination is influenced by Hai Gui‟s degrees as
well as majors. The higher the degree they obtained abroad and the more high-tech
related the major learnt abroad, the more they will be entitled to more preferential
policies: thus the more positive discrimination will occur.
6.1.4 Firm- specific factors as control variables
- Firm location as a control variable;
61
When examining the influence of firm location as a control variable, no evidence was
found when looking at the relationship between preferential policies and positive
discrimination. (see Appendix 3) Hai Gui who have benefited from the preferential
policies are spread over different cities, thus the control effect doesn‟t exist. The same
applies to the negative effect of re-entry culture shock and treatment by others.
- Firm Size as control variable;
Appendix 3 also shows that the assumed control effect of firm size on re-entry culture
shock and treatment by others was not proven, since the negative effect of re-entry
culture shock and treatment by others both occurred on Hai Gui who work in all sizes of
companies: small-, medium- and large-sized companies.
- Firm Ownership type;
Once again, Appendix 3 shows that no control effect was found when comparing Hai Gui
from different types of firms with re-entry culture shock and treatment by others. Both
the negative effect of re-entry culture shock and the treatment by others appear in all
types of companies: state-owned, foreign-owned and private enterprises.
6.1.5 Net Effect of Political and Social Discrimination Factors on Hai Gui
When combining all the above mentioned major findings, the net effect of political and
social discrimination factors on Hai Gui are proven to be negative because of non
discrimination of preferential policies, the apparent negative effect of re-entry culture
shock and the weak negative effect of treatment by others. Although some factors of Hai
Gui features are proved to have a moderating effect on the net effect, the manipulating
power is not strong enough to change the negative effect of re-entry culture shock.
Therefore, the negative net effect exists when considering both positive political factors
and negative social factors.
6.2 Managerial Implications and Recommendations
The result of this research has suggested that the net effect of social factors and political
factors is overall negative. The negative influence on Hai Gui has led to problems that
Hai Gui didn‟t expect before. Therefore, here are some general recommendations for Hai
62
Gui who are encountering difficulties after coming back as well as those who are
planning to come back.
- Be familiar with current governmental and provincial policies;
Hai Gui should be clear about Governmental and provincial policies towards themselves,
check websites from time to time such as Ministry of Education and its department of
international Cooperation and Exchanges for latest rules and regulations that apply to Hai
Gui (Zweig, 2006) as well as local province website for local preferential policies which
are created for Hai Gui. It is of vital importance to keep updated with all these Hai Gui
related information because it might provide them with more chances and opportunities
for better development after returning to China.
- Do have expectations but not high expectations;
38.71% of Hai Gui are believed to have high expectations on salary, post, promotion and
development chances. (DongFangHuiBo, 2007) Even though returnees‟ expectations
have moderated somewhat over the years, some returnees still return with high
expectations while in this research, many Hai Gui are gradually becoming aware of the
problem of self high expectations as the more you expect, the more disappointed you will
get. The perception that an overseas degree will put them in superior positions is being
substituted. Hai Gui‟s real abilities and skills decide their pay level especially the greater
availability of returnees means that employers have an increasingly larger pool of
prospective employees to choose from. (Gross and Conner, 2007) Therefore, when
holding expectations of better life after returning to China, weigh your actual “gold
containment” before asking for something unrealistic. Position yourself right if you want
to find a right job.
- Have a balanced mentality;
China to those returned students is not always the China they left. (Fan, 2008) Hai Gui
noticed in addition to China‟s booming economy along with opportunities for personal
development, they need to readjust to their home culture both in personal and in working
environment. To shorten the adjustment process and to quickly get accustomed to the
current culture, a self mentality adjustment process is essential- to have a balanced state
63
of mind. Not only in personal life but also in the working environment, people‟s different
way of thinking and doing things can lead to conflicts but as long as Hai Gui is open to
other‟s ideas and opinions, perceive self as same as other locals, the mental adjustment
process shouldn‟t be that long.
- Learn to manage personal relationship well;
“Guanxi” (personal relationship) has been the main issue in Chinese society for
thousands of years, to survive in Chinese culture, one has to manage his/her personal
relationship well. For Hai Gui, to build up good personal relationships is undoubtedly
important as in this research, personal relationships is among both difficulties Hai Gui
encounter in working environment and in personal life. Therefore, Hai Gui should
possess good communications skills in dealing with different kinds of people they might
face in China, from family to friends and from company to colleagues. Although this
communication skill is accumulated from daily life and experience, Hai Gui should learn
to communicate effectively and efficiently in Chinese ways. “Observe more, listen more
and talk less” maybe the first thing Hai Gui should do after returning to China.
- Go for alternatives;
Some returnees came back to China directly after their study but found difficulties in
themselves suitable job. Therefore, overseas Chinese can work abroad for several years to
accumulate some more experience in foreign companies and then return to China. In that
way, more international experience is obtained as well. Moreover, most returnees tend to
choose Shanghai, Beijing or Guangdong province as their preference. The competition is
already fierce and intense in those cities and there are other places than these big cities
which is in need of talents like Hai Gui to develop and contribute. Furthermore, returning
to mainland China is not the only choice. Hong Kong, Macau or Taiwan, even Singapore
can also be places that Hai Gui should consider. There are opportunities everywhere, Hai
Gui should be open for all of them.
In addition to the above general recommendations, to those who are currently still in
China and plan to go abroad, the following suggestions might help:
64
- Think thoroughly if it is necessary to go abroad. Going abroad is not the only way
out especially in current global recession.
- If you make up your mind, then think twice what you want to learn abroad.
Choose a correct major and university, make sure if you still want to go for
business management or other hot majors which more than half overseas Chinese
are currently studying overseas.
- Set a five year plan for yourself such as after your studies, you will spend another
one to two years in foreign companies for working experience and where you
want to go after your study etc. You thus know which step to go further clearly.
More and more overseas are coming back to China each year, and this trend is going to
keep up in the next few years as well. Even though the net effect of both political and
social factors turned out to be negative, as long as Hai Gui possess a balanced state of
mind together with their own abilities and skills learnt abroad, the negative net effect will
be weakened and will even turn positive.
6.3 Limitations and Further Research
This research is aiming at examining the net effect of both political and social factors on
Hai Gui in China. More insights of positive and negative discrimination were discovered
during this research. For academic implications this research contributes to current
research on overseas Chinese returnees in political aspects such as preferential policies as
well as social factors- re-entry culture shock and treatment by neighbors.
Due to the scope of this research, there are still some limitations that should be taken into
considerations for future research. Firstly, in this research only preferential policies were
taken as political factors as well as only re-entry culture shock and treatment by
neighbors were treated as social factors. There exist other factors such as personal
characteristics of Hai Gui themselves, not from their overseas background information
but their own personalities could play an important role in determining positive/negative
discrimination. Secondly, the research relied on self-reports, which are not only
subjective but also likely to change over time; this may be a particular concern for those
who returned quite some time prior to their participation in the research, because their
65
data may be influenced by (re)construction of their memories over time. (Yoshida et al.,
2002)
In future research, the following aspects can be considered:
- Other factors can be added into the conceptual model;
Factors such as Hai Gui characteristics can be added into the conceptual model because it
might affect Hai Gui‟s relationship with locals and also have influence on re-entry culture
shock they will encounter. Current preferential policies can be further divided into four
parts namely preferential policies towards scholars; entrepreneurs; high-techno and
students who come back for employment. The positive effect of preferential policies
might be investigated from comparing these four groups of Hai Gui. Salary difference
between locals and Hai Gui can be examined as well as it helps to further investigate the
relationship between treatment by others and negative discrimination.
- Diversified Hai Gui respondents can be selected;
The respondents can be selected from more diversified background for instance countries
they studied/worked abroad; their current location in China; major of their study abroad
and etc. This can possibly affect the results of net effect of both political and social
factors.
- More local employees can be interviewed;
Due to the time frame of this research, only 5 local employees were interviewed.
However, in the future research more local employees can be interviewed for
investigating factors concerning treatment by others as well as HR managers in Chinese
companies (state-owned, foreign-owned and private owned). Perceptions from these
people can give more insights into influence of social factors on Hai Gui.
The results of this research just provide a basic insight of positive effect of preferential
policies on discrimination and negative effect of re-entry culture shock and treatment by
neighbors on discrimination, and this can be used as preliminary research for further large
scale studies.
66
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72
Appendix 1 Number of Postgraduates and Students Studying Abroad
Number of Postgraduates and Students Studying Abroad
Year
Number of Postgraduates Number of
Students Studying
Abroad
Number of
Returned
Students
New Total Graduates
Enrollment Enrollment
1978 10708 10934 9 860 248
1980 3616 21604 476 2124 162
1985 46871 87331 17004 4888 1424
1991 29679 88128 32537 2900 2069
1995 51053 145443 31877 20381 5750
2000 128484 301239 58767 38989 9121
2001 165197 393256 67809 83973 12243
2002 202611 500980 80841 125179 17945
2003 268925 651260 111091 117307 20152
2004 326286 819896 150777 114682 24726
2005 364831 978610 189728 118515 34987
2006 397925 1104653 255902 134000 42000
2007 418612 1195047 311839 144000 44000
China Statistics Year Book 2008
73
Appendix 2 Hai Gui and Re-entry Culture Shock
Respondent Experience of
Re-entry Culture
shock
Length of
Adaptation
(in month)
Years Spent Abroad
1 Yes Still adapting 5.5
2 Yes 3 months 3
3 Yes 1 month 1.5
4 No N/A 1
5 Yes 84 months 16
6 Yes 18 months 4
7 Yes Still adapting 3.5
8 Yes 36 months 12
9 Yes Still adapting 4.7
10 Yes Still adapting 3.5
11 Yes 2 months 6
12 Yes 3 months 6
13 No N/A 7
14 No N/A 5.5
15 Yes 1 month 4
16 No N/A 4
17 Yes 1 month 5
18
Yes
Still adapting
1.5
19
Yes 3 months 4.5
20 Yes
3 months
5
Average 14.36 months 5.26 years
74
Appendix 3 Firm Specific Features as Control Variable
Hai
Gui
Firm
Location
Firm
Size
Firm
Ownership
Preferential
Policies
Re-entry
Culture
shock
Treatment
by others
1 Beijing Small POE No Yes Yes
2 Beijing Large FOE Yes Yes No
3 Shanghai Large FOE No Yes No
4 Shanghai Medium POE No No No
5 Tianjin Large SOE Yes Yes Yes
6 Qingdao Small POE No Yes No
7 Shanghai Medium SOE No Yes No
8 Beijing Small POE Yes Yes No
9 Tianjin Large FOE No Yes Yes
10 Guangzhou Large SOE No Yes No
11 Shanghai Large FOE No No No
12 Nanning Medium FOE Yes No Yes
13 Shanghai Large FOE Yes Yes No
14 Shanghai Large FOE No Yes No
15 Shanghai Small FOE No Yes No
16 Shanghai Small FOE No No No
17 Shanghai Medium POE No Yes Yes
18 Shanghai Medium POE No Yes NO
19 Shanghai Small POE Yes Yes No
20 Beijing Medium SOE No Yes Yes
75
Appendix 4 Interview Question- Overseas Chinese Returnees
Interview Information
Date:
Time:
Name:
Gender:
Social Demographic factor of firm
Firm name:
Firm location:
Firm size:
Firm turnover rate:
Total number of employees:
Firm sector:
Year of firm establishment:
Firm ownership type:
Beginning of employment:
1. Hai Gui Characteristics
a. Which country did you go for study and/or work? How long did you stay in that
country?
b. What was your major field of study?
c. What is your highest degree that was obtained abroad?
d. What were the reasons that you chose to go abroad?
e. What are the motivations to come back to China?
f. What is the role of your former employer in China? Did the company subsidize
your study abroad and/or did the company require you to work again after you
come back?
g. Was your working experience helpful to find employment again in China?
h. How long did you spend on finding employment and how did you establish the
first contact with your current employer?
i. Do you think your abroad experience lead you to more promotion chances in the
company?
2. Social Factors
76
a. Have you experienced re-entry culture shock when coming back to China?
b. Could you describe the biggest differences in China and now compared to China
when you left?
c. Could you also describe the differences in working environment in China?
d. What difficulties are you encountering as Hai Gui in China?
e. How did you cope with the situation and how long did it take you to readjust to
the current Chinese culture?
3. Political Factors
a. Which governmental and/or provincial policies did you benefit from?
b. Can you name some of the preferential policies that you know of?
c. How would you describe the pros and cons of current preferential policies?
4. Reciprocity a. Do you plan to stay in the current company for the next 3 years or you want to
change to another job?
b. What are the reasons that you want to leave?
c. What are your expectations of next job?
d. What knowledge and skills would you say that you should learn or improve to
better cope with working in China?
Last but not least:
Are you being affected by the current recession? Will you leave your country again or not?
77
Appendix 5 Interview Questions – Local Employees
Interview Information
Date:
Time:
Name:
Gender:
Social Demographic factor of firm
Firm name:
Firm location:
Firm size:
Firm turnover rate:
Total number of employees:
Firm sector:
Year of firm establishment:
Firm ownership type:
Beginning of employment:
Question 1:
What are your impressions on Hai Gui generally?
Question 2:
How would you summarize the characteristics of Hai Gui who is/are working in your
company?
Question 3:
Do you perceive yourself as being treated differently in the company compared to Hai
Gui? (Considering factors like salary; compensation; treatment, etc.)
Question 4:
If yes, what do you think are the reasons that lead to the different treatment between you
and Hai Gui colleagues?
Question 5:
What are your opinions about the communication and cooperation process with Hai Gui?
Question 6:
How would you describe the relationship of Hai Gui and their local employees?
Question 7:
What are your suggestions and recommendations for Hai Gui who want to work in China?
