Safety and Prosperity in Homeland — Manufactured Return Migration and Capital Circulation from the U.S. to China

• In Event: International Migration Section Refereed Roundtables
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 minute): 13. Return migration / migration to Mexico

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and the political climate following the Trump presidency have precipitated a historic decline in Chinese international student enrollment in U.S. higher education. Beyond the shrinking educational pipeline, Chinese graduates and professionals in the U.S. are increasingly abandoning the prospect of permanent settlement in favor of returning to China or migrating to third countries. While return migration is traditionally framed as an individual choice driven by lifecycle considerations, economic optimization, or family ties, this study highlights how return migration is actively manufactured by the geopolitical rivalry between the United States and China. I argue that the two rival states function as "strange bedfellows": U.S. exclusionary policies (e.g., heightened securitization, Proclamation 10043) and China’s aggressive diaspora engagement policies jointly orchestrate return migration. Leveraging the aspirations-capabilities framework, this research explores how nationalist cultivation by Chinese student organizations and government actors amplifies the perception of the U.S. as a hostile environment, thereby shaping the habitus and migration trajectories of Chinese diaspora professionals and students. Ultimately, this study demonstrates that under the shadow of geopolitical rivalry, migration is rarely just an individual economic choice; it is partly a manufactured outcome that serves the strategic interests of competing state apparatuses.

Author

• Pengfei Liu, University of California-Davis