Gendered Brian Circulation: A Comparative Study of Return Migration in South Korea and Taiwan

• In Event: Return Migration in the Era of Enforcement: Uncertainty and Transnational Lives

Abstract

How does gender inequality shape the return migration of highly skilled workers? This study examines how national gender regimes structure the mobility decisions of US-trained PhDs by comparing two highly comparable cases of brain circulation: South Korea and Taiwan. Using the Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED), a census of doctoral recipients from US universities, combined with other datasets for national-level characteristics, we analyze cohort trends and multivariate models to assess how gender is associated with remaining in the United States versus returning home. Despite similarities in developmental model, educational system, and reliance on the US for advanced training, Korea and Taiwan display opposite gender return patterns: in Korea, men are more likely to return while women disproportionately remain abroad; in Taiwan, women are more likely to return while men remain abroad. Preliminary analyses indicate that these divergent patterns are closely linked to differences in each country’s gender inequality context. By comparing two national contexts, our findings demonstrate that gendered return patterns differ systematically across national contexts, suggesting that migration is sorted by nationally specific gender contexts, thus shaping individual migration paths.

Authors

• Minyoung An, Stanford University

• Gi-Wook Shin, Stanford University