Return Migration: The Case of the 1.5 Generation of Taiwanese in Canada and New Zealand

Lan-Hung Nora Chiang

《The China Review An Interdisciplinary Journal on Greater China》 11卷2期 (2011/11) Pp. 91-123

摘要

This study draws on examples of young Taiwanese immigrants returning from Canada and New Zealand to examine the phenomenon of a floating population. It uses qualitative research methods to interview 25 young returnees who emigrated overseas with their parents at a young age in the 1980s and 1990s but who have now returned to Taiwan. The principal research questions include reasons for emigration, return and adaptation in Taiwan, and their future plans. The major reasons their parents left Taiwan include perceptions of better education for children, fear of a possible invasion of Taiwan by Communist China, and the search for a better living environment. The reasons reported by young people for their return to Taiwan include employment opportunities, family and marriage, and personal aspirations. Although these return migrants were born and raised partly in Taiwan, they reported encountering reverse culture shock during their adaptation process. More than half of the interviewees think that they would like to move back to the place to which they had emigrated for a better living environment and for their children's education in the future. The migratory trajectories of these young people indicate that they can best be described as floating global citizens. The article suggests the need to increase research on the younger generation of returnees and to revise government recruitment policies in Taiwan.