Return Migrants in Hong Kong, Singapore and Israel: Choices, Stresses and Coping

This insightful volume explores the experiences of ethnic migrants returning to Hong Kong, Singapore, and Israel. Return migrants who were exposed to the western culture and society undergo personal transformations that significantly impact their views on values such as gender, individualism, democracy, tradition, and individual autonomy. To evaluate how well these individuals are able to reintegrate back into their native countries, the authors conducted a thorough comparative study between returnees in the three research sites through in-depth interviews, ethnographic fieldwork, and analyses of government policies.

Among the topics discussed:

• Family as a strategic middle ground between the individual and society
• The social psychology of coping and adaptation
• Public, outer historical, and macro forces that shape returnees’ experiences
• Comparisons and contrasts between two primarily Chinese societies, along with one racially and culturally different Western society
• Cost-and-benefit analyses of decision-making in migration

Return Migrants in Hong Kong, Singapore, and Israel is a compelling new perspective on the migrant experience drawn from in-depth research on returnees across three countries and a variety of circumstances.

Kwok-Bun Chan, Ph.D., is Hong Kong Baptist University’s first Chair Professor of Sociology, Founder and Chairman, Chan Institute of Social Studies (CISS); Honorary Professor, China Research Center, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia; Adjunct Professor of Sociology, University of Macao; Senior Fellow, Joint Institute of Research Studies (JIRS), Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College; former Head of Department of Sociology, and former Director, David C Lam Institute of East-West Studies, Hong Kong Baptist University; and former Head of Department of Sociology, National University of Singapore.

His current research interests are in leadership, creativity and innovation; youth and adolescence; global peace and democracy; families in Asian societies; business networks and Chinese capitalism; ethnic identities; and migration, transnationalism, cosmopolitanism, and diasporas. His Chan Institute of Social Studies, like a human brain, has two sides. On the intellectual side, social theory, social research, policy formulation and practice are used as tools of science to find the pathways to a good life and a good society. On the aesthetic side, art, emotions and imagination are deployed to sensitize people of all things beautiful as fundamentals of a good life in a good society. Neither side can do without the other.

Wai-wanVivien Chan, Ph.D., is a sociologist. Currently she is Research Associate Professor at Department of Sociology, Nanjing University, China. She was Junior Fellow (2018-2020) at Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts, Southern University of Science and Technology, China. She received her PhD from the School of International Studies, University of Technology Sydney. Two of her co-authored Chinese books on Chinese entrepreneurs and immigrant professionals in Hong Kong have been selected as two of selective books for ＂The Hong Kong Oral History Special Collection＂ by Hong Kong Central Library. Chan’s forthcoming monograph titled Female Chinese Bankers in the Asia-Pacific: Gender, Mobility and Opportunity (by Routledge, 2020) used an interdisciplinary approach, combining sociology, human geography and international studies perspectives to explore the feminization of mid-level management teams in finance industries in world cities in the Asia-Pacific. Her current research interests are: return scientists in Greater Bay Area, transnational migration, urban studies, gender and entrepreneurship.