‘The Best are yet to Come:’ State Programs, Domestic Resistance and Reverse Migration of High-level Talent to China

Abstract

ABSTRACT Reverse migration has mitigated the brain drain for many Asian countries. But can developing countries actually bring back their best overseas talent? How can this studymeasure the quality of that talent? And, if the best are not returning, why not? Is the ‘institutional culture’ within the scientific and academic institutions the cause? The authors address these questions by comparing full-time and part-time returnees in three national programs, using each scholar’s h-Index, the impact factor of the journals in which they publish, and the annual number of publications by each researcher. The findings show that, circa 2012–13, the strongest researchers returned only part-time. Second, returnees to the Chinese Academy of Sciences were weaker than returnees under national programs at universities. And third, universities whose presidents reformed the institutional culture at the school attracted better overseas talent than other universities. The findings, then, show that resistance to institutional change can undermine a state’s effort to promote its research and development while domestic reform can promote that endeavour.