The social phenomenon of reshoring

According to Canada's "North American Times" report, this summer, some of the friends around Xizi, the newspaper's reporter, include those who have just graduated from university, those who have sat on "immigration prison" for three years and obtained nationality, and those who are immigrants. The application was finally approved; when everyone got together, the most talked about thing was, will the next step be to return from overseas or not? Especially in this year of economic downturn, the attractiveness of returning to China for employment has suddenly increased.

A few years ago, there was not much room for discussion on this issue; whether to stay or leave depended on personal circumstances, and the decision would basically be made after a simple discussion. However, in recent years, negative news about returnees from overseas has abounded, making people worry that we have become too "simple" after living abroad for too long. Moreover, the number of students going abroad for further studies has increased astonishingly. If you throw them out, you will be an MBA or a master of some major. The gold-rimmed academic qualifications in the past are no longer popular. Returnees have become kelp, and kelp has become sea cucumber. They are depressed and have completely lost the meaning of returning to China.

If you don’t return to your country, you will worry about not being able to stand out in this foreign world. Instead of being a mediocre employee, you might as well flex your muscles and make a name for yourself when you go back. In normal times without war, most people living abroad are economic animals. The main factor they consider whether to return home is their personal future, specifically their economic income. Women have the largest proportion of non-returners

Before coming to Canada, I had a gathering at a friend’s house who has lived in North America for a long time. I heard a saying that in North America, women’s ability to survive and adapt is higher than that of men. During the survey, it was found that the gender ratio of Chinese international students is imbalanced, with more boys and fewer girls. In some social activities of international students, there are often funny scenes of several boys chasing one girl. Since women are generally better able to adapt to new languages, new cultures, and new environments than men, they often have broader room for job hunting and mate selection. In addition, the West has a tradition of respecting women, which makes the overseas experience of female international students generally superior to that of male students. In terms of attitudes and opinions about return, generally speaking, the male host wants to go back, while the female host wants to stay.

On the premise that both members of the family have stable jobs, after a few years, both of them want to make a breakthrough in their careers. However, working in a local foreign company will inevitably encounter some office politics, especially for first-generation immigrants whose native language is not English. In addition, there will also be some difficulties in communicating with colleagues. During lunch time, everyone eats together and discusses some life and culture topics. A group of male colleagues were chatting enthusiastically about last night's ice hockey game; while a female colleague nearby was talking about last night's TV talent show. If your boss or colleagues borrow these popular culture materials at work, then even if your English does not have a foreign accent, you will still be unable to communicate, let alone manage others. For women, they can always find some private topics to talk about; but for men, due to their nature, they are not likely to get together like this. When "football" meets "table tennis", there will often be an unhappy relationship. scattered.

Women will have a "little woman mentality" and be satisfied with a life without worries about food and clothing, and a happy family. But for men, the so-called happy life is not only material satisfaction, but also some intangible indicators, such as whether they are respected. In order to survive in North America, many overseas Chinese gave up their original majors and hobbies and turned to practical majors such as engineering. When their careers are successful, they will have a mid-life crisis and regret that they did not pursue their youthful dreams.

In this context, the rapid changes in the country and the resulting opportunities are like a mirage, impacting their sense of belonging on the one hand, and restarting their dreams on the other. In addition, men will complain that life in North America is boring. Everyone lives in a routine. They go to work and get off work, and they don't often visit friends' houses. There is basically no "exciting" leisure life to speak of. From a woman's perspective, this is a destabilizing factor in the family that must be eliminated in infancy. Therefore, some wives object to their husbands returning to China for development because they are more attached to a stable life. Since returnees need to integrate into the local environment

A US executive evaluation agency, Russell Reynolds Associates, has found through years of observation that the survival rate of talents returning to China from the United States is no more than 50%, and a considerable number A large number of managers choose to leave within six months or even less of joining the company. Mr. Liu is the department manager of a well-known domestic telecommunications company, and there are many returnees in his department. On this business trip to Toronto, he also talked a lot about the gap among returnees in his opinion on this topic.

Mr. Liu said that the psychological gap among returnees in China is mainly a matter of expectations. For example, a returnee has worked abroad for ten years as a technical director in a technology department. He also has many patents, so he hopes to return to China and bring a lot of technology to make the company's technology successful. This is his expected value. Looking back, working here has indeed brought many advanced technologies to the company, and the company is also preparing to promote him to management.

But in this way, we can see a lot of problems. The first is the relationship with his subordinates. It is difficult for him to get along with his subordinates. Chinese colleagues sometimes have dinner together after get off work. They are more serious at work, but everyone gets together after get off work. A separate meal can liven up the atmosphere between superiors and subordinates, and can also stimulate subordinates' work enthusiasm.

However, this returnee may have stayed in the United States for a long time, and he paid more attention to himself after get off work. He wanted to go back to spend time with his wife and children, and did not spend a lot of spare time with his employees, giving people a sense of inaccessibility and indifference. . In the domestic workplace, one must not only understand technology and management, but also use Chinese market practices to build good relationships with customers.

Mr. Liu has a friend who is the general manager of a state-owned enterprise. The manager said that it is now very popular to hire overseas returnees. His industry circle and competitor companies have hired some overseas returnees, which makes him He felt that having one or two returnees in the company was a fashionable sign, so he followed the trend and hired two returnees. However, it was discovered that there were many irreconcilable problems in management. It makes adults sad when children don't adapt. When recruiting overseas returnees, your motivation to go back is based on yourself. Why do you want to go back? Not all my classmates have gone back, so I also want to go back. I’m not talking about my friends in China. You see, the graduate students who were my classmates back then all Now that I have become a general manager or director, I don’t want to develop abroad, but I also want to go back and develop myself, which is driven by my friends. It’s not a headhunter calling you to go back quickly, it’s based on your own inner motivation. You know what you want to give up, you know what you want to get, and you have to be prepared to accept what you want to give up, otherwise the company will manage the returnees in the future. It will be painful, and it will be painful for you. So the driving force must come from yourself.

The second motivation for returning to China is that I want to succeed. Many people see opportunities in China and want to take a further step in their careers. However, because in Europe, the United States or other countries, due to various factors, the chances of realizing their dreams may be relatively small, so they choose to return to China. This kind of desire to succeed in the future that surges in the heart will be very strong, but after returning to China, I feel that the gap between dreams and reality is too big, and I will run from one extreme to the other. At this time, you have to ask yourself, why do you want to return to your country? What is most important? Success will be accompanied by these risks and unsatisfactory things. At this time, you need to redefine your expectations and adjust your direction, so that you can find your position.