This chapter introduces the Asian scientist migration system, focusing on the first stage of this system: the initial migration of aspiring Asian scientists to the West for training. The chapter explains how a well-established training pathway from Asia to the West had emerged in the second half of the twentieth century. The factors behind this emergence included the structural inadequacies of the scientific training system within the Asian home country, government- and university-driven opportunity structures in the West and in Asia that encouraged westward student migrations, the cumulative network effects driven by earlier cohorts of Asian student migrants in the West, and the widely circulating images of specific Western countries as scientifically advanced and welcoming. But the chapter also higlights the rising standards in science training in various Asian countries. With the growing stature of national research universities in select Asian countries, growing numbers of aspiring Asian scientists may choose to complete their doctoral training in their home country and only move to the West for postdoctoral training. Other aspiring scientists may choose to move within Asia for graduate training.

This chapter introduces the idea of scientific cultures as complex, multifaceted sets of norms and values, shared within a given scientific community, about the appropriate social practice of scientific teaching and research. It identifies seven dimensions of scientific cultures:

1. 1. The attitude towards existing scientific knowledge

2. 2. The approach to problem-solving

3. 3. The scope of research ambitions

4. 4. The degree of autonomy given to individual scientists within a research team

5. 5. The importance given to rank and seniority

6. 6. The attitudes towards difference within the lab or research organization, and finally

7. 7. The approach to inward- and outward-facing communication

This chapter offers a brief assessment of the scientific research system and higher education sector in four Asian countries: China, India, Singapore and Taiwan. The chapter provides readers with a brief history of each country and an overview of each country's higher education sector. The chapter then focuses on the state of science and technology in each country, with particular emphasis on the state of bioscience research, before ending with the specific challenges each country faces in trying to boost their standing in the global scientific field. In all four cases, the strong role of the state in channelling immense resources towards the sciences is highlighted. In the case of China and Singapore, the heavy investment made by both countries' governments in transforming many of their national universities into "world-class" research universities is noted. Taiwan's ongoing vulnerability because of its geopolitical position vis-a-vis China is also discussed. India is noted as the country with the least advanced research infrastructure of the four, but also the youngest population with growing numbers of students interested in the sciences. Singapore's small size is discussed as its key weakness.

This chapter introduces the concept of scientific remittances – the informational, reputational and cultural diffusion that occurs as a result of the brain circulation of scientists. The scientific remittances that returning Asian scientists bring back with them include, not just new scientific know-how and new network connections in the global scientific field, but also new norms and values regarding the social practice of scientific training and research. At the same time, this chapter acknowledges that the Asian societies where scientists returned had also undergone change during their time in the West. Partly in response to these societal changes, and their own positionality within their institutions, returnees tended to focus their own change efforts on their labs and classrooms. I highlight four key cultural dimensions where returnees were focusing their change efforts. These were:

1. 1. Encouraging a curiosity-driven approach to scientific learning

2. 2. Raising their students’ research passions and ambitions

3. 3. Leveling attitudes towards rank within their labs

4. 4. Broadening attitudes towards difference.

This chapter introduces the questions driving the book and summarizes its four main findings:

1. 1. The recent improvements in the scientific research systems in select Asian countries, that have led to an increase in the return migrations of Western-trained Asian scientists

2. 2. The increasing diversification of training pathways within the Asian scientist migration system

3. 3. How returned Asian scientists are affecting the scientific research systems and scientific cultures in the Asian research organizations where they work through their scientific remittances

4. 4. The variations that exist in the scientific research systems and cultures across Asia.

This concluding chapter outlines the implications of the shifting scientific landscape in Asia for future generations of Asian scientists. The chapter reviews the theoretical implications of the key findings from the book, and revisits the new concepts and ideas introduced throughout the book, which have relevance for the fields of migration studies, science & technology studies and also gender studies. The chapter highlights what is yet to be studied on this topic, and lays out a future research agenda for scholars from these fields. Finally, the chapter highlights the policy implications of these developments for Asian and non-Asian countries, and ends with a set of policy recommendations for government officials and research leaders in these countries as they seek to make themselves attractive destinations for native (and nonnative) research scientists and raise their relative profile in the global scientific field.

This chapter discusses the return decision-making process for Asian scientists trained in the West, to understand the factors driving the recent increase in return migrations. The factors which influence Asian scientists’ return decisions are organized along three axes of influence:

1. 1. Integration, meaning the degree of social exclusion and cultural belonging Asian scientists experienced in the West, compared to what they imagined they would feel back in Asia

2. 2. Familial obligation to their parents (often still in Asia) versus an obligation to their spouse and their children (in the West)

3. 3. Ambition, which references their particular scientific and professional goals for themselves as individual scientists versus as citizens pursuing science for their country.

This chapter focuses on the gendered experiences of Asian women scientists drawing from interviews with forty such scientists from China, India, Japan, Pakistan, Singapore and Taiwan. It outlines their experiences as they decide to pursue a graduate education, postdoctoral training, and subsequently a career in science. It clarifies why they deemed Western countries to be more accepting of women scientists, though certainly not discrimination free. The chapter shows that when these women began shifting their status from “student of science” to “practitioner of science,” they began encountering more gendered prejudice. The idea of a “gender shock” is introduced, which captures the experience of entering a social and symbolic space where the attitudes, norms and beliefs surrounding one’s gender are unexpected in either a positive or negative way. The corrective actions taken in response to gendered social forces are termed “gender compromises,” a settling for a less-than-preferred course of action in one life domain to satisfy gender pressures in another life domain. However, gender compromises do not always involve these women giving up career ambitions for the sake of family.

This chapter documents the changes that returnees observed in their respective Asian country’s research systems that affected their experience of pursuing scientific research in Asia. Change in five dimensions of scientific research systems in each of the four Asian case countries are identified:

1. 1. Research funding: the volume of funding available, the rate at which a scientist’s grant applications are successful, and the research areas/modalities that are prioritized

2. 2. Research administration: the policies and processes surrounding grant applications, funding disbursement, and the ordering of research supplies, and also more general administrative processes

3. 3. Research networks: the degree of connections returned scientists have, and are able to create, with actual and potential research collaborators within the global scientific field

4. 4. Research staff: the availability of postdoctoral fellows, and graduate and undergraduate students to work in scientists’ labs, and the quality and commitment levels of these support personnel

5. 5. Research infrastructure: the availability and quality of the space, equipment, specimens and supplies available to researchers to conduct their research.