PhD thesis final - Royal Holloway, University of London

Chapter7- ConclusionThe focus on the local contexts in shaping migrants‘ experiences is not fully explored inTaiwanese transnationalism, which is another area which my future research willexplore. In this empirical research, I found that not only is an analysis of theinstitutional force (i.e. governmental policies and actions) in Taiwanese emigrants‘ livedpractices in the host countries still neglected, the fact that brain-drain is seen as a faitaccompli in Taiwan has neglected to draw much scholarly attention. Therefore, aninvestigation focusing on the Taiwanese government‘s migration policies and its role inhelping their emigrants by bringing them together and establishing a migrantcommunity and solidarity abroad is valuable.Finally, comparative studies in migrants‘ grounded transnationalism are worth pursuingin the future. This can be developed by researching migration experiences of differentsub-groups of Taiwanese emigrants (e.g., those with different social and economicstatus, those in different cultural country contexts, as well as temporary and permanentmigrants). Also, comparative studies can be carried out to explore the manifestations ofoverseas Chinese‘s transnationalism in China, with special regard to the relationshipbetween their multiple identities and grounded lived practices. By doing so, areconsideration of the discourse of Chinese-ness and the generality of experiences ofmigrant people sharing the same ethnic and cultural background can thus be revealed.The research can also add to the understanding of migrants‘ identity in atransnationalised world, especially in relation to the negotiations of different scales ofidentities in their everyday lives.266