Policy design to attract and retain overseas Chinese returnees during the global talent war – The case of Shanghai

Abstract

The ongoing global talent war has intensified the competition amongst domestic governments to attract and retain top talents, representing a major concern for policy decision makers to design attractive policy incentives to increase the attractiveness of cities for talents to pursue employment and entrepreneurship opportunities. This study critically explores the Shanghai Municipal People’s government recent policy measures imposed on 2^nd January 2021 to encourage highly skilled overseas Chinese talent to work and/ or pursue entrepreneurship in Shanghai, analysing the practical impacts these policies have had on the employment/ entrepreneurship experiences of returnees. A total of 15 semi structured online interviews were collected toward returnees who have stayed in Shanghai since the policy change, the general consensus amongst interviewees points to the enhancement of push factors, reduction of pull factors, personal/ family factors and negative foreign country factors that had motivated their desire to pursue employment/ entrepreneurship in Shanghai. This study focused on the role of policy design and how it affected talent attraction and retention for returnees to come and stay in Shanghai, recommending key areas for future improvements to address current inefficiencies across policy design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation processes.