Restricted migration policies, tightened job markets in host countries and rising inward national protectionism have also driven overseas graduates home.

Combined with the massification of international education and the changing contexts and policies in home and host countries, reverse mobility is booming in China.

Traditionally, Chinese returnees were seen favourably in the local labour market, due to their foreign language skills, ability to learn quickly and familiarity with foreign environments. However, this may no longer be the case in China. While Chinese students learn and transform through overseas study, they face significant barriers when returning home.

Currently, the ‘Haifei’ discourse is gaining momentum. A number of overseas returnees self-identify as “Haifei”, or “overseas returning wastes”, conveying a pessimistic outlook on the future and a defeatist mentality.

What do returnees mean when they talk about being a “Haifei”? To dig deeper into this phenomenon, we conducted interviews with volunteers from ‘海归废物回收互助协会’ (literally translated into “recycling and mutual aid association for overseas returning wastes”) of Douban, one of the most influential interest-based online social media platforms in China.

By the time the study was done, 52,233 members were registered for the “Haifei Association”, posting, commenting and making suggestions about ‘Haifei’. Our study offers the following insights.

“Haifei” embedded in the Sang culture: anxieties, plights and struggles

“Haifei” is rooted in a grand discourse of Sang culture that reflects the anxieties, struggles and plights of China’s younger generation. Feeling waste is largely due to employment-related problems: lengthy job-hunting, misalignment with market demands, and under-expected salaries.

Returnees are also disappointed because their expectations do not match up with the reality, like failed attempts to land a “hukou” or “marriage”. It’s common in Chinese culture to marry after buying a home. But that’s hard to achieve these days because housing prices are skyrocketing; besides, the strict hukou, or household registration system, often prescribes lots of requirements that make it hard for non-local residents to secure a house.

The increasing neoliberal massification of international higher education has further disadvantaged overseas graduates. Our research found that this generation of self-funded returnees perceived themselves as devalued, not just in terms of human capital, but also in terms of symbolic value, in comparison to previous government-funded cohorts that were regarded as elite, capable, and glorious.

Even worse, policy changes in the host countries during fortuitous circumstances like Covid made them more vulnerable and pushed them to return home. One graduate said not having a favourable post-study-work visa in the UK during Covid deprived her of job-hunting opportunities and she had to pack up and go home.

“Haifei” as social action and identity construction

“Haifei” was mobilised within Sang subculture as self-formation. This is reflected in the graduates’ social action and collective identity construction. They harnessed soothing effects by ostensibly self-deprecating, but essentially self-healing, social actions to actualise peace-making with themselves and macro-sociocultural contexts despite being affectively burdened by the “Haifei” discourse.

Speaking bitterness relieves collective anxiety mentally. The self-deprecation was a self-protection mechanism to prevent harm resulting from external stress of achieving something they weren’t capable of.

By opposing the ‘positive energy’ discourse of trying one’s best, “Haifei” is a mild resistance to unwanted pressures. They created a new subculture movement to shield themselves from the dominant succeed-or-perish narrative and its associated affective burden as they mobilised the internet space to enact self-marginalisation, detaching themselves from mainstream discourse.

Furthermore, returnees saw international education as a self-formation process with a lot of capital accumulation potential aside from its economic value. While returnees identified with “fei”, they didn’t let it stop them from achieving a better future through the “Haifei” group.

As an example, they used the group as a platform to reciprocate help with other members seeking different information, such as advice on “going abroad again”. Additionally, they exchanged WeChat accounts to communicate further on other platforms and in other ways, going beyond the “Haifei” group.

Supporting returnees

The following strategies could be considered by host institutions and related stakeholders to support international graduates in preparing for their home-return:

• Developing targeted support programs to help international students plan ahead and get prepared for their adaptation to the home environment:
  • provide an ongoing update on home labor market trends, employer expectations, and opportunities and challenges.
  • discuss strategies to navigate the home labour market.
  • prepare to adapt back to life and the social and cultural environment of the home country.
  • learn how to navigate reverse culture shock.
• Leveraging alumni and expatriate networks to support overseas returnees.
• Support services should educate international students about the need to manage their expectations including life aspirations, types of job, salary and promotion.
• Supporting international students to develop their employability, work experiences and professional portfolio from the first year and throughout their program of study. It is important to educate them about not only developing but also evidencing employability skills, attributes and experiences.