TITLE:
Beyond the Push-Pull Binary: Motivational Ambiguity and Institutional Scripts among Chinese Returned Visiting Scholars in the U.S.
AUTHORS:
Pingjun Nie
KEYWORDS:
Career Stages, Push-Pull Framework, Returned Visiting Scholars
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.10,
October
15,
2026
ABSTRACT: The international mobility of Chinese visiting scholars has expanded dramatically, yet their pre-departure motivations remain undertheorized. Applying the classical push-pull framework wholesale to this population risks a category mistake, as visiting scholars occupy a structurally distinct position from degree-seeking students. This study examines the motivational architecture of 144 Chinese visiting scholars with completed visiting appointments at U.S. institutions, using an exploratory quantitative design. Principal component analysis extracted eight motivational components accounting for 71.135% of variance. These components were classified into three directional zones: pure home-institutional pushes (Career Pursuit, Institutional Respite, Administrative Compliance), pure host-institutional pulls (Intercultural Immersion, Program Attraction), and a structurally ambiguous middle ground (Academic Pursuit, Status Attainment, Domestic Obligations) that resists clean directional classification. Univariate ANOVAs further revealed that gender exerted minimal influence; academic title produced a steep gradient on Administrative Compliance (lecturers > associate professors > professors); and scholars from local universities scored higher on Intercultural Immersion than their 985/211 peers, with the title- and tier-related effects remaining significant after Benjamini-Hochberg adjustment. The findings suggest that the push-pull model must be rebuilt from the middle—through the insertion of institutional career scripts, career stages, and resource stratification—before it can adequately explain short-term academic mobility.