Why skilled migrants stay or leave host countries: A belongingness theory perspective

While skilled migrants have a high propensity to quit their jobs and leave host countries, little is known about why some skilled migrants leave while others stay. This paper draws on belongingness theory to examine the mediated effects of work and non-work sense of belonging between skilled migrants’ local language proficiency and host country exit, and the moderated effects of work and non-work social support from locals between local language proficiency and both belonging types. Regression analyses of time-lagged, multisource data collected from 159 foreign academics in Japan suggest that local language proficiency was positively related to work sense of belonging, which was subsequently negatively related to host country exit. Furthermore, the positive relationship between local language proficiency and work sense of belonging was stronger when work and non-work social support were high. This paper contributes to the literature by providing a novel perspective on skilled migrants’ host country experiences, shifting the focus from withdrawal cognitions to belongingness and host country exit, and integrating language proficiency into the theory of belongingness.