The Impact of National Pride and Migrant Occupational Status on Attitudes Toward Settlement-Oriented Emigration: Evidence From a Survey Experiment in China

While migration studies have examined host-society attitudes toward immigrants, home-country views of emigrants remain underexplored. We address this gap using an online survey experiment in China that varies (i) the salience of national pride and (ii) the prospective emigrant's occupational status. Making national pride salient lowers support for — and increases negative emotional reactions toward — settlement-oriented emigration, especially for lower- and mid-skill profiles; effects for the high-status profile are smaller and statistically uncertain. Net of the prime, attitudes are also more negative toward higher-status profiles than toward the low-skill profile. We interpret these patterns within a social identity framework, drawing on Social Identity Theory, the “brain drain” literature, and Hirschman's exit–voice–loyalty model, while emphasizing a mechanism of identity salience consistent with Self-Categorization Theory. The study advances international migration scholarship by showing how national identity and occupational status shape home-country evaluations of settlement-oriented emigration and by foregrounding emotions as a mechanism linking identity salience to policy-relevant attitudes.