Green norms across borders: How does migration affect pro-environmental behaviour? 2019

Tyers, Roger (2021). Green norms across borders: How does migration affect pro-environmental behaviour? 2019. [Data Collection]. Colchester, Essex: UK Data Service. 10.5255/UKDA-SN-854064

When students leave home to study, they are likely to change many aspects of their behaviour, and adapt and develop many of their attitudes and values as well. Some of these changes may be enduring and profound. When students migrate to a new country, such changes can be even more dramatic. This project looks specifically at behaviours and attitudes which relate to environmental impacts, such as energy use, transport choices, and waste disposal, and specifically at Chinese students who come to study in the UK.
In my own previous research, Chinese students who had come to the UK to study reported finding themselves in a country with a stronger culture of 'being green' than they had been used to back home. Interestingly, many of them said that they had changed many of their green behaviours. In my sample of Chinese students in Southampton, many reported recycling more, saving energy and using greener transport options, often out of a desire to 'fit in' with their non-Chinese peers. Two questions arise from this. Firstly, given that there are many Chinese students in the UK, how can we try to encourage more green behaviour among this significant student cohort? Secondly, what happens when students go back to China? Does the green behaviour change endure, or is it lost? These are the questions this research project seeks to answer.

Data description (abstract)

This data collection consists of qualitative interviews and focus groups with Chinese people who had studied in the UK. Data was collected in May/June 2019. This research is about how pro-environmental (or ‘green’) attitudes change when people migrate, with a particular focus on Chinese students who moved to the UK to study for at least one year. Previous research suggests that these students often change their environmental attitudes when they live in the UK, and that they may also change their behaviour (for example, recycling more or saving energy at home more than before their study).
This project looks at what happens next – do Chinese students who have studied in the UK for an extended period really change their ‘green’ attitudes and change their behaviour after they come back to China? Or is the change only temporary? Has the experience of living in the UK affected their opinions on ‘green’ issues?

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