[photopress:shanghai_direct.flight_red.jpg,full,alignright]Two points of view. According to the 2007 Blue Book on Global Politics and Security, published by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences there is something of a ‘brain drain’ happening as a result of large-scale emigration.
It reports that more than 300,000 talented Chinese emigrants are working in high value-added industries in other countries. And that number is increasing as Chinese students who study abroad chose to stay overseas after graduation. It is suggested that two thirds make this choice which is a ratio higher than for any other country.
Europe, the United States and Australia are the three most preferred destinations.
Li Xiaoli, a co-author of the report, said, ‘It has been a great loss for China which is now in dire need of people of expertise to see well-educated professionals leave after the country has invested a lot in them.’
However, there is an alternative point of view. Yang Kaizhong, an economist at Peking University, is of the view that China has benefited vastly from emigrants, who help ease the job market and send money back.
According to a UN report in June 2006, China receives about $20 billion every year from emigrants, and is one of the largest beneficiaries globally of remittances.
A 2005 World Bank study referred to a ‘diaspora effect’ which has led to 32-60 percent increases in trade volumes between China and countries where ethnic Chinese account for more than one percent of the total population. (The phrase ‘diaspora effect’ has little standing in any other studies. Take it that the word diaspora comes from the Greek and means ‘a scattering or sowing of seeds’ and typically has been used to refer to any people who have been forced or induced to leave their traditional ethnic homelands, being dispersed throughout other parts of the world, and the ensuing developments in their dispersal and culture. Marginally you could argue that this, in turn, has meant a lot of overseas Chinese demanding Chinese goods but to call this a ‘diaspora effect’ seems like pretentious nonsense. The World Bank has a lot of that.)
The current situation is constantly changing. The number of overseas-educated Chinese returning home for work rose to about 30,000 in 2005, from 25,000 in 2004 and 20,000 in 2003. It will probably increase in relationship to the prosperity and possibilities of China.
Source: China Daily
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