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Shocking "migration deficit" indicates China cultivating talents for the West
By China Review News Agency Translator Sheng-Wei Wang
October 1, 2014


Source: http://www.CRNTT.com   2014-01-22 14:05:30

 

The US has used the "American Dream" to lure global talent in the past. As the world has changed, more and more foreigners are starting to view China as their new "dreamland". But the reality is that China is facing a serious "migration deficit". Despite needing talent, China is instead step by step cultivating talent for developed Western countries. On January 22, the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) think tank released the international talent blue book “Annual Report of China International Migration (2014)”. The report reveals that China's small number of immigrants and huge number of emigrants has caused a severe "migration deficit" for the country. With the rise of the overseas "new emigrant," the deficit has become more obvious and it does not tally with China's title as the world's second largest economy. “Migrant flow is not a zero-sum game", Wang Huiyao, chief editor of the report and the director of the CCG told the Global Times reporter before the report was released. "China should build an immigration office as soon as possible to capitalize on talent flow and try to narrow the migration deficit caused by globalization",  Wang said.

 

Imbalance resulting from "inflows and outflows" of international talent

 

The CCG issued the "Annual Report on the Development of Chinese Students Studying Abroad", the "Annual Report of Development of Chinese Returnees" and the "Annual Report of China International Migration" in the two consecutive years 2012 and 2013 as a series of international talent blue books. In the blue book "Annual Report of China International Migration (2014)" (hereinafter referred to as the "2014 Blue Book"), this think tank initiated by the suggestions and ideas from the Chinese Students Associations in Europe and the United States analyses and investigates the Chinese immigration status inside and outside China. The CCH sums up its findings in “14 major trends”, namely (1) rise of the "new emigrant" class; (2) more pronounced "migration deficit"; (3) United States being China's first overseas destination for immigrants; (4) China being US’ second largest immigrant source country; (5) Europe becoming the new destination for new immigrants from China; (6) Chinese overseas buyers ushering in the "European era"; (7) wealthy Chinese placing "culture enhancement and spiritual enjoyment" as the top priority; (8) “Chinese affluent class expanding" and "emphasis on family, education for children, outbound tourism" becoming factors leading to emigration; (9) environmental pollution becoming an important cause for inducing overseas emigration; (10) Chinese "blue collar immigrants” becoming a topic of concern in 2013; (11) unstable emigration channels in need of an appropriate risk warning mechanism; (12) China becoming the world's fourth largest immigrant source country; (13) China’s increasing attractiveness to foreign talent; and (14) international talent "inflows and outflows" in China being "out of balance” and personnel and other barriers in need of breakthroughs.

 

The CCG Director Dr. Wang Huiyao calls the huge gap between the emigrants and the immigrants a "migration deficit". According to an United Nations (UN) Department of Economic and Social Affairs estimate, in 1990, the number of Chinese who emigrated numbered 4,086,000, while over the same period the number of foreign immigrants living in China was only 376,000. The "migration deficit" that year was about 3,710,000, although during the following period of more than 10 years the population moving into China gradually increased. But it was still far smaller than the number of emigrants. In 2013, China's "migration deficit" reached around 8,494,000 people. And the "migration deficit" surveyed by the "2014 Blue Book" is indeed a bit shocking. In 2012, the Chinese who permanently emigrated to the four immigration countries USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, reached 148,034, while in the same year China issued only 1,202 permanent residence permits. But this was already the highest number since China implemented the green card system. In 2012, Chinese students studying abroad reached 1,136,900, while there were only 326,300 foreign students in China and only over 100,000 were really studying for a degree; there were 850,000 Chinese overseas personnel in labor service , while foreign laborers and workers in China numbered just over 200,000; China enjoyed a surplus only in terms of outbound tourism: in 2012, China’s outbound tourists reached 70.25 million, while there were only 27.112 million foreign tourists to China in the same year.

 

China’s "talent migration deficit", "investment migration deficit" and "overseas talent deficit" have had an enormous impact on China. The "2014 Blue Book" presents the view that the potential Chinese emigration population is concentrated in the 35-55-year-old bracket of the middle class. They are the mainstay of the community; they participate more in social affairs than other groups and their influence is also relatively large. If a large number from this group move out, the first result is a huge loss of wealth. In 2012, those Chinese who immigrated into the United States by investment immigration accounted for 6,124 people.

 

In addition, China has become the second largest overseas real estate buyer. During the one year before the end of March 2013, the total value of Chinese real estate purchases in the United States was US$12.3 billion, accounting for one-eighth of the entire foreign purchase value. Even more amazing was that of this US$12.3 billion, 69 percent was in cash payment. Just a few days before the CCG released the "2014 Blue Book", the Hurun Research Institute said in a new report that 64 percent of Chinese millionaires had already emigrated or were preparing to take their wealth and emigrate. These assets of each of these super-rich are worth more than 16 million U.S. dollars and the United States is their most favored destination.

 

Do not let the Chinese talents contribute their time and talent to the United States

 

The phenomenon of Chinese "migration deficit" has brought subtle changes to the rest of the world. For example, in New Zealand largest city’s Auckland International Airport, the airport signs are only in English and in the simplified version of Chinese characters. The degree of sinicization of this distant Southern Hemisphere city surprises newcomers. In the urban areas, the Chinese students on the streets, the Mandarin speaking Chinese customer service staff in the shops, and the numerous Chinese advertisements, all make people feel that they are back in China. In New Zealand, there are nearly one hundred Chinese-run "currency swap companies", "financial companies" and "loan agencies". On the surface, the business of these companies is for the convenience of visitors to exchange foreign currencies, but the reality is that it is difficult to rule out the possibility of "money laundering". According to a major currency swap company manager in Auckland, in 2013, the funds transferred from China to New Zealand through his company were already around 500 million New Zealand dollars (about 2.5 billion yuan in Chinese Renminbi).

 

"The 'migration deficit' leads to the outflow of Chinese talent and capital, but has not added the appropriate talent and capital inflows". This is the problem Wang Huiyao is concerned about. In his view, China has not opened the "international talent" migration or the "international investment" migration to China; China needs to further emancipate her mind. Emigrants from the mainland of China using a variety of names and forms such as student, foreign labor export and relatives of emigrants are often called "new emigrants." The main force of this generation of emigrants consists of the intellectual and the wealthy elite, and is characterized by the large number and the higher-level quality. It is estimated that they account for one fifth, or about 10 million, of the 50 million overseas Chinese. According to China's sixth census data (in 2010), the number of foreigners living in China was 593,832 (excluding Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan). There was a huge migration deficit. In 2011, the number of Chinese studying in the United States was 157,000, while in the same year only 14,000 Americans studied in China. The difference in number was more than tenfold. This was disproportionate with China's second world largest economy. It also reflects that there are still higher barriers in China for talent to move in and the relevant laws and policies should be improved and enhanced.

 

The Chinese emigration to the United States has a distinctive characteristic of talent migration, and the US has become China's largest country of brain drain. A 2010 American Community Survey showed that among the Chinese immigrants in the United States, new immigrants and legal immigrants constituted a very high proportion. Among the ethnic Chinese being surveyed, 40.8 percent entered the United States after 2000 and they had a higher education level. Studies have predicted that by 2018, technical emigration to the United States will become triple the current level, reaching 500,000, of which 35-41 percent will be skill-based. If no great importance is attached to the local talent, there will be many countries training personnel for the US. In this context, the Chinese labor migration to the developed countries will not slow down.

 

Zhang Chuan, a financial expert who lives in the US,  has written a book entitled Credit Card Empire and has a deep understanding of the American society. He said that the United States has an excellent system to attract overseas talent. From giving foreign students university and graduate school admissions to their graduation and employment, and from applying for a work visa to their technical immigration, there is a continuous line service to form a screening process for keeping the best overseas talent to stay in the United States. Some less competitive overseas students are eliminated in the process, if they cannot complete their studies or find a job after graduation or cannot get stable teaching positions, etc. Most of these overseas students have to return to their home countries. In this well-designed immigration system, the most competitive foreign talents are selected by the US Immigration and Naturalization Service to receive permanent residency, and finally become American citizens. The suboptimal talents are shunted back home. Zhang Chuan hopes that China, while competing with the United States to snatch the most elite talent, should not recruit too many postdoctoral groups who cannot enter the US business community or get "tenured" academic positions, and therefore are eliminated by the American talent system. He thinks that because of restrictions in Chinese immigration and citizenship policies, many of the most creative Chinese people who are working for US companies and universities cannot return home to make contributions; they can only contribute their time and talent to the American technology and industrial systems.

 

Many overseas Chinese hope that the relevant Chinese ministries use a more flexible and pragmatic attitude to attract them back, to bring back their capital, technology and the latest scientific innovations. Zhang Chuan told a Global Times reporter that a country’s openness in dealing with immigrants and talent reflects the degree of confidence of a country in itself. He believes that compared with the United States, China's talent and capital flight phenomenon is indeed very serious; the policy to attract immigrants and the policy to provide citizenship appear to lack self-confidence and to be incommensurate with the currently booming Chinese national strength.

 

China should establish an immigration office as soon as possible

 

The "2014 Blue Book" shows that in 2013 the number of the world's migrant population reached 232 million, accounting for 4.2 percent of the world's total population, an increase of 18 million over 2010's 214 million. The United States is the country with the largest number of immigrants. Although the international migration trend still flows to the developed regions, the “2014 Blue Book” says that "Immigration is no longer a zero-sum game" since the world's returning emigrants begin to increase and make contributions to the dissemination of knowledge, skills and technology. Wang Huiyao in talking with the Global Times reporter expressed that the latest status of international migration can benefit both emigration and immigration countries. Chinese emigration overseas is not entirely a bad thing and can be viewed from a dialectical perspective. It allows people to gradually focus on the gap between China and other countries and this realization becomes the power of reflection and introspection. Immigrants take away money and technology but also form an overseas talent pool for the Chinese people. In the future this can bring greater benefits to the motherland as well. Therefore, China needs to seize the dividend of talent flow to China brought by the era of globalization, rather than the reverse. Wang Huiyao suggested that China should establish as soon as possible a Chinese immigration office to catch up and to narrow the huge migration deficit brought by the era of globalization.

 

Peking University scholar Zhang Yiwu told the Global Times reporter that China’s "migration deficit" phenomenon will continue in the future; but there is no need for people to feel too anxious: it is better to maintain a sense of balance.  “In the past, people preferred to go abroad to wash dishes, but now they go abroad because they have money". He said that, for example, the East Asian countries compete fiercely and create enormous pressure among themselves; South Korea’s economic development is very quick, but it also has a similar ‘migration deficit’ phenomenon”. He continued to say that with the strengthening of national power, China will have more opportunities and this “relative advantage” will attract more foreigners to China for career development.

 

Zhang Chuan said that many developing and even developed countries have also experienced a similar process of losing talent and capital; but some took positive reform measures by providing conditions for talent and capital to come back. For example, India as a technology- and engineering-talent exporting nation to the Western countries implemented an Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) policy a few years ago to give citizenships to overseas high-tech Indian professionals in Europe and the United States. Such overseas citizens of India are free to return to their homeland to start an entrepreneurship, but they cannot participate in electoral politics in India. Such a policy has attracted the return of talent and promoted the Indian IT outsourcing service industry. In addition, it is understood that for every loss of Canada's top talent who emigrates to the United States and other places, the country would attract four top talents from developing countries to balance this loss.

 

Specifically on the challenge to reduce China’s "migration deficit" by attracting more international talent, experts suggested that China should eliminate barriers for international talent to come to China by reducing the thresholds of related policies for international talent migrating to China. For example, China should remove as soon as possible the policy which restricts foreign students from working in China after graduation, should offer foreign students internship visas to attract outstanding foreign talent to work in China and should establish a Chinese international immigration system. If foreigners can find cutting-edge jobs in China, China should issue them long-term residence permits and even issue them green cards.  In terms of enticing overseas Chinese and Chinese students of foreign nationalities, offering them long-term visas, issuing them overseas Chinese ID and opening citizenship policies can also attract talent reflux to China. Making China an open and large international country and allowing talent to move in and out of China is a way to balance domestic "migration deficit" and to promote the connection of China with the rest of the world. This is the only way for China to reverse the "migration deficit" while at the same time attracting talent from other countries so that more international genuine talents can come to China to achieve their own "China dream".

 

 (Source: Global Times)

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