As a new wave of migration unfurls, we look at the triggers and ask, is this really a new phenomenon?
By Yu Xiaodong
With an estimated 45 million people of Chinese descent currently living overseas, China already has a long tradition of emigration. For much of the 20th century, a period in which China was ravaged by war, famine and internal conflict, the country was the source of untold numbers of working emigrants (both legal and illegal) for nations across the globe.
Yet despite experiencing over 30 years of steady economic growth, China’s wave of emigration has yet to break. According to various reports, not only has the wave continued, but it has begun to develop a new face. While many of the earlier emigrants arrived at their destination penniless in search of a fortune, today’s emigrants are more likely to have already struck it rich in China, and are now seeking a new place in which to enjoy their wealth.
While many cry out that this trend is draining the country of its talent and wealth, others are asking what is propelling China’s wealthy elite to escape the country in which they became successful?
No Surprises?
For many sociologists, China’s so-called “third wave emigrants” are the natural result of the country’s continuing development. According to Professor Zeng Xingcun from the China Academy of Social Sciences, “It’s not surprising to find that as the Chinese become wealthier, more people can afford to emigrate as investors.” Similar increases in emigration have also taken place in many other countries such as South Korea, Singapore and other more advanced economies during their own economic development.
From a purely economic perspective, China’s economic growth naturally creates increasing numbers of people who can afford to be “investor immigrants.” Irrespective of China’s economic development, the appreciation of the Chinese yuan by 25 percent in the last decade alone has substantially lowered the threshold for potential investor immigrants. In recent years, struck by the economic downturn, several countries favored by Chinese emigrants have actually lowered the threshold. For example, under the Obama administration the US has lowered the minimum investment for “investor immigrants” from US1 million to US500,000.
“In theory, all Beijing residents who own an apartment within the city’s second ring road can afford to emigrate to the US as ‘investors,’” said Qi Lixin, President of the Beijing Entry & Exit Service Association in an interview with the Southern Weekend newspaper. With rocketing real estate prices, an average downtown Beijing apartment measuring 1,200 square feet can easily be worth upwards of US500,000. Factor in natural inflationary pressures, and many argue that there is nothing shocking about the so-called new wave of emigration.
Insecurity
However, one relatively new trend is evident in the new emigration wave, namely, why the country’s elite is relocating, remains counter-intuitive to most. If the earlier waves of emigration were largely fueled by economics, with the purpose of pursuing higher living standards, the recent surge of emigration among China’s rich is obviously propelled by something else.
In seeking a rationale behind the apparent demographic shift, a variety of hypotheses have been raised, invoking almost all of China’s social problems, from air pollution, food safety and inadequate social welfare to a highly competitive but rigid education system, poor medical care and a tightly controlled political life.
