When Kivi’s plans to get a US masters diploma didn’t work out final yr, the coed from China’s japanese metropolis of Nanjing switched to an establishment nearer to house: the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Kivi is a part of what college officers and immigration specialists say is a rising pattern of mainland Chinese college students and younger staff shifting to the previous British colony.
Academics and college students stated the pattern was pushed by pessimism concerning the prospects provided by a mainland within the grip of robust zero-Covid insurance policies and by doubts concerning the welcome Chinese can count on within the US amid growing diplomatic tensions between Beijing and Washington.
“Mainland China is in a state of chaos now. Everyone is suffocated,” stated Kivi, 23, who blamed Beijing’s crackdown on personal enterprise for worsening younger folks’s job prospects and who requested to be recognized by a nickname. “The zero-Covid policy is the last straw,” he stated.
Rising discontent on the zero-Covid method has been demonstrated throughout the nation in latest days by a unprecedented spate of protests in opposition to the coverage, a few of them joined or led by college students.
The enhance in mainland Chinese college students in Hong Kong has greater than made up for a fall within the variety of worldwide college students within the metropolis through the coronavirus pandemic, official knowledge reveals.
The metropolis’s immigration division issued a complete of 37,087 pupil visas for mainland college students in 2021, up from 30,707 in 2019. In distinction, 6,645 college students from abroad and Taiwan had been granted examine visas final yr, down from 11,188 two years earlier than.
Joshua Mok, vice-president of Hong Kong’s Lingnan University, stated mainland Chinese accounted for many of the 13,000 non-local functions the institute had obtained by June for this yr’s taught postgraduate programmes, way over the 5,000 functions made in 2021.
Hong Kong’s higher job prospects for younger folks would assist drive an extra enhance in functions from the mainland over the subsequent yr, Mok stated, including that the college had already employed dozens extra educational employees in preparation.
Mainland China’s youth unemployment price was almost 18 per cent in September, in contrast with lower than 8 per cent in Hong Kong.
Academics and college students stated the focusing on of mainlanders by demonstrators throughout Hong Kong’s pro-democracy protests in 2019 had beforehand put some off town, however the introduction of a sweeping nationwide safety legislation in 2020 meant this was not an enormous concern.
Mok stated diplomatic tensions had been additionally pushing mainland college students towards Hong Kong, with some now being denied examine visas by the US.
The US granted solely 49,959 F1 pupil visas to Chinese mainland college students within the six months to the top of September, down 45 per cent in contrast with the identical interval in 2019.
More younger mainland staff are additionally seeking to Hong Kong, based on immigration specialists, although town’s economic system contracted by 4.5 per cent within the third quarter. Mainland China’s gross home product grew 3.9 per cent throughout the identical interval.
“The main driver is the political and economic uncertainty caused by zero-Covid . . . Many indicators showed that mainland China is moving backwards,” stated JY, a Shanghai-based medical tech agency supervisor in her mid-30s.
JY, who requested to be recognized solely by her initials as a result of of sensitivities about emigration in China, stated she and a “bunch of friends” had change into excited by shifting to Hong Kong after town’s chief, John Lee, unveiled new visa schemes in October.
The schemes included a two-year “top talent” go permitting these with an annual wage of HK$2.5mn (US$320,000) or extra or who graduated from prime universities to remain in Hong Kong with out first acquiring a job provide.
Immigration consultancies that assist mainland Chinese transfer to Hong Kong have reported an increase of curiosity following announcement of the brand new schemes. Inquiries from the mainland rose 20-30 per cent, based on a employees member on the Hong Kong workplace of company Globevisa.
The variety of mainland Chinese staff granted visas in Hong Kong declined to 9,065 in 2021, down 35 per cent in contrast with 2019. But visas for abroad staff fell an much more precipitous 67 per cent to 13,821.
And the variety of long-term work visas granted to mainland Chinese really grew 15 per cent between 2019 and 2021 to six,930, in contrast with a fall for abroad staff of a 3rd.
Attracting expertise from mainland China is especially essential for Hong Kong after many residents fled town’s robust coronavirus restrictions and the political crackdown that adopted the 2019 protests. Hong Kong’s workforce has fallen by no less than 140,000 folks since 2020 to round 3.7mn folks.
Zhang, a 30-year-old Nanjing-based marketing consultant with levels from the US, stated he was contemplating utilizing considered one of Hong Kong’s new expertise schemes as a route out of mainland China. The metropolis might “be a stepping stone for me to emigrate to another country”, stated Zhang, who requested to be recognized solely by his surname.
Yoyo, 22, a pupil on the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is considered one of many friends from the mainland who yearn to remain within the metropolis after commencement.
Mainland China provided solely “dim prospects” due to poor working circumstances, an absence {of professional} ethics and a dearth of ladies in management positions, stated Yoyo, who requested to be recognized by her nickname.
“In Hong Kong, at least, I can live like a human being,” she stated.
