Chinese students and young workers look to Hong Kong for a better future

When Kivi’s plans to get a US masters diploma didn’t work out final 12 months, the coed from China’s jap metropolis of Nanjing switched to an establishment nearer to house: the Chinese language College of Hong Kong.

Kivi is a part of what college officers and immigration specialists say is a rising development of mainland Chinese language college students and younger employees transferring to the previous British colony.

Teachers and college students mentioned the development was pushed by pessimism in regards to the prospects supplied by a mainland within the grip of robust zero-Covid insurance policies and by doubts in regards to the welcome Chinese language can anticipate within the US amid growing diplomatic tensions between Beijing and Washington.

“Mainland China is in a state of chaos now. Everyone seems to be suffocated,” mentioned Kivi, 23, who blamed Beijing’s crackdown on non-public enterprise for worsening younger folks’s job prospects and who requested to be recognized by a nickname. “The zero-Covid coverage is the final straw,” he mentioned.

Rising discontent on the zero-Covid strategy 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 rise in mainland Chinese language college students in Hong Kong has greater than made up for a fall within the variety of worldwide college students within the metropolis throughout the coronavirus pandemic, official knowledge reveals.

The town’s immigration division issued a complete of 37,087 scholar 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 research visas final 12 months, down from 11,188 two years earlier than.

Joshua Mok, vice-president of Hong Kong’s Lingnan College, mentioned mainland Chinese language accounted for a lot of the 13,000 non-local purposes the institute had obtained by June for this 12 months’s taught postgraduate programmes, excess of the 5,000 purposes made in 2021.

Hong Kong’s higher job prospects for younger folks would assist drive an additional enhance in purposes from the mainland over the following 12 months, Mok mentioned, including that the college had already employed dozens extra tutorial employees in preparation.

Mainland China’s youth unemployment price was practically 18 per cent in September, in contrast with lower than 8 per cent in Hong Kong.

Teachers and college students mentioned the concentrating 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 regulation in 2020 meant this was now not a giant concern.

Mok mentioned diplomatic tensions had been additionally pushing mainland college students towards Hong Kong, with some now being denied research visas by the US.

The US granted solely 49,959 F1 scholar visas to Chinese language mainland college students within the six months to the tip of September, down 45 per cent in contrast with the identical interval in 2019.

Extra younger mainland employees are additionally seeking to Hong Kong, in accordance with immigration specialists, regardless that 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 principle driver is the political and financial uncertainty brought on by zero-Covid . . . Many indicators confirmed that mainland China is transferring backwards,” mentioned 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, mentioned she and a “bunch of mates” had turn out to be interested by transferring to Hong Kong after town’s chief, John Lee, unveiled new visa schemes in October.

The schemes included a two-year “high expertise” move permitting these with an annual wage of HK$2.5mn (US$320,000) or extra or who graduated from high universities to remain in Hong Kong with out first acquiring a job supply.

Immigration consultancies that assist mainland Chinese language 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, in accordance with a employees member on the Hong Kong workplace of company Globevisa.

The variety of mainland Chinese language employees granted visas in Hong Kong declined to 9,065 in 2021, down 35 per cent in contrast with 2019. However visas for abroad employees fell an much more precipitous 67 per cent to 13,821.

And the variety of long-term work visas granted to mainland Chinese language really grew 15 per cent between 2019 and 2021 to six,930, in contrast with a fall for abroad employees 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 not less than 140,000 folks since 2020 to round 3.7mn folks.

Zhang, a 30-year-old Nanjing-based advisor with levels from the US, mentioned he was contemplating utilizing one in all Hong Kong’s new expertise schemes as a route out of mainland China. The town might “be a stepping stone for me to to migrate to a different nation”, mentioned Zhang, who requested to be recognized solely by his surname.

Yoyo, 22, a scholar on the Chinese language College of Hong Kong, is one in all many friends from the mainland who yearn to remain within the metropolis after commencement.

Mainland China supplied solely “dim prospects” due to poor working circumstances, a scarcity {of professional} ethics and a dearth of girls in management positions, mentioned Yoyo, who requested to be recognized by her nickname.

“In Hong Kong, not less than, I can dwell like a human being,” she mentioned.