“China’s society knows no rules,” the sociologist Xu Jianrong believes. “That is why many people are anxious about the future. It is impossible to predict what is going to happen.”
The philosopher Xu Youyu recently published the essay “More Social Justice can stop the Migration Flow” in which he argues that a reduction of corruption and cronyism could reverse the exodus. “People will have confidence only in a just society in which they can feel safe.”
Successful business people are transferring their assets to North America, and sending their children to be educated there because the legal and social systems of the U.S. and Canada offer a measure of security not available at home.
No doubt a small number of those who wish to emigrate are men who in recent years have achieved positions of power by dubious means, or have abused their power, and are afraid that they will be brought to account.
According to the latest statistics 650,000 Chinese have received permission to live in the U.S., a fifth of the existing Chinese population. In Canada the situation is similar. 250,000 new immigrants from China have come during the last year, added to a Chinese population of 1.3 million. Many of the newcomers are members of the professional elite. Those who don’t qualify in the category of skilled workers or experts have a chance to do so as “investment migrants.” They have to demonstrate that they have capital – in the U.S. $500,000, and $600,000 in Canada – which they are prepared to invest in specific projects. In Canada, provision was made for 2055 “investment migrants” during the last year.
Chinese papers worry about the brain drain.
Source: Die Zeit, July 22, 2010.
