A growing number of Hong Kong people are leaving. There is concern it could lead to a brain drain, but some experts are more optimistic. Wang Yuke reports from Hong Kong.
Sheilla Xia, a mother of two young children, is bidding farewell to Hong Kong — a city she has called her second home for more than a decade.
She relishes the years she has spent in this vibrant city, where she got her teaching career off the ground, set up a happy family of four and enjoyed an ever-expanding social network. But with a heavy heart, Xia and her husband have resolved to return to their hometown in Shandong province, leaving all the fond memories behind them.
“The unrelenting pandemic, a listless economy and the upheavals here in recent years have forced me to make up my mind. My chief concern revolves around my children, their education, mindsets and future,” says Xia.
“Hong Kong, undoubtedly, provides quality education. That’s not an issue with me. What I’m worried about is whether my children will have bright prospects in their careers, balanced views (on controversies), and if there are ample opportunities and a big stage for them to play on when they grow up.”
Xia says that young people on the Chinese mainland are becoming more creative and enlightened with greater exposure to novel gadgets, technologies and concepts from all around the world.
“They think big and do big. They are perching atop China, gazing at what’s happening in the world. I want my children to have that vision and outlook.”
The prolonged pandemic in Hong Kong has already taken a toll on Xia’s family, with her two children, aged 3 and 1, having returned to Shandong last year with their father.
But Xia still must serve out her teaching contract in Hong Kong before she can reunite with her family in June next year. With no one to help her babysit at the height of the pandemic while she was at work, she had a tough time. “I was totally worn out. It seemed that leaving the babies in the care of my parents (in Shandong) was the only option.”
The long separation is poignant for Xia, but she has to come to terms with it.
Beryl Yip, a 30-year-old Hong Kong resident and her fiance appear to be in a similar position.
They are poised to emigrate to Canada. Leaving Hong Kong, a city they are truly enamored with, was a tough decision to make. But for the sake of their future child’s education, Yip says, they have to take that step. “It’s sad to see Hong Kong’s education becoming more and more politically tinted. Schools should shield teenagers and adolescents from political bias and sentiments because they are still forming their own world values and perspectives. I don’t want my kid to be peer pressured in political rows.”
There’re also Hong Kong parents who have taken temporary refuge with their children in mainland cities that are considered safe as the coronavirus rears its head in the SAR.
Monica Zhang, a mother in her late 20s, has been living in Xi’an, Shaanxi province, with her three children since August, four months after her kids’ kindergarten shifted to online teaching. She was perplexed by the need for a kindergarten child to take to virtual learning, which is almost like a “teacher’s solo show”.
“In-person communication is crucial for children to develop a healthy personality in their tender years,” says Zhang. “I notice they have become more outgoing, talkative and sociable since we moved here (Xi’an), maybe because they are able to play with others in a real environment.”
Hong Kong’s population shrank by 0.6 percent last year, according to the latest annual population report by the Census and Statistics Department. The sharp decline was attributed to a drastic drop in the city’s birth rate, a significant rise in mortality, and remarkably fewer people coming to Hong Kong while many moving out. The report says 49,900 Hong Kong residents left the city in 2020 alone.
In 2019, it was reported that 33,000 residents applied for Certificates of No Criminal Conviction — a document issued by the Hong Kong Police Force to obtain various visas, including travel or resident visas, or for the adoption of children — compared with less than 25,000 annually between 2015 and 2018. In the first 11 months of last year, about 26,000 residents applied for the certificate.
The growing number of people leaving is not simply about a declining population. Paul Yip, chair professor of population health at the University of Hong Kong, says that immigrants take their skillsets and assets, which are the most valuable things that Hong Kong can’t afford to lose.
Hong Kong has distinguished itself with its cultural diversity and inclusiveness, making it an enticing spot for investment, business expansion and innovation, Yip says. However, if the labor market continues to lose young talent due to a low birth rate and increased immigration, and without adequate skilled professionals coming in to fill in the void, Hong Kong will gradually lose its “treasured edge” — diversity. It will take a toll on the local economy because a diverse work environment provides a rich pool of expertise and mindset, which nurtures creativity and innovation, he says.
Potential impact
Some economic experts, however, are less pessimistic.
Tang Heiwai, professor of economics at the University of Hong Kong, noted that previous immigration waves can be used as a reference to gauge the potential impact on society. Between 1992 and 1997, up to half a million Hong Kong people migrated, but half of them returned as the special administrative region’s economy had been doing quite well since the handover. “So the impact wasn’t that great.”
Tang expects smilar numbers of Hong Kong people to up sticks in the next three to five years, “But I believe many of them will come back eventually because they may well realize that Hong Kong’s economy is still doing better than that in other places. “After all, the global economy is still in a recession,” he says.
Therefore, in the medium term, maybe within five years, the full effect on the city’s economy will not be evident.
Besides, there’ll be more diverse opportunities in Hong Kong’s more progressive sectors, such as financial technology, big data and biotechnology, that will attract young talent and professionals from the Chinese mainland, Tang says.
He believes the SAR and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area will reap mutual tangible benefits through integrated development. The fruits of research by experts from Hong Kong’s prestigious universities can be commercialized as products and services that can be mass manufactured in the Bay Area. “The more production and consumption in the Bay Area, the more upstream research and development in Hong Kong,” he says.
Terence Chong Tai-leung, executive director of the Lau Chor Tak Institute of Global Economics and Finance at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, is confident that Hong Kong will remain a coveted, boisterous international financial hub for talent exchange even if there’s herd immigration.
“Hong Kong is most valued for being a handy platform for people and money flow, with fewer constraints and barriers,” Chong says, adding that the dynamic is constant and not as susceptible to external changes as we may think because the foundation is “established and carved in stone”.
Shrugging off the potential impact of herd immigration on the city’s talent pool, Chong reiterates that the “non-stop dynamic of talent influx and exodus is fundamentally constant in the city, so it can’t be more usual to see people exiting”.
The strength will be maintained through complementary cooperation between Hong Kong and the Bay Area, he says. For one thing, Hong Kong boasts world-class universities that are in the best position to help the Bay Area cultivate talent and professionals. For the other, there’s a scant supply of finance talent in the Bay Area, while there’s likely to be keener demand for fundraising, company listings and investment, given there’re a lot of startups there.
“I believe Hong Kong, as a go-to free trade port, will just fill the void, continuing to lure budding entrepreneurs and unicorn startups from the Bay Area to come here,” Chong says. By the same token, Hong Kong will continue to appeal to companies from the Bay Area or overseas aiming to set up offices in the city, he says.
He urged Hong Kong entrepreneurs to leave their comfort zone and seek opportunities in the Bay Area, where there’s more room for growth. Hong Kong’s sky-high land prices are unfriendly to startups, he says. “A sizable area is key to a company’s success which is a matter of teamwork. But Hong Kong’s expensive land can hardly provide that. The mainland market is more diverse and broader.”
But he admits there’re often misgivings among Hong Kong entrepreneurs about matters like unfamiliarity with mainland culture, the language barrier and reduced access to Hong Kong websites that discourage them from going.
Once these issues are cleared, more Hong Kong entrepreneurs will be keen to climb aboard the Bay Area bandwagon. “The ultimate answer is to provide a micro Hong Kong culture within the Bay Area — a feel-at-home wow factor to Hong Kong people.”
Stuart Gietel-Basten, professor of social science and public policy at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, suggests that sourcing talent from outside Hong Kong helps mitigate the talent deficit. A more sustainable answer is to train people locally and incentivize local graduates to work in less popular areas where they’re desperately needed.
“We’ve eight world-class universities churning out outstanding graduates. But why is that many of them still find it hard to secure a job although the construction and elderly caregiving sectors are so short of workers?” Gietel-Basten says. These jobs, although far from being respectable, are in demand. There’re exponentially growing areas where there’s an acute shortage of young labor, he says.
What Hong Kong needs to do is to “professionalize” these “under-appreciated” trades and pay people properly to lift the image and value of these professions. The aim is to pique local graduates’ interest in these marginalized occupations.
Contact the writer at jenny@chinadailyhk.com