Grass not always greener on other side of ocean

• Source: Global Times
• [23:18 July 29 2010]
• Comments

Illustration: Liu Rui

By Rong Xiaoqing

A friend of mine asked me last month whether I thought she should move to Canada or the US. At about the same time, another friend who just had a baby and gained a promotion told me that emigration is the next priority on his agenda.

Both are well-educated young professionals living a comfortable life in Beijing.

It shouldn't surprise me. After all, I have been reading constantly in recent months about a fresh wave of emigration that seems to have become a fad among the newly wealthy in China.

There aren't specific statistics to show how many of the rich have left China. But the major destination countries for immigrants all feel the impact.

Among the 2,055 investment immigrants Canada approved last year, almost half are Chinese. In the US, 1,000 Chinese applied for investment immigration last year, doubling the number a year earlier. The picture is similar in Australia.

Of course, the Chinese are not the only people who are keen on emigration. There are 700 million people in the world who would like to emigrate if they had the chance, according to a Gallup survey.

Generally, economic development and political stability are the major magnets for migration. So it is understandable to see people leaving Eastern Europe for the West, leaving Mexico for the US and also, at least until recently, leaving China for the West.

But it's a little perplexing to see in modern China, where wealth is quickly accumulating and opportunities are no longer scarce, that a whole generation of confident well-off Chinese include a green card as one of the key accomplishments in their search for the "Chinese dream."

Among the reasons the Chinese elites give for their push for emigration are cleaner air, a more orderly society and better education for their children.

But my suspicion is that not all Chinese immigrant wannabes have fully understood the price they have to pay for these perks, because even in an information era like ours, knowledge isn't always equal.

Let's zoom in on some Chinese living in New York to see what the full story is. Our first example is a literature professor who worked at a university in South China before he came to the US eight years ago.

After doing several odd jobs, he ended up in an electronic shop recently as a handy man. He told me he hated his job, but he couldn't find a better one because he doesn't speak English. He couldn't see hope in his life in the US, but he rebuffed my suggestion that he should go back to China. "It'd be an embarrassment to go back like this," he said.