The Chinese government has raised an alert about a severe brain drain and has listed Canada among the top recipients of its exported talent.
But as much as the talent war is raising fears in China, it has been a cause for hope in British Columbia.
A report by the Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing says China suffers the world's most severe brain drain. Since 2002, more than 100,000 students have gone abroad to study annually, with only 20 to 30 per cent returning to China, the state-run newspaper China Daily reports.
The study lamented that China was losing its foreign-trained professionals to Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and Australia and urged them to return home.[...]
"Why does it happen?" asks Kenny Zhang, a senior research analyst for the Asia Pacific Foundation.
"It's because the world we are living in now is knowledge-based, high-tech-based, which requires, more and more, a high skill level from the labour force. Every country has a demand for these workers."
Zhang says while businessmen are drawn to China, professionals such as engineers are sought-after everywhere, and many are attracted to Vancouver's laid-back lifestyle.
This is welcome news for the B.C. government, which recently warned of a "demographic time bomb" characterized by an acute labour shortage as baby boomers sail off into retirement.
It’s gratifying to know the Anglosphere is blessed with a steady stream of over-achieving immigrants to temper our imminent demographic crises, but how can we be so thick as to believe the cream of China is coming because of our laid-back lifestyles?
2 comments:
I visited Vancouver for a technical conference a few years ago. I was amazed at the percentage of Chinese and Japanese people I saw there. It does seem to be a very laid back place. Lots of coffe shops. I walked around in the evening without much fear of crime.
Serves them right for killing off all their girls.
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