1. Historically, according to Singaporean historian Wang Gungwa in this book “China and the Chinese Overseas” there have been three main reasons for Chinese migration: huashang / trading; huagong / labor migration; or huaqiao / wandering migration. The second category includes slavery, indentured labour, impoverished workers choosing to work overseas of their free will, and more recently, those choosing to work overseas post-graduation or because of better opportunities. In the past 50 years, it feels that a fourth category, education migration [huaxue?], could also be added.
2. There is a fairly direct correlation in the past century between domestic uncertainty and increased Chinese migration. Most recently, there was a large bump in 2023 which has been accredited to various factors including a build up because of the lack of opportunity to migrate during covid, the impact of zero-covid lockdowns, concerns about the economy, and a more general malaise. Searches for the newly-created term 润学 runxue/runology (learning to run/emigrate to another country), have skyrocketed (by 2455% in March 2022 during lockdowns)
3. Emigration occurs across all socio-economic tiers. Over 24,000 illegal Chinese immigrants, mostly from poorer backgrounds, have entered the US over the past year; surpassing the combined number from the past decade. Many middle-class families are moving to countries within the region such as Thailand, Malaysia and Australia. While high-net-worth families continue to favour countries such as Japan (like Jack Ma), Singapore, the US, and UK.
4. Chinese immigration is often a boon for private schools in their newly-adopted countries. This is highlighted most obviously in Japan, which received the highest number of Chinese migrants among OECD countries in 2020 (down to fifth in 2021), and has recently seen the opening of three British international schools, Harrow International School Appi Japan, Malvern College Tokyo and Rugby School Japan, where Chinese students are a significant part of the enrolment mix (in Harrow Appi Japan 30%; with another 30% Japanese and 40% from other nationalities).
5. For universities in China, countries with the highest number of overseas Chinese are an increasingly rich source of student enrolments. Chinese heritage students from countries such as Indonesia and Malaysia share a cultural and linguistic connection to the mainland, while also motivated by increasing trading relationships and career opportunities. We can only speculate as to whether the Chinese diaspora in South East Asia may also look in future for K12 schooling options in mainland China…
Comments