More and more highly skilled workers are leaving Hong Kong. A study by the city’s General Chamber of Commerce sounds the alarm.
According to a study carried out with 220 companies located in Hong Kong, nearly eight out of ten companies would be affected by the current wave of emigration, “regardless of the size of the company”, reports Qidian Caijing (Singularity Financial), Hong Kong financial and technology news portal.
Peter Wong (Wang Dongsheng), current president of the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, warned that this brain drain would have major repercussions on the local economy. “Hong Kong is facing the biggest outflow of highly skilled workers since the early 1990s. If this drain is not stopped, the situation will become worrying,” he insisted.
Large companies, however, seem more concerned than others – they are also the most pessimistic about the future of Hong Kong in the short term. Only 16% of companies surveyed believe that migration flows will increase, but this number rises to 48% for the largest of them.
The United Kingdom, Canada and Australia are the preferred destinations for Hong Kong workers wishing to emigrate, followed by the European Union and the United States, notes the portal, specifying that the majority of these workers belong to two age groups: from 30 to 39 years old and from 40 to 49 years old.
The fault of the national security law
The journalist from Qidian Caijing specifies that “net emigration of Hong Kong residents over the past four years would be around 126 800 people” out of a population of 7.4 million. Although the figures vary according to the media, the political factor undoubtedly counts for a lot in the phenomenon. In June 2020, the Hong Kong magazine Yazhou Zhoukan wondered : “Will the national security law trigger in Hong Konga new wave of emigration?” The article pointed out that the number of consultations from Hong Kongers to emigrate to Taiwan had suddenly increased tenfold.
Fact, according to The New York Times, more than 89,000 people would have left the city between July 2020 and July 2021, i.e. during the first twelve months of application of this law, imposed by Beijing on June 30, 2020 and considered by many Hong Kongers as a violation of the principle “one country, two systems”.
Zhang Zhulin