Following the presentation discussion, I found some data in oversea students and returnees.
While the huge number of overseas students is noteworthy, China is certainly experiencing a significant return migration over the last decade. China’s rapid economic development and good government policy have been identified as the top two reasons given for returning.
Thank you Yingying for sharing this piece of data! Coincidentally I had lunch with two Master’s students last week and they are from China. They said that even though there are graduates that choose to return to the country to work, they are mostly concentrated in financial powerhouse cities such as Shanghai and Beijing. Is the Chinese government concerned about such a dense concentration of talent in just a few cities? I’m thinking particularly about Japan, where we learnt from previous lessons that the government is trying to encourage more commercial activity to take place outside of Tokyo, where most of their talents are concentrated.
Furthermore, while you cited reasons such as ‘economic development’ and ‘good government policy’ as two push factors for students to return to China, I wonder if you could speak a bit more about the quality of life and cost of living in China currently? As compared to the factors you listed above, these factors are more personal and it has direct impacts on individuals and their families, and so I believe they are equally important considerations that a returnee might bear in mind before deciding whether or not to return to China.