According to newly released customer data from UniGroup Relocation, a company which helps a quarter of a million families move worldwide for work each year, twice as many expatriates left China in 2014 than arrived.
Warnings that the country's "unlivable" pollution levels, tightening visa restrictions, increasing clampdowns on the internet, rising prices and steadily climbing labor costs would drive out foreigners have been growing more and more dire, but it can still be difficult to imagine China truly losing it's luster as a promised land for businessmen and jobseekers the world over.
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According to UniGroup Relocation Asia Pacific's Managing Director Steve Lewis, however, China is indeed losing out to its Southeast Asian neighbors as foreigners seek cleaner, greener, cheaper pastures in Malaysia and Vietnam.
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“We have done some mass moves into Malaysia from China as certain people choose to do research and development and manufacturing there,” Lewis said, adding that 22 percent fewer Americans, who normally comprise the second-biggest cohort of expats in China, moved over in 2014 compared to previous years.
INFOGRAPHIC: Breaking down China's expat population
Instead, more people actually moved from China to America last year than vice versa. The United Sates remains the top choice for those leaving the mainland, followed by Germany and Singapore.
In a striking reversal of fortunes, twice as many people moved to Japan last year as left.
[Image via Guangming Online]
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