More professional workers in China seek a better life overseas
More mainland professionals, fed up with pollution, food safety and education problems, are taking their chances overseas
"Every time Beijing's PM2.5 [pollution particles dangerous to human health] level hits 300, the desire to leave this country overwhelms me," says Shi Xue , a magazine editor in Beijing.
Shi is one of a growing number of people keen to escape the mainland's pollution and food-safety worries, a trend identified in a recent research report.
It's no longer just the wealthy and powerful who want to find a bolt-hole abroad. More white-collar workers like Shi are joining an expanding army of emigrants, according to the , released by the Centre for China and Globalisation (CCG) and the Beijing Institute of Technology's law school in December.
In 2011 alone, more than 150,000 mainlanders became permanent residents of the world's major immigration countries, it said. Of them, more than 100,000 acquired skilled worker visas, the most common form of immigration for middle-class professionals, while more than 10,000 obtained investor visas.
More than 87,000 of them obtained a US visa, making the United States the most popular destination. Canada, Australia and New Zealand followed, according to the report.
