China set to attract younger expats looking for more enjoyable livelihoods
Tomorrow's expats in China are likely to be younger, more open for adventure, and hungrier than in the past
China remains a magnet for international workers from near and far, but the daily lives, motivations and compensation packages of today’s expatriate workers are all in flux.
A recent study of private moving company data by Unigroup Relocation implies that the number of expat workers are slipping, with the company handling twice the number of moves out of China as it did into it last year.
Because moving companies handle only the higher end of transfers, the data seems to indicate a change in the mix of foreign workers coming to China, in favour of younger employees less likely to merit a generous package but more likely to be open to adventure.
The mix of foreigners coming to China has always been in evolution. “When China first began opening up in the early 1980s, it was with the realisation that they were far behind much of the world in terms of development, technology, and education, and that they’d need to race in order to catch up”, says Wade Shepard, director of ChinaSide Consultants. Companies favoured foreign workers “who possessed a good deal of technical know-how, such as technicians, engineers, supply-chain management, and quality control specialists”, he adds.
Up through the early part of the past decade, foreign multinationals tended to rely on “people who were coming to the end of their useful shelf life in their home countries”, says an executive in a multinational corporation in China. That was possible because “local talent was inexperienced enough that sending over people who could not lead, manage or perform in their home countries would still result in a net benefit to the destination”.
That changed over the past decade, with the best of the best being lured to China by opportunity, money and challenge. At the same time, “the education boom really ignited and foreign teachers began flooding the country”, Shepard says. This boosted the numbers of foreign workers and laid the ground for a new generation of domestic workers who have a solid education and the ability to work in an English-speaking company.
Increased competition forced foreign workers to raise their game, but work in China still has much to offer. “Many foreigners are able to find better paying, more respectable, and, ultimately, more enjoyable livelihoods in China than they can in their home countries”, Shepard says.
