Where are the expats? Hong Kong’s talent drive fails to bring back foreigners, and it’s worrying some experts
- Foreign talent needed to maintain the city’s international status, say business chambers, experts
- Some returning expats notice more Mandarin being spoken, reflecting large number of mainland migrants
Briton Clare Voke has not forgotten how her circle of close friends in Hong Kong shrank from about 40 to fewer than 10 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The city’s strict pandemic measures, including some of the harshest and most prolonged travel restrictions, resulted in an exodus of expatriates.
Voke, her husband and infant son were among those who left in February last year. There had been a wave of expatriate departures that month, triggered by news of a British mother separated from her baby at a Hong Kong hospital after the 11-month-old tested positive for Covid-19.
Voke, director of teacher training at the English For Asia language centre, said she and her husband had seriously considered leaving for good, even after returning to Hong Kong at the end of May last year.
It was only after the city dropped its mask mandate early this year, and it became clear that lockdowns and quarantines would be a thing of the past, that they put aside the idea of relocating.
