The Impacts of the Late 2000s Financial Crisis on International Migration: The Case of China

Abstract

By making use of indirect indicators and some materials from the Internet, this paper examines the impacts of the late 2000s financial crisis on international migration to and from China. The results suggest that the financial crisis impacted internal migration more than international migration both to and from China.
This is especially the case when considering only the factors within China, as evidenced by the increasing number of exits from China as well as the volume of student departures in 2008. However, when the situation of the destination countries is factored in, it is clear that international migration to and from China was indeed affected in 2008, reflected in the decrease in volume of foreigners entering China, the decrease of Chinese workers migrating overseas, and the increase of overseas Chinese students and scholars returning home. It is expected that as the global economy recovers from the crisis, international labor emigration from China
may increase again.