New expats in Shanghai: Mostly Asian

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Expat numbers on increase
http://english.eastday.com/eastday/englishedition/metro/userobject1ai1272365.html

Yan Zhen/Shanghai Daily news
20/7/2005 16:27

The number of foreigners granted a local work permit increased 32 percent during the first half of this year from the same period of 2004, the Shanghai Labor and Social Security Bureau announced yesterday.

The bureau granted 9,071 work permits to citizens of 95 countries during the first six months of the year. That number doesn't include those who extended previously granted permits.
The number of work permits given to people from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan during the period also increased by double digits compared with the first six months of last year.

At the end of June, 41,290 foreigners had the legal right to work in the city, bureau officials said.

"The big jump was mainly caused by the large number of incoming foreign companies, which were attracted by the city's fast growing economy," said Sun Hande, director of the bureau's foreign affairs division.

Although some large multinationals are gradually transferring management positions to local professionals, the majority of newly incoming foreign companies still need expats to help set up their branches in the city, Sun said.

About 67 percent of the foreigners granted work permits this year hold mid-level or senior management positions in foreign-invested companies, while only 14 percent work for domestic firms. About 90 percent of them hold a university degree.

Japanese make up the largest group of foreigners in the city, accounting for more than 30 percent of foreign work permit holders. They are followed by expats from the United States, South Korea, Singapore and Germany.

The number of people from Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan granted a work permit also increased by 17 percent year on year to reach 3,681 people. Taiwanese accounted for 79 percent of those permit holders.

Currently there are about 17,000 work permit holders from the three Chinese regions living in the city, bureau officials said.
Starting from October 1, the central government will implement new employment regulations that make it easier for people from those regions to work on the mainland.

They won't need any work experience to apply for a work permit and they will also be allowed to take part in the mainland's social security system, according to the Ministry of Labor and Social Security.

[yoMAMA]

I'd love to be an expat in shanghai.

although beijing is still my #1 city. :wink:

[AliBabaIncorporated]

Personally I wouldn't wanna work in either place. Of course, in the finance industry, if you wanna work in the mainland, there's not really much choice.

Here's another article on expats/workforce localization in Chia. One argument against localization in poorer countries, which the author doesn't touch on: in most cases, localization doesn't meet handing jobs over from expats to locals and giving the "average Zhou" trainee a hope that he too could one day be manager; instead it means giving jobs from expats to overseas-educated returnees who can have as much or even more bias as expats against locally-educated counterparts, and who may (consciously or subconsciously) only be interested in cultivating talent from among other returnees. Expats, at least, are quite well aware of how it looks to others if they only mentor/cultivate talent from among other expats, so many make a concious effort to reach out to cultivating local talent.

Or at least that's my experience working at a big corporation in HK ...

In Building Global Companies, More Not Fewer Expats Are Needed
http://www.cbiz.cn/news/showarticle.asp?id=2319

20-Jun-2005
Lausanne - By Bill Fischer

"Localization of the managerial workforce" is a familiar refrain heard at many foreign invested enterprises [fie] in China [and elsewhere] today. Rare is the fie that is not dreaming of the cost-savings associated with reducing the expat presence and staffing most or all of the key managerial positions with local employees. Added onto this dream, as part of the justification, is the notion that the departure of expats will give locals the managerial opportunities that they deserve, and will help make the operation "more local." I think that the reduction of expats is a huge mistake for most organizations - commercial or otherwise. What we need, I believe, in building global organizations are more, not fewer, expats.

Expats are expensive, "unruly," and they are often perceived as interlopers by the markets that they are posted to. Costs such as housing allowances, kids' schooling, home leaves and the like can represent a significant [non-value adding] part of an fie's operating budget, as well as a source of friction between colleagues who are supposed to be members of the same team. If we add salaries into the discussion, the numbers grow even more significant. No wonder that at most fies in China today, you'll hear expats saying: "I'll be turning this position over to a local soon."

Expats are also seen as taking the choice positions that a local manager might aspire to, and in a sense slowing down the professionalization of the Chinese work force. Actually, my sense is that it works just the other way. Expats are a strong source of tacit professional knowledge, governance and the values of the global organization. It is expats who are the true "carriers" of the firm's cultural DNA.

Expats are also the way that the whole firm learns about local markets. By taking someone out of headquarters, or some other distant operation, and sending them to China, the firm puts itself in a position to "learn" about China; about the market, the culture, the people, the opportunities, etc. Since the expat "speaks the language of the firm," the lessons learned have a much better chance of being interpreted into generalizable knowledge.

Expats should be seen as an investment in globalization. However, expats assignments should not be limited by nationality, nor should the expat feel "abandoned" while abroad. We should look forward to seeing more Chinese expatriates forming the cadres of internationally-mobile managers in large global multinationals in the future. In addition, expats assignments should be structured so that the firm consistently learns from the expat while abroad and then values the experience when they return from the assignment; neither of which, unfortunately, is presently the norm in most companies.

Rather than being unfashionable, I think that we should see expats the most effective agents of change in globalizing both parts of the firm: the field and headquarters. Send the expats home, if you want multi-domestic; send more if you want global.