Beyond financial well-being: Explaining the migration of rich Chinese to Western countries

The past two decades have witnessed extensive migration of rich Chinese to Western countries. Previous research documents this process but does little to explain its causes. This paper seeks to address this gap in the literature and aims to identify the reasons for which rich Chinese leave their country and choose to live in Western democracies. The paper argues that this particular group of migrants sees beyond the financial well-being and the usual “living standard” argument provided in the literature. To this end, it tests for the explanatory power of several political, social and economic factors both in the country of origin and of residence. It uses 40 semi-structured interviews with rich Chinese migrants in Australia, Canada, the UK and the US. The results show a nuanced picture with important differences in terms of motivations across the four countries of residence. They contribute to the broader discussion in the field of migration regarding the importance of push and pull factors. These findings also allow for a better understanding of a particular group of migrants (rich people) that had received little attention in the literature so far.