Emigration is not new from Hong Kong but its volume is presently at an all-time high. This paper examines whether this exodus is in response to the return of Hong Kong to Chinese sovereignty in 1997. While the impending transfer is clearly one factor there are more important reasons to be found in the policies of potential destination countries and in those conditions which are giving rise to an increase in the movement of Chinese peoples throughout Asia. The characteristics of the emigrants are biased towards the upper end of the educational and occupational spectrum. The loss of these personnel to the local economy may cause short-term problems in particular sectors but Hong Kongs long-term viability is more likely to be associated with the potential for regional development in the Pearl River delta as a whole than with the outflow of population. (EXCERPT)
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Ronald Skeldon (1990) studied this question.