Opinion / Ravi S. Narasimhan
Green card inspires sense of belonging
By Ravi s. narasimhan (China Daily)
Updated: 2005-12-23 06:35
There's a story about Zhang Yimou, the acclaimed Chinese film director
who also happens to be my favourite, applying for a US green card only
when his daughter needed to get there for her studies and promptly
returning it when she got there.
I can't vouch for this, but a movie-crazy and usually well-informed
colleague does, and I'll take her word for it.
The American green card is, of course, such an object of an
I-want-to-live-there desire famously immortalized on celluloid by the
inimitable Gerard Depardieu - that many of us take for granted it is so.
But there's another green card officially the Alien Permanent Residence
Permit - of China that seems no less daunting to obtain.
The criteria for eligibility, by a senior official's own admission, are
seen as stringent:
Hold a senior position in the country. (That usually means the top guy,
or at least his deputy, in a big, big company.)
Make a large direct investment. (That's beyond the number of digits I'm
familiar with.)
Made outstanding contributions or are of special importance to China.
(That would be someone like Sidney Shapiro but would Zhang Yimou qualify
if he were not Chinese?)
Live in China with their families for more than five years. (But what if
you were single, like me?)
But not many people have applied, points out an American friend - till
last month, only about 1,800 had sought permanent residence.
That's the point, I say. They didn't because they couldn't easily slot
into the four categories mentioned above. And, only about a third of them
got their green cards.
The good news is that procedures for granting permanent-resident status
to foreigners may be revised.
"We've heard complaints that the existing requirements for foreigners to
get permanent residence in China are too stringent, and we're studying
possible changes," said the director of the Bureau of Exit-Entry
Administration in Beijing last month.
Admittedly, having a green card is not going to make a dramatic change to
the way foreigners live; after all, there are more than a quarter of a
million who get their work or residence permits renewed annually.
But it does make life a little easier.
For one, you could live for almost any length of time, travel in and out
without a visa and don't need a passport when you check into a suburban
Beijing hot-spring resort, barely an hour's drive from home.
More importantly, it's a matter of attracting and retaining talent. If
you've read any issue of China Business Weekly, the widely-appreciated
Monday insert in China Daily, you'd know every top executive in China
(local or foreign) emphasizes in every interview the same words (which
I've liberally borrowed): attract and retain talent.
I'll give you a hypothetical case (to use Rumsfeldesque logic, might or
might not be true): There's this bright Indian IT chap (they all seem to
be, except me) who's joined this big tech company but he's unhappy with
his boss and a rival corporation wants him. His work permit is sponsored
by his employer and quitting is a hassle. He'd have to leave his company
and his potential boss has to go through the whole procedure of hiring
him again. If only he had a green card
I'll give an example of how two other countries I've lived in handled
talent.
The first is a certain Middle East country where if a foreign employee
quit, he'd automatically be banned from entering the nation for a year to
work - the fear was he'd defect to a competitor (usually nothing to do
with trade secrets) for a higher pay packet.
The other is Singapore: When I first went there to work, I shared a flat
with two smart Indian offshore engineers (it was good because they were
rarely onshore) who I knew in the same unnamed Middle East country and
left at about the same time.
Within months of our arrival, both my friends got letters from the
immigration department asking if they would be interested in becoming
permanent residents - the talent had been attracted, the government was
working on retaining them.
One of them is happily married to a Singaporean Chinese, became a
citizen, and calls Singapore his home and country. The other has moved to
Australia, but still has a flat in Singapore and one day wants to call it
home and country.
Me? I didn't get any letter. I could have applied, of course.
Ultimately, it all boils down to a sense of belonging. And someone making
you feel you belong.
Zhang Yimou didn't (if the story is true) belong there. But there are
others who feel they belong here.
Email: ravi@chinadaily.com.cn
(China Daily 12/23/2005 page4)
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