By Karen Chang
There are approximately 7,500 mainland students currently studying in Macao, according to the Tertiary Education Services Office (GAES). As the demand for workforce in the local job market increases, whether to permit this large number of students to work in Macao during their study period and after graduation has surfaced to the public agenda and generated a wide debate in society.
Antonio Ng, a member of the Macao Legislative Assembly.
Referring to the City’s Statistics and Census Service, Macao’s unemployment rate from November 2013 to January 2014 dropped to 1.7%, the lowest since the establishment of the Macao Special Administrative Region in December 1999. However, Chief Executive, Chui Sai On, claimed that the demand for workforce would continuously increase due to the prospective completion of casinos projects in 2016. From the government’s point of view, mainland students could be considered a potential workforce for the local job market, according to the consultation on the “Macao’s Future Population Policy” in late 2013.
However, dissenting voices are constantly raised in society. Antonio Ng, a member of the Macao Legislative Assembly, is one of the dissidents. “I respect those potential workers with their knowledge and input. However, if this policy is implemented in this short term, those mainland students would probably be supplied to meet mainly the demand of workers in the gaming industry,” said Ng.
In Ng’s opinion, this policy would only be taken into account on the premise of “well-diversified economy”. However, Ng said that Macao’s economy is lacking diversity at present, which mainly centers on gaming and tourism. “Macao would be in a vacuum for developing a diversified economy until 2020. Due to the implementation of the ‘Framework Agreement on Cooperation between Guangdong and Macao’, Macao would mainly focus on making investments around Guangdong,” he concluded.
Cheong, a local senior student.
Furthermore, one of the concerns about the measure is related to the admission of universities in Macao. According to Rector of the University of Saint Joseph (USJ), Peter Stilwell, USJ expects to recruit mainland students for the following academic year due to a shortage of local student population. Hence, this policy may become a possible highlight for local universities to attract mainland students. Nevertheless, it is expected that universities might excessively recruit mainland students if the policy would be approved, which might violate the objective of local universities to cultivate local students. Additionally, it is important to note that Macao University of Science and Technology (MUST) has over half of their students coming from the mainland at the moment, according to GAES.
Cherry Cheong, a local senior student, is also against permitting mainland students to work in Macao. “It is not necessary, as this measure will only benefit the business community, not society eventually. Besides, mainland students are eligible to apply for a work permit if they really want to work in Macao after their graduation,” she said.
On the other hand, half of the mainland students would like to work in Macao if this policy is approved, according to the research done by the Macao Youth Research Association. “This would turn into a good measure with suitable conditions since it is beneficial not only to mainland students, but also to Macao society. Undoubtedly, it would arouse the competitive awareness among local students,” said Ling Tan, a mainland senior student.
Tan, a mainland senior student.
Referring to neighboring regions, such as Hong Kong, under the Immigration Arrangements for Non-local Graduates (IANG), a non-local student who obtained a bachelor degree and above would be granted 12 months’ stay on time limitation to find a job in Hong Kong after graduation, extension of stay would be applied with proof of employment afterwards. In addition, the Hong Kong government gives a non-local student one year of curriculum-related internship arranged by the institutions s/he is studying in. A non-local student is allowed to have part-time jobs, which must be on-campus for not more than 20 hours per week. Meanwhile, they could get summer jobs without any limitation of working hours and location. This could be used as reference for Macao to further consider the possibility of this policy.