More than 9 million Chinese emigrated till 2013

More than 9 million Chinese had emigrated till 2013, making China the fourth-largest migrant-exporting country in the world.

According to a blue book published by the Center for China and Globalization and the Social Sciences Academic Press, 9.343 million Chinese migrated abroad, increasing 128.6 percentage points in the last 23 years and upgrading China from seventh in providing migrants in 1990 to fourth in 2013.

The United States topped the destination countries for Chinese migrants. In 2012, 81,784 people from the Chinese mainland were granted permanent resident visas for the US, accounting for 7.9 percent of the country's total. According to data published by US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Chinese also received more than three-fourths of the total visas the US issued to investment immigrants in 2013.

Chinese who studied in the US or received H-1B visas to work in the US increased an average of 20 percentage points each year. China has been the biggest provider of that country's foreign students since 2011. In 2013, there were 235,597 Chinese students in the US, accounting for 28.7 percent of all international students. Chinese who were granted H-1B visas to the US increased by 19.8 percentage points to 23,787 in 2012.

China is second only to Mexico in the number of migrants it provides to the US, and is the biggest national provider of migrants to Canada.

Chinese who received permanent resident visas to Canada increased by 4,323 than 2011 to 33,018 in 2012. China has been the biggest provider of foreign students in Canada for four years. In 2012, 25,346 Chinese students went to the country, increasing the total to 80,638. More and more Chinese are gaining permission to work in Canada as well. The number of Chinese workers in Canada increased from 2,929 to 15,034 in 2012. Meanwhile, 235,000 tourism visas to Canada were issued to Chinese in 2012, reaching a historical high.

Chinese migrants to Australia have also been on the rise for 10 years. About 60 percent of foreigners who receive permanent resident visas to the country are Chinese. Data from Australia's population census in 2011 shows Chinese will soon comprise the biggest migrant nationality, surpassing the British. British currently account for 3.5 percent of the population in Sydney, while Chinese make up 3.4 percent.

Chinese accounted for 15.4 percent of the total skilled migrants to Australia from 2008 to 2012, with a total of 516,729. The country also issued 12.7 percent of its tourism visas to foreigners to Chinese.

As Chinese migration keeps increasing, China's sixth nationwide census also showed 593,832 foreigners are living in China.

The study by the Center for China and Globalization also showed a large number of Chinese students who studied abroad chose to return home. China has become more attractive to not only overseas students but also skilled people of other nationalities, the blue book showed.

According to research by the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation of Britain, China was the most popular destination country for migrants worldwide in 2013. The survey covered more than 7,000 migrants in almost 100 countries.