Many parents choose to leave the city for the sake of their children's health. (Photo: Li Hao/GT)
Chen said that she watched a documentary on how London dealt with their smog issue, and that made her feel even more hopeless toward the situation.
"The whole process took over 20 years. Those are the best years of our lives. We shouldn't be spending all these years worrying about every breath we take," Chen said.
"Occasionally, when Beijing's air quality is relatively good, and the sky is blue, all of my friends here get really excited and post pictures of the blue sky on WeChat. That's really heartbreaking," Chen said.
"Blue skies and clean air should be a norm in life that everyone is able to enjoy, rather than a rare luxury that people wow at," she said.
So even though two years ago Chen decided to come back to Beijing because she missed her parents, and she believes that Beijing has more opportunities than Canada, she still decided to go back to Canada, and she wants her parents to leave with her when they are retired.
"Many of my friends have the same plan, especially those with experience studying overseas," Chen said.
Another main reason why people choose to leave China, is wanting their children to grow up in a healthy environment.
Sharon Long, whose son is in primary school, left Beijing for good in November 2014 with her son and her husband.
She immigrated to Belgian, where her husband was born.
"The air quality was the main concern. My son could not go out to play as children his age should. Both my son and my husband were constantly coughing and sick for no reason," Long said.
"Besides, the school in Beijing did not even protect the kids. When I suggested buying an air purifier to the school my son attends, they were not pleasant about it," she said.
Brain drain
In observing the economic effects caused by the smog in Beijing, Wang predicted in the article that many people in Beijing will move to smaller cities with smog that is not as severe, or move to the countryside, if it is medically proven that the polluted air is one of the main causes for lung cancer, cardiology problems and depression.
He added that the rise of the Internet, enabling people to work in flexible locations, also makes it easier for people to move out of Beijing.
"Besides, it will also cause more high-income groups or low-income groups who are younger with a high education background to emigrate overseas if the living conditions in China continue to get worse," Wang said in the article. He said smog-caused immigration is very much like war-caused immigration, because people no longer feel safe in their country. If a society can no longer provide the basic need of safety, it is no longer fit for people to live in.
"The smog will cause high-end talents who have the ability to work and live in other countries to leave Beijing and China," Wang said.
He also said it is the loss of brainpower. The loss is long-term, and the cost can not be estimated.
Tian Feng, a sociologist and professor from Chinese Academy of Social Sciences agrees with Wang's opinion, but he is a little more optimistic.
"I think the smog will cause certain groups of the population to leave Beijing, but the whole population in Beijing will not decrease, because as long as many economic, educational and technological resources are highly concentrated in Beijing, people will still come here," Tian said.
However, Tian predicted that the seasonal large-scale emigration would be common in Beijing in the future. He said there is a higher chance for smog in the winter months, so many people may choose to escape to other cities from the smog temporarily. He said the short-term emigration may lead to long-term emigration in the future, but he does not think it will happen immediately.
However, things will get worse the longer the smog lasts, Tian said.
"If the smog issues last and shows no signs of improvement, some elites will eventually choose to leave China, and that is a permanent and irreparable harm to our country," he said.
