IN FOCUS: As expats exit Hong Kong and mainlanders enter, businesses and communities are counting the costs

Mainlanders have also been largely answering the call as Hong Kong rolls out the red carpet for global talent.

The Top Talent Pass Scheme (TTPS), the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme and the Technology Talent Admission Scheme (TechTAS) are among the initiatives implemented by the Hong Kong government to attract professionals and boost its international standing.

More than 130,000 people have arrived in Hong Kong through these schemes as of June, and approximately 120,000 of their family members have also settled in the city. Most successful applicants are from mainland China, accounting for approximately 95 per cent and 78 per cent of TTPS and TechTAS applicants respectively.

Ms Sonali Gidwani, a management consultant based in the UK, is struggling to find a job in Hong Kong due to the increasing importance of Mandarin or “putonghua” in the local job market.

“Many expats don’t go to schools where Cantonese and Mandarin are taught properly … so as a result, the job opportunities are not very good (there) for people who don’t speak Cantonese and Mandarin fluently, because the main clients are from China,” said Ms Gidwani, whose family were originally from India but have now lived in Hong Kong for three generations.

Non-local students made up 81 per cent of international school enrollments in 2013 but dropped to 65 per cent last year, according to the city’s education bureau.

A government-commissioned study has also found that almost 30 per cent of Hong Kong’s international and private schools expect non-local student applications to drop by 13 per cent annually over the next five years.

As international school spaces are freed up, they’re being snapped up by Hong Kong and mainland Chinese students, leading to the closure or merger of many local schools, noted Mr Quane.