Haze, air pollution, cancer and exhaust gas emission have recently become the focus of the media and the public. Haze for days spotlighted the problem of “environmental immigrants” caused by environmenal problems.
　　In 2010, Shanghai Expo put forward the slogan: City makes life better. However, after three years, what we see is the trend that people are leaving the city gradually. The deterioration of living environment leads to new “environmental immigrants”. Where should they go to find a breathable homeland?
　　Escaping from cities: Where is my home?
　　Recently, New York Times reported: “When billions of Chinese people, including farmers in poverty, leave their hometown to hunt for jobs in vigorous cities, some urban dwellers decide to immigrate in the contrary direction instead.” These people are called new “environmental immigrants” in China.
　　In the survey, a white-collar of 34 in Shanghai resigned from her well-paid job and moved to Dali to settle down. In her opinion, this choice enabled her to have greater freedom and better living quality. “I think sunshine, clean air and clear water are the real luxuries.” She said, “But in a city, you can’t get these precious things.”
　　There is a similar case. Gary Faye Locke’s resignation a few days ago maybe had something to do with air pollution. Fortune China reported: “Although Gary Faye Locke may never disclose how air pollution affects his leaving, his resignation had caused the hot discussion about living environment.”
　　Indeed, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and other first-tier cities where population is saturated have become the main birthplaces of “environmental immigrants”. In the face of increasing deteriorating environmental crisis, people prefer remote villages with beautiful natural sceneries to migrate to. Although there is no reliable estimation about the number of immigrants, New York Times reported that these “environmental immigrants” from cities come from different walks of life – businessmen, artists, teachers, cooks, etc. Many of them belong to the new middle class in China. According to the survey, they begin their life of environment protection in the vast area from the middle of Anhui Province to remote Tibet.
　　Increasing pressure of immigration
　　“Environmental immigrants” has become the new identity of people who escape from cities. Environmental deterioration makes some people move in different cities and other people immigrate abroad. Xiaozhang, a consultant in Chinese Immigrating Net, said, “In the cases of applying for immigration, the rate of immigrating because of environmental factors increases greatly.” Besides, the reporter found that most people would like to immigrate to Europe. Benita Ferrero Waldner, a specialist of EU in external policies and Javier Solana, a senior representative of foreign affairs in European Commission, stressed in their recent report: “Europe should sufficiently estimate the increasing pressure of immigration.” 　　It is human nature and understandable for human beings to move away from the bad environment and find a more livable city, which is what most immigrants think. Some ethnic Chinese in the Chinatown of London told the reporter: “The reason we move here is for the better life with cleaner air and greener environment.” But local citizens there have different opinions. A lawyer in London said, “With a large number of foreigners coming, the environment in London bears too much burden. The city has become more crowded and the air pollution becomes more serious.”
　　“It is a serious problem that immigrants continue to damage the living environment of the cities they move-in. It makes the output of environmental immigrants become the output of people as well as the ecological environment deterioration and poverty. Environmental immigrants, just as environmental disasters, bring bad environment and poverty to a new area. In many developing countries, it has almost become a common phenomenon.” Xu Jiang, professor of Institute of Geochemistry of Chinese Academy of Science, said, “Environmental immigrants alleviate the pressure of the original places but at the same time increase the pressure of the new places.”
　　Environmental immigrants increase the carrying capacity of population of move-in cities. Some Australian organizations of environmental immigration said, “The reasonable number of population in Australia should be around 10 million. Now it reaches over 20 million. In fact, the average living standard of these 20 million people has already lowered.”