'GO EAST' is a message being heeded by many Asian professionals in the United States and Europe who see brighter job prospects in a region that is expected to outperform the rest of the world for economic growth.

Plugging the gap FIRMS in Asia will need a lot of talent to drive growth. Executive search firm MRI Group said last year that companies in China will need 70,000 middle and senior managers over the next five years. ... more

Mr Zhang Zheng Han, 26, is one of a growing flock of highly educated Asians living in the West who have bought one-way tickets home, lured by job opportunities, family ties and a comfortable lifestyle.

Other Asians should follow, according to American investor Jim Rogers, who co-founded the Quantum Fund with George Soros.

He thinks this century will be China's and now lives in ethnically Chinese Singapore, where his young kids are learning Mandarin.

The trend of reverse migration has accelerated in the past few months as the financial crisis has hit the United States and Europe harder than many Asian economies. This influx will serve Asia well as it needs skilled managers to leverage further growth, experts say.

'These returnees would serve as a bridge between Asia and the rest of the economies,' said Mr Irvin Seah, an economist at Singapore's DBS, South-east Asia's largest bank.

The average Asian returnee nowadays is in his or her 30s, has a masters or doctorate degree, and comes from the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields, according to Vivek Wadhwa, a researcher at Harvard Law School's Labour and Worklife Programme.

Their influx into Asia's job market may help to plug the middle to senior management gap in companies operating in the region as they are cheaper to hire than expatriates but are more qualified than locals owing to soft skills learned in the West, which experts say are often lacking in the Asian workplace.

'We're constantly replacing expats with Asian returnees, people from their home countries who have been somewhat Westernised in business practices or business culture,' said Mr Ames Gross, president of Pacific Bridge, a US-based recruitment firm that specialises in matching returnees to Asia-based firms.

Wages in developing South-east Asian countries may be around 25 per cent of those in the West, Mr Gross said, but the wage gap for professionals is narrowing. Singapore and Hong Kong companies currently pay a comparable amount to the US and Europe.