The exile community, especially those who fled w/the Dalai Lama in 1959, obviously contains a disproportionate number from the landowning and educated classes targeted by the Communists, especially during the Cultural Revolution and post-invasion periods. I'd say on average they had quite a higher degree of social and economic capital than the average Tibetan peasant or nomad, especially since Tibetan society was so stratified in pre-invasion times.After all, the Tibetans outside Tibet and those within Tibet are from the same stock and with the same skills!
Obviously as well a Chinese-directed technology or infrastructure project will often require spoken or written literacy in Mandarin Chinese, a key stumbling block for any linguistic minority given the difficulty of the language and the inherently colonial imposition of having to learn the occupiers' language in order to gain employment.
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