GRSJ224/Mainland Chinese Immigration in Hong Kong

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Hong Kong is a city with established economy, comprehensive legal system and high level of safety. It is located at the south-eastern tip of China with humid subtropical climate which is favourable for immigration. These favourable characteristics and Mainland China's easy access to Hong Kong have long been pull factors for Mainland Chinese to immigrate to Hong Kong.[1] According to the 2011 census, only about 60% of local residents were born in Hong Kong. Mainland Chinese has made up the largest proportion of the immigration population in Hong Kong and their total number has exceeded two million. [2]

History

It has been a long history of Chinese immigration to Hong Kong. The immigrant society was made up of several waves of migration since 1842.[1] They were usually triggered by push factors from China like political turmoil, social unrest and economic instability in different periods.

During British Colonial Rule

There were four big waves of immigration after China unification in 1949, including post-Chinese Civil War during 1949-1953, the failure of "Great Leap Forward" Movement in 1962-1963, the outbreak of "Cultural Revolution" during 1966-1967 and the "Four Modernizations" program initiated by the Chinese government during 1979-1980.[2]

After British Handover of Hong Kong's Sovereignty to China

In 1997, British colonial government returned Hong Kong to China. Hong Kong has become Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) of China and has adopted the "one country, two systems" policy. The post-colonial government introduced the "One-Way Permit" Scheme which allowed an immigration quota of 150 people per day from Mainland to Hong Kong for family reunion. The launch of this programme has given rise to the term "One-Way Permit Holders" (OWPHs) which refers to the new immigrants in Hong Kong (another terminology for the immigrants from mainland China).[3]

In the past two decades, there have been other immigration measures implemented towards Mainland Chinese. For instance, the "capital investment entrant" program launched in 2003 and the "quality migrant admission" program in 2006 were aimed at attracting investment and elites from China. In addition, their family members can also stay in Hong Kong as dependents. All immigrants admitted through these schemes are granted permanent residence after staying in Hong Kong for 7 years. As a result, there have been a rapid rise of mainland Chinese immigrants during the past two decades.[2]

Dissatisfaction Among Hong Kong Locals

Rejection and discrimination are built up more easily when the host and migrant populations have different backgrounds.

Background

Hong Kong had been under British colonial rule for more than a century which had a distinct political and social background compared to China. Moreover, the majority of Hong Kong people speak Cantonese, which is different from the official language of China, Mandarin. Combined with other unique Hong Kong culture and habits, it is clear that Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong have a different background than the locals.[1]

Distinct Hong Kong Identity

Since 1970s, the local Hong Kong people has started to build a sense of belonging by identifying themselves as the 'mainstream' or 'host community' which laid the foundation for their distancing from the Chinese immigrant community.[4] Although most of the Hong Kong population was comprised of immigrants from the Mainland, post-war developments and the ruling of British colonial government have gradually built up their sense of identity as 'Hong Kongers', not to mention their second and third generations who were locally born.[4]

Anti-China Sentiment

Before the 1980s, China was still economically less developed than Hong Kong. Hong Kong locals have started to build a sense of superiority towards people in Mainland. The Cultural Revolution and the arrival of Vietnamese boat people in 1979 further intensified Hong Kong locals' anti-China sentiment. This sense of antagonism escalated when Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 as the locals were uncertain of the political and social prospect following the ideology of China. [4] Therefore, the influx of Mainland Chinese immigrants to Hong Kong has inevitably created dissatisfaction among Hong Kong locals, as a way for the locals to express their anti-China sentiment.[4]

Discrimination towards the New Immigrants

Since immigrants, traders and tourists from Mainland China has been exploiting Hong Kong local resources tremendously, from daily commodities to housing and social welfare, these 'Mainlanders' were given a derogatory label called the 'locust' (huangchong 蝗蟲). It implies that they are culturally inferior and dangerous, uncivilised creatures who greedily exploit other's resources.[5]

Besides, apart from the immigration control in One-Way Permit, the Chinese government can also issue an unlimited number of Two-Way Permit which allow holders to visit Hong Kong temporarily in a designated period. This system creates a loophole for illegal immigration. Massive amount of Mainland pregnant mothers intentionally overstay and give birth in Hong Kong for the sake of acquiring Hong Kong citizen identity for the child.[1] Thus, enjoying better quality of life in Hong Kong. Therefore, another term 'shuangfei child 雙非兒童' was created which refers to a Hong Kong-born child whose parents are not Hong Kong citizens. The neologism of the term was to criticise the act of those Mainland mothers who exploit Hong Kong local medical services and cause shortage of labour and resources. Both derogatory terms serve as the same purpose to label this undesirable group as the outcasts of the society.

Legislation

In 2005, Hong Kong government has proposed a bill against racial discrimination. However, it excluded the new immigrants of mainland China from the protection of this bill. The government claimed that Mainland Chinese immigrants are of the same ethnicity as are the majority of Hong Kong people, namely Han Chinese. The discrimination on these immigrants was categorised as social discrimination instead of racial discrimination. This proposal shows that Hong Kong government acknowledged the occurrence of discrimination against Chinese immigrants and allowed it to be continued.[6]

Obstacles Faced by Immigrants

Immigrants commonly face obstacles in daily life due to unfamiliarity with local culture and its living habits. They are often regarded as the outcasts of the society. Stereotyping and discrimination are inevitable which weigh more burden on them.[7]

According to the most recent statistics released by the Hong Kong Home Affairs Department, there have been more than half of the new Chinese immigrants throughout 2012 to 2017 who reported encountering difficulties in adapting life in Hong Kong. Their 3 largest obstacles were living environment, career and language. Furthermore, over 70% of the new immigrants in Hong Kong needed support services for public housing, employment opportunities as well as career training.[8]

Education

The immigrants from China generally have less access to good education or higher level of education. Chinese youth immigrants aged 19 to 20 were less likely than the locals to attain a university degree.[9] As per 2015, only 21% of the Chinese immigrants aged 15 or above had attained tertiary education or higher qualification, lower than the respective figure of 31% of the whole population in Hong Kong.[3]

Employment

More than 60% of mainland Chinese immigrants have intended to work in Hong Kong.[8] However, they are less likely to be employed compare with Hong Kong locals.[10] The majority of them preferred to work in elementary occupations in which the job nature were service-oriented. These included wholesale and retail, trading, food and catering, tourism and construction industries.[8] In reality, 27% of Chinese immigrants took up elementary occupations in 2015 while there were only 13% of the entire population worked in this sector.[3] Compare with the career choices associated with the knowledge-based economy that Hong Kong strives for, those work that the immigrants preferred were more labour-intensive and required lower qualifications. In turn, most of them also have less favourable working environments, benefits and lower average salary than jobs in business and information and communication technology (ICT) sectors. However, only 13% of Chinese Immigrants could participate in higher-tier sectors like professional and managerial jobs, far less than that of 39% in the overall Hong Kong population.[3]

Besides, as Hong Kong has a consolidated market economy, while mainland China have been practising a socialist planned economy and just recently transformed into market economy, immigrants from China are unfamiliar with the operations of the labour market and require time to adapt.[2] This has limited their employment opportunities compared with Hong Kong locals. Another disadvantage is that these Chinese immigrants have limited social network than the locals in Hong Kong. Hence, the lack of assistance causes greater difficulty for them to seek for job opportunities.[2][7]

Poverty

As most of the mainland Chinese immigrants are engaged in lower-tier jobs, they tend to have lower employment income. In 2011, the median monthly employment income of these immigrants was $7500, 38% below the one of the whole population. The poverty level of the Chinese immigrants' households has remained high, over 30%, much higher than that of 20% for overall households in Hong Kong. [3]

Living Condition

Data show that only about 10% of the new immigrants could afford to purchase housing. The majority either rented a place or stayed in an accommodation provided by relatives or friends. Almost half of the New Immigrants lived in public rental housing.[11] This type of housing is less capital-demanding but also of poorer living condition compared with private permanent housing.

Gender Inequality

Within the Chinese immigrant population, males and females have had distinct experiences in Hong Kong. The female immigrants are typically less educated, are from rural areas in Guangdong province and have limited skills that suit Hong Kong labour market demands. Most of them tend to take up domestic role and become economically inactive after migration to Hong Kong. In addition to Chinese immigrants' smaller chance to be employed, inequality also lies between men and women throughout years. The gap of employment rate have been larger between local and immigrant women than between local and immigrant men. Generally, male immigrants tend to catch up with the natives in adapting the working environment quicker than female immigrants. The same trend of the immigrants-natives gap applies in the participation in elementary occupations which women are more likely to take up the less favourable jobs. In addition, immigrant men who are married have advantage in climbing higher in the occupational hierarchy whereas married women are more likely to be employed in elementary occupations than unmarried women. Consequently, immigrant women tend to earn less than men.[10]

Female immigrants in general are more prone to psychological distress than men as their gender roles are more distress provoking. They are also more likely to ruminate on their negative emotions than men. Women among Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong have been receiving triple challenges. They do not only face difficulty in adapting life in Hong Kong, but also face discrimination in terms of their immigration status, low socio-economic status and their gender.[12]

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Law, K., & Lee, K. (2006). Citizenship, economy and social exclusion of mainland Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong. Journal of Contemporary Asia, 36(2), 217-242.
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 Fong, E., & Ngo, H. (2016). Unemployment patterns of local-born and immigrant youth in Hong Kong. Journal of Population Research, 33(3), 243-261.
  3. 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Hong Kong Legislative Council Secretariat Research Office. (2017). New Arrivals from the Mainland, P. 1
  4. 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 Chui, E. (2002). Housing and Welfare Services in Hong Kong for New Immigrants from China: Inclusion or Exclusion?. Asian And Pacific Migration Journal, 11(2), 221-245.
  5. Lowe, J., & Tsang, E. (2017). Disunited in ethnicity: the racialization of Chinese Mainlanders in Hong Kong. Patterns Of Prejudice, 51(2), 137-158.
  6. Chan, P. (2005). Hong Kong's Proposed Race Anti-Discrimination Legislation: A Discriminatory Bill Excluding Mainland Chinese Immigrants from Protection. Chinese Journal Of International Law, 4(2), 599-605.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Ng, I., Lee, S., Wong, W., & Chou, K. (2014). Effects of Perceived Discrimination on the Quality of Life Among New Mainland Chinese Immigrants to Hong Kong: A Longitudinal Study. Social Indicators Research, 120(3), 817-834.
  8. 8.0 8.1 8.2 Hong Kong Home Affairs Department. (2017). Statistics on New Arrivals from the Mainland (Second Quarter of 2017), p. 5. Retrieved from http://www.had.gov.hk/file_manager/tc/documents/public_services/services_for_new_arrivals_from_the_mainland/report_2017q2.pdf
  9. Chou, K. (2012). Familial Effect on Child Poverty in Hong Kong Immigrant Families. Social Indicators Research, 113(1), 183-195.
  10. 10.0 10.1 Zhang, Z., & Wu, X. (2011). Social Change, Cohort Quality and Economic Adaptation of Chinese Immigrants in Hong Kong, 1991–2006. Asian And Pacific Migration Journal, 20(1), 1-29.
  11. Hong Kong Home Affairs Department. (2017). Statistics on New Arrivals from the Mainland (Second Quarter of 2017), p. 6. Retrieved from http://www.had.gov.hk/file_manager/tc/documents/public_services/services_for_new_arrivals_from_the_mainland/report_2017q2.pdf
  12. Mo, P., Mak, W., & Kwan, C. (2006). Cultural Change and Chinese Immigrants' Distress and Help-Seeking in Hong Kong. Journal Of Ethnic And Cultural Diversity In Social Work, 15(3-4), 129-151.