"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife.”
With a slight modification, this oft-quoted opening line from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice is applicable to many countries’ attitudes toward immigrants. All you have to do is replace “wife” with “visa”. It’s certainly true that young people in possession of wealth, skills, talents or other assets are invariably welcomed by receiving countries, often in sharp contrast to how destitute refugees are treated. The United Kingdom is currently a good example of this practice, welcoming skilled, affluent, unthreatened people from Hong Kong to its shores, at the same time as it is turning away destitute refugees fleeing war zones in the Middle East and Africa.
We might think that such self-serving practices would never be tolerated in Hong Kong. However, the history of how immigrants have been treated here is distinctly mixed, evoking at times pride in Hong Kong’s compassion, at other times shame at its prejudice.
Hong Kong has been a destination for immigrants ever since the 13th century, when Chinese refugees fled south from the Mongol invaders to what is now the New Territories. However, it was only after the British arrived in 1841 that immigration rapidly accelerated, transforming the area from a collection of small farming and fishing villages to the multicultural city of over 7 million people that we know today.
The starting point for this transformation was the establishment by the British Hong Kong government of free port facilities to make Hong Kong an attractive way station for international trading ships. In addition to British and other foreign merchants settling here, a massive influx of entrepreneurs and laborers arrived from the Chinese mainland, eager to make the most of the new economic opportunities on their doorstep. These mainland immigrants, making up the bulk of the population, were welcomed as economic migrants, essential for the rapidly developing infrastructure on the island. It was very much a mutually beneficial arrangement, in the interests of both government and immigrants.
However, it wasn’t only economic migrants who poured into Hong Kong. The city can be proud of its record of welcoming regular influxes of refugees fleeing from the dislocation caused by wars, rebellions and revolution on the mainland. The Taiping Rebellion (1850-64), the Punti-Hakka Clan Wars (1855-67), the Boxer Rebellion (1900), and Sun Yat-sen’s Xinhai Revolution (1911) were all such catalysts. As the 20th century progressed, Hong Kong’s status as a safe haven was severely tested when the city was flooded with more refugees, fleeing from the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (the Second Sino-Japanese War) of 1931-45. In the four-year period after the war started, Hong Kong’s population increased by about 60 percent from 1 million to approximately 1.6 million. Despite the enormous challenge of receiving such large numbers, Hong Kong did not waver, its compassion for the victims of war outweighing the logistical difficulties of assimilating them.
In 1941, with the Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, the refugee tide was sharply reversed, and by the end of the war in 1945, the population had plummeted to just 600,000. However, this decline in numbers was very short-lived. As soon as the Japanese were defeated, the civil war between the Kuomintang army and the People’s Liberation Army broke out, resulting in another massive surge of immigration from the mainland. By 1951, the renewed humanitarian policy of welcoming refugees, irrespective of the logistical challenges, saw Hong Kong’s population more than triple in just six years to 2.1 million.
In 1951, a radical change in Hong Kong’s immigration policy took place. Two years after the People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949, Hong Kong’s previously open border was sealed. Strictly limited quotas were introduced for legal immigrants, and any illegals who were apprehended were deported. This change reflected the political gulf between the British Hong Kong government and the new Communist-led government on the mainland, but also marked a tipping point between compassion for refugees on the one hand, and the practical need to keep immigration within manageable proportions. The new policy saw immigrants, both legal and illegal, continue to arrive, but at a steady rather than overwhelming pace. This significantly accelerated, however, during the turbulent years of the “cultural revolution” (1966-76), with approximately 1 million mainland residents crossing the border by legal or illegal means.
After the “cultural revolution”, Hong Kong’s immigration stance became much more hard-line, with practical concerns about housing, overcrowding and the assimilation of newcomers being allotted greater weight than straightforward humanitarian considerations. The harsh treatment of the Vietnamese boat people was the first indication of this changing policy. After the “fall of Saigon” and the victory of the communist forces in 1975, approximately 2 million Vietnamese refugees fled overseas. Between 1976 and 1997, over 200,000 of them arrived by small boats in Hong Kong, requesting asylum. Unlike Hong Kong’s previous policy of welcoming and assimilating refugees, the boat people were effectively imprisoned, often for years, in squalid and overcrowded detention centers, pending their relocation to other, more-accommodating places. Ultimately, by the time the last detention center was shut down in 2000, over 140,000 of these refugees had been forcibly resettled elsewhere and 67,000 returned to Vietnam. Only 1,400 were permitted to remain in Hong Kong.
This unedifying episode in Hong Kong’s history marked the end of the long tradition of humanitarianism that had seen the city built on waves of mass immigration. The transition from compassion to a harder line was a pragmatic move by a government focused on domestic concerns, but also left it open to accusations of discrimination and prejudice against these non-Chinese refugees.
Hong Kong’s current immigration policy reflects the differing values of these past experiences. Refugees or asylum seekers arriving in Hong Kong now are predominantly from South Asia, Southeast Asia, and Africa and their numbers are small (currently about 15,000) compared with previous waves of refugees flooding in from the Chinese mainland. Hong Kong’s policy toward them is neither generous nor hostile but a combination of compassion and pragmatism. Unlike the Vietnamese boat people, they are not turned away or locked in detention centers but have freedom of movement and basic government financial assistance to subsist until their asylum claims are legally assessed. Successful claimants then remain in Hong Kong until the United Nations refugee agency arranges acceptance of their entry by a suitable and willing host country.
There is of course one type of immigrant that Hong Kong still welcomes with open arms. Unlike with asylum seekers, the government actively encourages the immigration of highly educated foreign nationals who offer benefits to Hong Kong’s economy and society. Entrepreneurs, bankers, teachers, doctors and other professionals are all given favorable treatment. This makes Hong Kong one of the least restrictive places in the world for foreign talent, benefiting both the expatriates moving here and also Hong Kong’s self-interest.
It’s a different story, however, with regard to foreign domestic helpers. As with other expatriates, they are welcomed to Hong Kong but with more restrictive requirements. Unlike foreign professionals, domestic helpers are obliged to live with their employers, earn below the minimum wage, have only one day off each week, have to leave Hong Kong within two weeks of contract termination, do not qualify for permanent residency after living here for seven years, and are excluded from the government’s consumption voucher program. This is a clear anomaly that will surely be addressed in the coming years.
Hong Kong is a city built on immigration, compassion and opportunity, and has a long history of taking in wave after wave of immigrants and refugees. For logistical reasons, the current policy on asylum seekers no longer allows them to settle here, but they are still treated compassionately and helped to relocate. With the notable exception of how the Vietnamese boat people were treated, Hong Kong has an impressive immigration record. Workers from around the world are still welcomed in large numbers. In Asia’s world city, a home we all take pride in, it is clear that there is no place for prejudice of any sort.
The author is a British historian and former principal of Sha Tin College, Hong Kong.
The views do not necessarily reflect those of China Daily.
