Vicious Rants of an Angry Yellow Man

Today I will talk about the trouble Hong Kong has with non Chinese people living there.  Hong Kong's population has double since I was there in the 60's to 7.8 million today.  About 600,000 are non Chinese or about 8% of the population.  Half of these are domestic workers, mostly women from Philippines or Indonesia.  About 10% are white and the rest mostly from South Asia with some from the Middle East and Africa.  The 10% white people generally live well in Hong Kong.  They don't have the white privilege when HK was a British colony but they are treated better than other non Chinese.  For example, almost all whites who have lived several years in HK and are employed will be able to get citizenship.  There are actually quite a few who choose to take HK passport and get rid of the passports from North America, Britain or Australia.  HK passports are well accepted throughout the world and certainly makes for easier in and out China for business. 

The domestic workers are not able to get citizenship.  They live a hard life.  They are in their employer's house for 24 hours a day, 6 days a week.  On Sundays you can see many of them congregate in parks or even subway stations for picnic and see their fellow workers.  There are some people in HK who want to put in law prohibiting such congregation.  Where are they supposed to go?  There are some liberals who want to build clubs for them to use. But with land so expensive, it is doubtful that HK government will shell out the money.  There are also reports of abuse by their employers.  Fortunately there is a lot of coverage for these abuses on tv and newspapers recently.  Of course, there are employer claims of stealing.  So not sure how it shakes out in the future.  But obviously HK need these workers just like the U.S. needs workers from south of the border.

For the other non white, non Chinese people, there are two categories.  Legal immigrants who have been in the city for a long time and refugees.  For legal immigrants who are not white, path to citizenship is harder than whites but is successful about 70% of  the time.  Why not 100%?  Not sure but discrimination is probably a factor.  There are refugees from South Asia, Middle East and Africa. If you can find your way to HK, they won't deport you unless you commit a crime.  But you can't officially work and get citizenship.  Some came with the hope of getting to a western country.  Unlike some places where you are stuck in a squalid camp, HK does provide you some monetary assistance for food and housing.  This costs HK about $450 million a year.  But you are in limbo unless you get accepted by a country.

Anthony Bourdain had a segment on refugees in HK on his program of traveling to HK last Sunday.
He visited the Chungking Mansion which is not really a mansion but an apartment complex with stores and eateries on the first two floors.  It is situated in Tsim Sha Tsui district of Kowloon which is like Time Square in NY.  We happened to wander into the Mansion one night looking for a restaurant.  It all run by refugees so it was confusing to us to go into this complex which does not look out of place on the outside but completely different than not only Tsim Sha Tsui but rest of the city inside.  I don't know how it is possible in this area where the land is so expensive but the refugees live in this Mansion.  Supposedly the rent is cheap although the apartments are super small.

Like rich nations, the immigrant situation is difficult for HK to solve.  It is already the 4th most crowded area in the world.  It has no natural resources so it is hard to take in more people.  But given the history of HK people migrating to other parts of the world and faced discrimination, it is important that they treat those who come to HK with respect and dignity.  Domestic workers allow women to go into the workforce full time and thus boost the economy of the city.  If HK allow refugees to go to school and work, perhaps they will contribute to the economy as immigrants in the western countries have done.  Hopefully HK will find humane and fair solutions.