Double Push and the Contingent Path: Migration and Remigration of South Asian Minorities in Post-2019 Hong Kong

Abstract

Hong Kong (HK) is encountering a new wave of outmigration. Numerous recent surveys and news reports have been recording the escalating effects of migration. However, almost all of these are about HK’s majority group—the Chinese Hong Kongers. The city’s South Asian minorities are rarely mentioned or included in these records. This article examines South Asian minorities’ aspirations and frustration amid the continuous exodus of Hong Kongers, their views on the city’s recent migration waves due to its great social changes, and the conditions that could trigger these minorities’ (re)migration. By engaging with the literature on immigrant minorities' remigration and the expanding global South Asian diaspora, this research contributes to our understanding of the remigration of HK’s South Asian minorities—a subject heretofore glaringly understudied.

Keywords

South Asian minorities remigration post-2019 Hong Kong immigrant minority multiculturalism

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Ale

. (2013). Assessing the situation of Nepalese community in Hong Kong. [Unpublished MA thesis]. Department of Asian and International Studies, City University of Hong Kong.

Al-Haj

Mielke

. (2007). Cultural diversity and the empowerment of minorities: Perspectives from Israel and Germany. Berghahn Books.

Arat

Kerelian

Dhar

. (2023). Multiculturalism with Hong Kong Characteristics: A Qualitative Study. Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race, 20(1), 191–211. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742058X22000078

Bhowmik

M. K

. (2019). Ethnic minority young people’s education in Hong Kong: Factors influencing school failure. In Gube

Gao

(Eds.), Education, ethnicity and equity in the multilingual Asian context (pp. 179–195). Springer.

Bhowmik

M. K.

Kennedy

K. J

. (2016). “Out of school” ethnic minority young people in Hong Kong. Springer.

Caron

Reeve

. (2018). Whose integration do we measure? Immigrants’ remigration and labour market integration in France. Population, 73(3), 481–518. https://doi.org/10.3917/popu.1803.0503

Castle

. (2006). Migration and community formation under conditions of globalization, International Migration Review, 36(4), 1143–1168. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1747-7379.2002.tb00121.x

Chan

A. K. W.

Cheung

L. T. O.

Chong

E. K.

Lee

M. Y. K.

Wong

M. Y. H

. (2022). Hong Kong’s new wave of migration: Socio-political factors of individuals’ intention to emigrate. Comparative Migration Studies, 10(1), 49–49. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40878-022-00323-y

Chavez

. (2008). Conceptualizing from the inside: Advantages, complications, and demands on insider positionality. The Qualitative Report, 13(3), 474–494. http://www.nova.edu/ssss/QR/QR13-3/chavez.pdf.

10.

Erni

J. N.

Leung

L. Y

. (2014). Understanding South Asian minorities in Hong Kong. Hong Kong University Press.

11.

Glick Schiller

Basch

Blanc

C. S

. (1995). From immigrant to transmigrant: Theorizing transnational migration. Anthropological Quarterly, 68(1), 48–63. https://doi.org/10.2307/3317464

12.

M. M.

Kou

Z. C.

Guo

X. G

. (2019). Understanding Chinese language teachers’ language ideologies in teaching South Asian students in Hong Kong. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism, 22(8), 1030–1047. https://doi.org/10.1080/13670050.2017.1332000

13.

M. M.

Mak

. (2017) Ethnic minority students from South Asia in Hong Kong: Language ideologies and discursive identity construction. Asia Pacific Journal of Education, 37(3), 360–374. https://doi.org/10.1080/02188791.2017.1296814

14.

M. M.

Patkin

. (2013). Heritage and identity: Ethnic minority students from South Asia in Hong Kong. Linguistics and Education, 24, 131–141. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2012.12.008

15.

Gube

Burkholder

. (2019). Unresolved tensions in Hong Kong’s racialized discourse: Rethinking differences in educating about ethnic minorities. In Gube

Gao

(Eds.), Education, ethnicity and equity in the multilingual Asian context (pp. 105–121). Springer.

16.

Gube

Gao

. (Eds) (2019). Education, ethnicity and equity in the multilingual Asian context. Springer.

17.

Henrard

. (2002). Post-apartheid South Africa’s democratic transformation process: Redress of the past, reconciliation and “unity in diversity”. Ethnopolitics, 1(3), 18–38. https://doi.org/10.1080/14718800208405103

18.

HK Census Statistics Department. (2022). 2021 Population census: Summary results. Census and Statistics Department. Retrieved January 20, 2023, from https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/scode600.html

19.

HK Unison. (2020). Cantonese is the key to success for Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities. Hong Kong Unison. https://hongkongfp.com/2020/08/21/cantonese-is-the-key-to-success-for-hong-kongs-ethnic-minorities/

20.

Hue

Kennedy

K. J

. (2013). Building a connected classroom: Teachers’ narratives about managing the cultural diversity of ethnic minority students in Hong Kong secondary schools. Pastoral Care in Education, 31(4), 292–308. https://doi.org/10.1080/02643944.2013.811697

21.

Jensen

Pedersen

P. J

. (2007). To stay or not to stay? Out-migration of immigrants from Denmark. International Migration, 45(5), 87–113. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2435.2007.00428.x

22.

Jeffery

Murison

. (2011). The temporal, social, spatial, and legal dimensions of return and onward migration. Population Space and Place, 17(2), 131–139. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.606

23.

Jin

S. B

. (2021). Korean immigrants from Latin America: Fitting into multiethnic New York. Rowman and Littlefield.

24.

Kelly

D. C

. (2009). In preparation for adulthood: Exploring civic participation and social trust among young minorities. Youth and Society, 40(4), 526–540. https://doi.org/10.1177/0044118X08327584

25.

Kennedy

K. J.

Hue

M. T

. (2011). Researching ethnic minority students in a Chinese context: Mixed methods design for cross cultural understandings. Comparative Education, 47(3), 343–354. https://doi.org/10.1080/03050068.2011.586766

26.

Kim

C. S.

Lee

. (2016). Growth and migration to a third country: The case of Korean migrants in Latin America. Journal of International and Area Studies, 23(2), 77–87. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44089920

27.

Kwok

. (2022). Citizenship and multicultural social work: Challenges and opportunities of ethnic minority youth in political engagement in Hong Kong. International social work, 1–15. https://doi.org/10.1177/00208728221123478

28.

H. B

. (2006). Body, dress and cultural exclusion: Experiences of Pakistani women in “global” Hong Kong. Asian Ethnicity, 7(3), 285–302. https://doi.org/10.1080/14631360600926980

29.

Law

K. Y.

Lee

K. M

. (2012). The myth of multiculturalism in “Asia’s world city”: Incomprehensive policies for ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. Journal of Asian Public Policy, 5(1), 117–134. https://doi.org/10.1080/17516234.2012.662353

30.

Law

K. Y.

Lee

K. M

. (2013). Socio-political embeddings of South Asian ethnic minorities’ economic situations in Hong Kong. Journal of Contemporary China, 22(84), 984–1005. https://doi.org/10.1080/10670564.2013.795312

31.

Lee

E. S

. (1966). A theory of migration. Demography, 3(1), 47–57. https://doi.org/10.2307/2060063

32.

Lee

K. M.

Law

K. Y

. (2016). Hong Kong Chinese “orientalism”: Discourse reflections on studying ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. In Pratt

(Ed.), Ethnic minorities: Perceptions, cultural barriers and health inequalities (pp. 81–116). Nova Science Publishers.

33.

Leung

Y. M. L

. (2021). Ethnic minorities, media and participation in Hong Kong: Creative and tactical belonging. Routledge.

34.

Lijphart

. (2004). Constitutional design for divided societies. Journal of Democracy, 15(2), 96–109.

35.

Lijphart

. (2019). Deliberation and consociation: Joint pathways to peace in divided societies. Journal of Public Deliberation, 15(3), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.16997/jdd.348

36.

Mas Giralt

. (2017). Onward migration as a coping strategy? Latin Americans moving from Spain to the UK post-2008. Population Space and Place, 23(3), e2017. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2017

37.

Monti

. (2020). Re-emigration of foreign-born residents from Sweden: 1990–2015. Population Space and Place, 26(2), e2285. https://doi.org/10.1002/psp.2285

38.

Murray

Simeon

. (2007). Recognition without empowerment: Minorities in a democratic South Africa. International Journal of Constitutional Law, 5(4), 699–729. https://doi.org/10.1093/icon/mom025

39.

Nekby

. (2006). The emigration of immigrants, return vs onward migration: Evidence from Sweden. Journal of Population Economics, 19(2), 197–226. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00148-006-0080-0

40.

H. Y.

Kennedy

K. J

. (2019). Citizenship status and identities of ethnic minorities: Cases of Hong Kong Filipino youth. In Gube

Gao

(Eds.), Education, ethnicity and equity in the multilingual Asian context (pp. 123–140). Springer.

41.

O’Connor

. (2010). Accepting prejudice and valuing freedom: Young Muslims and everyday multiculturalism in Hong Kong. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 31, 525–539. https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2010.513085

42.

O’Connor

. (2018). Ethnic minorities and ethnicity in Hong Kong. In Lui

T. L.

Chiu

Yep

(Eds.), The Routledge handbook on contemporary Hong Kong (pp. 259–274). Routledge.

43.

Petievich

. (1999). The expanding landscape: South Asians and the diaspora. Manohar Publishers.

44.

Piper

Rosewarne

Withers

. (2017). Migrant precarity in Asia: “Networks of labour activism” for a rights-based governance of migration. Development and Change, 48(5), 1089–1110. https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12337

45.

Portney

K. E.

Berry

J. M

. (1997). Mobilizing minority: Social capital and participation in urban neighbourhood. American Behavioral Scientist, 40(5), 632–644. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002764297040005009

46.

Ramos

. (2018). Onward migration from Spain to London in times of crisis: The importance of life-course junctures in secondary migrations. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 44(1), 1841–1857. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2017.1368372

47.

Shibuya

Guo

Fong

. (2020). Unemployment patterns of local-born and migrant youth in a postcolonial society: A double cohort analysis. The Annals of American Academy of Political and Social Science, 688(1), 20–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716219896290

48.

Silvey

Parreñas

. (2020). Precarity chains: Cycles of domestic worker migration from Southeast Asia to the Middle East. Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, 46(16), 3457–3471. https://doi.org/10.1080/1369183X.2019.1592398

49.

Singh

Cabraal

Robertson

. (2010). Remittances as a currency of care: A focus on twice migrants’ among the Indian diaspora in Australia. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 41(2), 245–263. https://doi.org/10.3138/jcfs.41.2.245

50.

Tsuda

. (2003) Strangers in the ethnic homeland: Japanese Brazilian return migration in transnational perspective. Columbia University Press.

51.

Wanner

. (2021). Can migrants’ emigration intentions predict their actual behaviors? Evidence from a Swiss survey. Journal of International Migration and Integration, 22(3), 1151–1179. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-020-00798-7

52.

White

. (1994). Turbans and traders: Hong Kong’s Indian communities. Oxford University Press.

53.

Wong

J. K. W.

Lin

A. H. Q

. (2014). Construction workplace discrimination: Experiences of ethnic minority operatives in Hong Kong construction sites. Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, 21(4), 403–420. https://doi.org/10.1108/ECAM-09-2013-0082

54.

Yoon

W. K

. 2015. Global Pulls on the Korean communities in Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires. Lexington Books.