Socioeconomic integration of early professional Hong Kongers in Taipei,Taiwan

Abstract

This study applies the thesis of privileged migration to early Hong Kongers coming to Taiwan since the early 1960s as a case study in ‘North–South’ migration that takes place between regions that are in different stages of economic development. Its focus is on these immigrants’ economic achievements and their social and cultural integration in the host society. Qualitative methods were used to conduct face-to-face interviews with 40 Hong Kongers ranging in age from 39 to 77, most of whom were living in Taipei. They came as overseas Chinese students, employees, and marriage and family migrants. As most had received university educations or higher, their skills and working experiences met the demands of the Taiwan job market at the time, and they had all become successfully established in a variety of white-collar professional jobs. Despite cultural differences, they had developed careers, contributed to Taiwan’s economy, and integrated well, and most were not thinking of returning to Hong Kong.

Introduction and background information

Taiwan’s open system of migration began only six decades ago, resulting in net immigration at the turn of the century (Fell et al., 2014). The first wave of immigration resulted from the massive relocation of up to two million people from the Chinese mainland to Taiwan in 1948 to 1950, following the defeat of the Kuomintang regime in the Chinese Civil War. Four decades later, two major streams of migrants came to Taiwan, consisting of foreign spouses or Xinyimin (513,641 in 2015) (Immigration Agency, 2016b), mainly from developing countries, and foreign workers or Wailao (595,695 in 2015) (Ministry of Labor, 2016), who were mainly construction workers, factory laborers, domestic servants, and caregivers. Since 2004, Taiwan has become a net receiver of migrants (Appendix 1). Owing to these two waves of new arrivals, Taiwan has become more multicultural.

A special group of foreign spouses in Taiwan immigrated from Hong Kong. Despite migration flows between Hong Kong and Taiwan in the last few decades, statistical evidence in either location has been limited. Taiwan, however, has kept a record of immigrants from Hong Kong and Macau, numbering 484 and 697 in 2007 and 2014, respectively (Appendix 2). Although this number is very limited, the heavy traffic flow between Taiwan and Hong Kong (over 900 per week) may generate further migration in either direction. As posited in World Systems Theory (Massey et al., 1993: 446), cross-border movements do not happen randomly among unrelated countries, but have to do with particular ‘material links’ or ‘ideological links’ that generate connections between home and host countries. However, most migration studies concentrate on labor migrants, those who have fewer resources than residents in the host countries. Migration of relatively affluent people is a topic that has still only been minimally explored. It is not clear what, and how, material or ideological links may generate the migration of relatively affluent people. This study (of Hong Kong immigrants in Taiwan) provides a good opportunity to discuss further the influence of potential links between societies.

In this paper, we study the socioeconomic attainments of early Hong Kong migrants in Taiwan, who have been left out of discourses on either ‘labor migrants’ or ‘Western professionals’ because of their relatively rich resources, on the one hand, and their Chinese ethnicity, on the other. Tzeng (2010) noted that expatriates from English-speaking countries (USA, Canada, Great Britain, and Australia), have moved to Taiwan mainly to learn the Chinese language and experience Chinese culture, which is better preserved in Taiwan than in any other Chinese-speaking society. This reason does not apply to Hong Kongers who moved to Taiwan. As they grew up in a global city, they may have played important roles in Taiwan’s socioeconomic environment as professionals in different ways, but they may also have undergone social and cultural adaptations of various kinds.

As Taiwan was not a popular destination for Hong Kong immigrants before the former’s takeover as a Special Administrative Region by China, there is a limited body of literature on this subject (Chinese University of Hong Kong Alumni Association, 2015; Lee, 2015). Despite linkages in political history, studies of immigration from Taiwan to Hong Kong, or from Hong Kong to Taiwan are rare (Chiang and Huang, 2014; Chiang and Lin, 2016; Chiang et al., 2016). Our research, therefore, attempts to fill this gap, with the intention of supporting Taiwan’s effort to recruit more professionals from a diversity of sources to strengthen its workforce. As Taiwan receives an increasing number of foreigners (Waiguoren) from various societies, questions pertaining to economic, social, and cultural aspects need to be addressed to benefit both recent Hong Kong immigrants and Taiwan. The proximity of Hong Kong to Taiwan, similarities in culture, and frequent connections are advantages for conducting such a project. Discrepancies in economic development between the two regions over the last decades may provide us with a case with which to examine migration in a ‘North–South’ direction, which has recently been discussed in the literature on ‘privileged migrants’ (Amit, 2007; Croucher, 2012; O’Reilly and Benson, 2009).

The research questions that we pose for this study therefore include:

1. How did Hong Kongers decide to come to Taiwan in the last few decades?

2. How did they integrate economically?

3. What cultural barriers do they face?

4. Are Hong Kongers in Taiwan privileged migrants?

Starting in the early 1950s, three factors may have triggered migration from Hong Kong. First, both Hong Kong and Taiwan received immigrants at the end of the Civil War in China. This has resulted in Taiwan’s longstanding policy of recruiting ethnic Chinese students from Hong Kong and other Asian societies, leading to permanent settlement as a consequence. Second, Taiwan arose to become one of the four Asian Dragons in the 1980s and has become a promising place for Hong Kong entrepreneurs to expand their businesses. Third, as demonstrated by literature on cross-border marriages (Constable, 2005), spatial hypergamy (Lavely, 1991), whereby men seek foreign brides from poorer areas, may make Taiwan a desirable destination for Hong Kong men who come to study or do business in Taiwan, look for Taiwanese women as marriage partners, and settle down. All three factors partially contributed to the settlement of the respondents in this study.

We would like to study Hong Kong immigrants in Taiwan to test the theory of ‘privileged migrants,’ named after those who moved in a ‘North–South’ direction, the reversal of the ‘South–North’ migration pattern found in most cases of international migration. As Hong Kong was a British colony that occupied the position of transport hub in East Asia and has evolved into a global city that has undergone rapid economic development, it provides us with a case for studying ‘privileged migrants’ in East Asia. Studies of immigrant adaptation have used residential pattern, socioeconomic attainment, language and cultural acquisitions, intermarriage, and political attitude as indicators to analyze the lives of migrants (Alba, 2005; Alba and Nee, 1997; Gordon, 1964; Hirschman, 1999; Jacoby, 2004; Portes and Rumbaut, 1996). In this study, for brevity, we focus on the socioeconomic attainment and cultural adaptation of respondents. To present the respondents’ trajectories clearly, we separate all respondents into three groups (students, employees, and marriage spouses) according to their main reasons for immigrating. Details of respondents’ experiences will be addressed later.

Literature review

Privileged migration

In this section, we will first examine studies on privileged migration, then provide a synopsis comparing the economic development of Hong Kong with that of Taiwan. Most studies of international migration concentrate on movements from the global South to the global North, meaning from less-developed to more-developed countries, so that migrants benefit from economic returns from overseas (Massey, 1998; Massey et al., 1993: 434-440). People who travel to developing countries are usually tourists or foreigners, who are unlikely to stay long. However, some people who first arrived as tourists, dispatched workers, or students, may later decide to settle in the host countries (O’Reilly, 2000; Von Koppenfels, 2014: 50–65). The term ‘privileged migrants’ or ‘lifestyle migrants’ refers to those who have moved to less-developed countries, enjoying a higher social status or more affordable lifestyle than the natives of the host countries. While they may not enjoy high social status at home, they manage to occupy a higher status in the host society, owing to differences in development of their countries of origin and their destination countries. In fact, they enjoy a relatively more comfortable lifestyle because of the move, as discussed in Amit (2007), Croucher (2012), and O’Reilly and Benson (2009).

This kind of ‘reverse migration’ is rarely discussed in the migration literature, but it is not new. Studies have explored the lives of Europeans in Africa during the colonial period (Callaway, 1987; Kirkwood, 1984) or European expatriates and their family members in the Middle East or East Asia (Beaverstock, 2002; Fechter, 2007; Tzeng, 2010). We have also found movements with different purposes made by pilgrims, tourists, criminals, and retirees among various countries, such as the UK to Spain, the USA to Mexico, and Europe to India (Croucher, 2009; Korpela, 2009; O’Reilly, 2000; Von Koppenfels, 2014). Commonly, most migrants are ordinary people in their home countries but find their qualifications useful to or approved by their host countries, and therefore enjoy more satisfying social positions and lifestyles after migration. Through these examples, one can therefore challenge classical or conventional theories by economists who posited that international wage differences stimulate flows of labor from nations with low-paid labor, and that people travel to achieve a net gain in income.

Some studies argue that the lives of these privileged migrants are partially affected by the relative positions of countries within the global hierarchical structure. Owing to the advanced position of their home countries, migrants’ limited knowledge and skills would still be highly appreciated by people in the host countries. Therefore, these migrants obtain better jobs, occupy higher social status, and have more comfortable lives than most people in their home countries (Benson and Osbaldiston, 2014: 12). Apart from material benefits and higher social status, some studies argue that these migrants often have certain lifestyle expectations toward the host countries. By moving to a less-developed country, people can also fulfill their dreams more easily (Benson and Osbaldiston, 2014: 6; Croucher, 2012: 6; O’Reilly and Benson, 2009: 3–10).

All the studies described in this section are on migration between Western countries, or migration between Eastern and Western countries. The geographical and cultural distance between countries partially illustrates the potential barriers to migrants’ settlement. While Taiwan is geographically close to Hong Kong and most people in Taiwan and Hong Kong are ethnically Chinese, the phenomenon of Hong Kongers in Taiwan provides us with a good opportunity to discuss what other factors might affect the migration of relatively affluent people.

Hong Kong and Taiwan compared

Hong Kong, along with Shanghai, has often been studied as a ‘global city,’ a concept created by Sassen (1991, 1999) for communities in which active global networks have helped to bring in new ideas, and in which such networks have profoundly changed the global cities’ urban and cultural landscapes. In the case of Hong Kong, attraction of skilled migrants, or the ‘creative class,’ has provided the ‘stage’ for some young migrants who join expat categories. Hong Kong has long been an international city and a regional center for business, finance, information, tourism, entrepôt activities, and manufacturing. It is a leading world city and the ‘capital of the overseas Chinese’ (Sinn et al., 2009). Since the 1990s, Hong Kong, London, Tokyo, and New York have been listed as global financial centers.

We continue to support our arguments by comparing the economic situations of Hong Kong and Taiwan over the last 50 years (Appendix 3). While Hong Kong was a British colony for over 150 years, Taiwan was colonized for 50 years (1895–1945) by the Japanese until the end of World War II. By the time Hong Kong was returned to China as a Special Administration Region, major infrastructure categories, such as communication systems, law and order, finance, the civil service, public housing, and environmental conservation, had been well developed. While Japan has been credited for creating the groundwork for infrastructure in Taiwan, much of this was destroyed during the war. Taiwan’s post-war economic situation lagged behind that of Hong Kong, as shown by their GDPs in 1951, being US$154 for the former and US$400 for the latter (Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong (China), 2017; Statistics Department, Taiwan (China), 2017).

Post-war Hong Kong was built partly with funds that came from the Chinese mainland after the Civil War, laying the groundwork for the development of light industries, such as textiles and plastics. At the same time, Taiwan was under Martial Law (1949–1987) as stipulated by the Nationalist Government. Agricultural products, and industries manufacturing products to meet basic needs, such as cement and flour, dominated. The first wave of emigration in Hong Kong came about as early as the 1960s, owing to social unrest. While Taiwan was still under authoritarian rule, its economy began to thrive, with labor-intensive industries that attracted foreign investment and the establishment of Export Processing Zones. In comparison with Hong Kong’s US$960, Taiwan’s GDP was US$397 in 1970.

Since the 1970s, Hong Kong’s economy grew rapidly, as local Chinese took part in innovative decision-making by the government, to include the construction of the Mass Rapid Transit (MRT) in 1972, the establishment of the Independent Commission Against Corruption in 1974, public housing schemes, and a countryside park. Benefiting from successive 5-year plans under an authoritarian government, Taiwan arose to be one of the Newly Industrialized Regions. A new turning point for Hong Kong’s economic growth occurred in the 1980s, as the cost of land and labor increased, leading to relocation of the manufacturing industry to the Chinese mainland.

A second wave of emigration took place during the signing of the Sino-British Joint Declaration in 1984 to revert Hong Kong to China. Substantial amounts of emigration took place after 1989, when the incident in China became a major source of anxiety and an incentive for the middle classes to emigrate. In 1980, Taiwan started its first Industrial Park, attracting large numbers of young Taiwanese who had been educated overseas for the first time, helping to build its strong human capital. The GDPs for Hong Kong and Taiwan were, respectively, US$13,487 and US$8,216 in 1990 (Census and Statistics Department, Hong Kong (China), 2017; Statistics Department, Taiwan (China), 2017). The latest figures recorded in 2016 were US$43,681 and US$22,561, respectively, showing quite a discrepancy.

One can continue to demonstrate differences in the extent of economic development by comparing the living index, average income, human development index, and global citation index to illustrate a large discrepancy in development between the two former colonies. As a whole, Hong Kong is regarded as a more developed region, with a well-established financial system and well-maintained standards of law and order, and as a global city on a par with London and New York. Taiwan was (and still is) regarded as being behind Hong Kong in certain respects. Therefore, the phenomenon of Hong Kongers in Taiwan makes a good case study to test or further explore the arguments of privileged migration theory.

Field methodology and a socioeconomic profile of Hong Kong immigrants

Collecting insider stories requires almost an ‘intrusion’ into privacy to some extent. Nonetheless, such accounts may project a thorough and empathetic understanding of the political anxieties and emotions of the respondents, as well as providing nuanced and critical accounts of complex migration decisions made by other family members (Chiang et al., 2013).

Since there are no separate statistics on Hong Kong immigrants in Taiwan, we do not have a sampling frame from which to select cases. The purpose of the current project is to illustrate the diversity of migrants by gaining an in-depth understanding of their migration types and trajectories, as well as their socioeconomic attainments. This study employs qualitative methods, including in-depth interviews and participant observations. These methods not only enabled respondents to use their own words to tell us a great deal about their experiences and attitudes, but also allowed them to reveal key underlying social structures (Hay, 2010). Interviewees were identified via chain referral or snowball sampling methods. Each interview lasted from 1.5 to 3 h, and several repeat visits and phone calls were made for some interviewees. In all, we collected data on 40 respondents from April 2014 to February 2017. The first author also participated in various activities, such as Chinese University of Hong Kong alumni activities, events held by the Hong Kong Economic, Trade, and Cultural Office, and the Hong Kong Club in Taipei. To conduct each interview more rigorously, we used standardized interview guides, like those used in qualitative social geography (Baxter and Eyles, 1997). Most of the interviews were conducted in the Cantonese dialect by the first author, who was originally from Hong Kong. This supports the notion of positionality, which suggests that researchers who share identities with their informants, as, for example, a woman carrying out research with women, are positioned as ‘insiders’ and, as such, have truer access to knowledge and a closer, more direct connection with their informants than ‘outsiders’ (Valentine, 2002).

We acknowledge the limitations of our snowball sampling procedure, as the subjects are mainly from Taipei (36 out of 40), where immigrants would be more accessible. The four immigrants from outside Taipei resided in Kaohsiung (no. 7), Tainan (no. 10), Chiayi (no. 14), and Taoyuan (no. 21). Despite attempts to approach 10 other Hong Kongers who had settled in Kaohsiung, Hualien, Ilan, and Hsinchu through introductions by friends, emails, and letters, we were not successful in recruiting them as interviewees. Interviewing Hong Kongers in Taiwan did not seem to be as easy as interviewing Taiwanese in Hong Kong, in the first author’s experience. In this study, we do not intend to generalize about Hong Kong migrants who are settled permanently in Taiwan, but rather to acquire a nuanced understanding of immigrants and circumstances while presenting the complexities of their experiences. Our qualitative study meets this goal by including many open questions in the interview scheme, as practiced in research using qualitative methods (Baxter and Eyles, 1997; Creswell, 2014).

Appendix 4 shows the socioeconomic profile of our respondents. Among the 40 Hong Kongers were 22 men and 18 women. Respondents ranged between 39 and 77 years of age. Thirty-two were born in Hong Kong, while seven were born on the Chinese mainland (nos. 4, 6, 8, 12, 13, 16, and 29) and one in another Asian country (no. 38). With three exceptions (nos. 26, 32, and 35), all respondents had received university education or higher and had received tertiary education (including PhDs) in one or more of the following regions: Taiwan (19), Hong Kong (16), Australia (2), USA (11), Canada (2), UK (1), and France (1). It can be noted that 17 obtained their tertiary education in Taiwan as overseas Chinese students, while four of them went abroad for further studies (nos. 2, 5, 9, and 16). After settling down in Taiwan, four emigrated to another country (Australia, USA, and Canada) from Hong Kong and returned, while three had lived in the USA before coming to Taiwan for the first time with their Taiwanese husbands. One went abroad to receive professional training in France. A variety of occupations were represented (sales, media, banking, publishing, real estate, art, and design, research, administration, public relations, university teaching, and medicine). Of the 40 Hong Kongers, there were 11 professors, including retired professors (nos. 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 27, and 40). All the respondents had lived in Taiwan for 10 to 50 years at the times of the interviews. Reasons for their immigration to Taiwan fell into four categories: student (16), employment (13), marriage (10), and family (5), with overlapping experiences. These included three (nos. 12, 14, and 37) who were originally from Taiwan and who had lived in Hong Kong for 20 years, then returned to Taiwan as Hong Kongers. Out of 40 respondents, five (nos. 10, 15, 20, 30, and 37) were single and 26 had married Taiwanese, while nine had married non-Taiwanese. In addition, we also use narratives of several cases from the CUHK Alumni in Taiwan (Chinese University of Hong Kong Alumni Association, 2015). To protect their anonymity, these are labeled D_CUHK, L_CUHK, etc. in the text.

Findings: Migration trajectories and socioeconomic integration

For the convenience of analysis, we divide our interviewees into three categories (students, employees, and marriage partners) by analyzing their main reasons for moving to Taiwan. Then we discuss their sense of belonging after living in Taiwan for decades. The narratives from our interviews help us understand how the migration from Hong Kong to Taiwan has occurred.

Students

As 17 out of 40 respondents moved to Taiwan as students, we first discuss how this type of ‘student migration’ occurred. This was not only respondents’ personal choice. It happened because of Hong Kong’s limited opportunities in higher education and Taiwan’s preferential policy toward overseas Chinese students.

Although nine years’ free education was inaugurated in Hong Kong in 1978, tertiary education was uncommon before the 1980s. Only two universities (the University of Hong Kong and the Chinese University of Hong Kong) were then recognized by the Hong Kong government. As an alternative, parents sent their children abroad for tertiary education. At present, Hong Kong still maintains an elite education system, limiting tertiary education opportunities for the general populace. As the size and low acceptance rate of the two accredited universities in Hong Kong pose difficulties in meeting demand, students who graduated from English-language high schools tend to go to Western countries for their tertiary education (Ip, 2014).

Conversely, since the 1950s, Taiwan has set up a series of preferential policies to recruit ethnic Chinese youth to study in Taiwan. Many early Hong Kongers came to Taiwan as students, benefiting from this preferential policy. Although Taiwan has changed its policy of ‘Taiwan represents the authentic China’ since the late 1990s, this preferential policy toward ethnic Chinese youth seeking to study in Taiwan has changed little (Goh, 2010). It is estimated that the number of Hong Kong youths studying in Taiwan rose from 3214 in 2005 to 6478 in 2010, and soared to 8018 in 2015 (Ministry of Education, Taiwan (China), 2016).

In this study, those who came to Taiwan as overseas Chinese students made up the largest number (17 out of 40, from 1966 to 1993). Unlike Hong Kong youths who studied in Western countries after graduating from English-speaking schools, most of our interviewees were students who had graduated from Chinese-speaking high schools. It was therefore difficult for them to pass the matriculation examination, which was conducted in English. Apart from this ‘Chinese-speaking’ factor, many of the schools from which our interviewees had graduated were ‘right-wing’ schools that were partially supported by the Kuomintang (KMT). The route to Taiwan is therefore predetermined by this political factor, apart from individual initiatives and family support. The social unrest in the late 1960s in Hong Kong was an additional incentive for students from these schools to come to study in Taiwan. From this information, we see how ideological links, together with material benefits and limits (Taiwan’s preferential policy and Hong Kong’s limited opportunity), contribute to student migration from Hong Kong to Taiwan.

Initially, these interviewees did not intend to settle in Taiwan. Some (mostly men) stayed on after graduation to be employed, some married local Taiwanese women, and some returned to Hong Kong for short periods before returning to Taiwan. Our respondents recalled their experiences as follows:

The university fees [in Taiwan] are much more affordable than Hong Kong’s, only HK $40,000 for four years. The admission rate at the university is much better than Hong Kong’s (TWHK#28, Leon).

After graduation from a public high school in Hong Kong, I came to Taiwan to study medicine at the wish of my father. All the overseas Chinese students received a scholarship at that time. When I was an intern at a different hospital after graduation, I met my husband and stayed in Taiwan (TWHK#36, Tiffany).

My father had to leave the Chinese mainland in 1949 as he was a ‘little capitalist’ and a staunch supporter of the Nationalist Government. My sister attended a KMT-supported high school in Hong Kong and studied at a National University in Taiwan. Every summer [when] she returned to Hong Kong, she brought back books and ‘goodies’ from Taiwan. I therefore followed in her footsteps (S_CUHK).

Although many Hong Kongers attended medical colleges and stayed in Taiwan to practice, we were only able to meet two who consented to be interviewed. Daniel (no. 33) and Tiffany (no. 36) had developed successful careers in dentistry and radiography, respectively. The incentive to stay in Taiwan to work after graduation came from getting residence status after graduation and enjoying the same working status as local graduates. Those who returned to Hong Kong to teach after finishing their education in Taiwan were employed as temporary teachers and were paid less than those who had graduated from a Hong Kong university. In a sense, they were still better situated than Hong Kongers and Taiwanese who immigrated to Western countries, such as Australia and Canada, where they often gave up their professions owing to de-skilling, particularly in the medical field (Chiang, 2004, 2008).

After graduation, these students either returned to Hong Kong, or stayed on to work. Many continued with further studies in another country, earning good qualifications to work in either Hong Kong or Taiwan. Some who returned to Hong Kong came back to Taiwan for further education. These included Jay (no. 11), William (no. 9), and Tim (no. 40), who all married and settled down.

Employees

Usually, immigrants are less educated than the natives of their host countries, resulting in adjustment difficulties (Alba and Nee, 1997; Gordon, 1964). However, some studies found that highly educated new Asian immigrants in Canada, Australia, and New Zealand could not find suitable jobs for a variety of reasons, such as non-recognition of their qualifications and discrimination (Chiang, 2004, 2008; Chiang and Song, 2001; Salaff, et al., 2010). In the case of our study’s Hong Kongers, their employment experiences demonstrate successful socioeconomic attainment in Taiwan. Out of 11 who came for employment, four were dispatched directly from Hong Kong because of Taiwan’s economic upturn in the 1980s:

I was dispatched by Hang Ten to explore the market (in 1985) and established the production line in Taiwan (TWHK#01, Jeremy).

My boss wanted to expand his business in Taiwan, and sent me over to be in charge of his food import business. I met my husband and started my own business in high-end clothing sales, which has a good market, as Taiwanese women like imported clothes (TWHK#26, Cynthia).

In 1983, I was sent by my publishing company to establish a branch office in Taiwan. To this day, I thank my American boss. I had offers to go back to Hong Kong for work seven to eight times in the past, but I chose to remain in Taiwan, as Hong Kong is very competitive, and one needs to be more aggressive there than in Taiwan, where I manage quite well, despite some difficulties at the beginning (TWHK#24, Jonathan).

After graduating from a prestigious university in sociology and obtaining an EMBA (Executive Master of Business Administration), S_CUHK was dispatched by a multinational company to establish an advertising business in Taiwan in 1989:

I was lucky to land in Taiwan in the year after Martial Law was lifted, when foreign capital flew into Taiwan, and Taiwan’s economy was climbing rapidly. My advertising company ranked fifth after three years. I did not move on to another region as most dispatched employees did.

Others found employment on their own through diverse channels, such as the yellow pages, and a few through friends and former teachers. Some examples:

After graduating from the university, I worked as a [teaching assistant], went for a PhD in the United States (as most of my classmates did in those days) and came back to teach in my alma mater (TWHK#09, William).

I applied for a teaching/research position in Taiwan from the United States/Australia at the recommendation of my former professor (TWHK#03, Charlie; TWHK#22, Adrian).

I was quite lucky to find a job before coming to Taiwan for the first time with my husband after getting a PhD from the USA. I met a professor from Taiwan in a conference in the USA and got a job offer (TWHK#39, Rosa).

I received a degree in advertising in Canada, came to Taiwan at the invitation of my friend to help him with his TV business in 1994, got married, and went back to Canada. We returned to Taiwan because my wife wanted to come back. Apart from writing and doing photography, I helped my wife with her cafeteria and bakery (TWHK#38, Johann).

Three respondents (no. 12, Leo; no. 14, Herman; no. 37, Stan) who were originally from Taiwan and educated in the USA taught in a Hong Kong university until retirement at the age of 60. They received offers to continue their careers in Taiwan until they retired at the age of 65. Stan (no. 37) was quite happy to leave Hong Kong, where he had worked for 13 years, and came back to Taiwan in 1992 to continue his career until retirement. Taiwan has provided a good option for academics who were educated in the West and capable of using Mandarin in teaching.

Mabel (no. 20), who attended a vocational college in Taiwan as an overseas Chinese student at the age of 16, returned to work for some years and pursued a university degree in Hong Kong. After working for the media and being promoted to supervisor rank, she re-migrated to Taiwan to start a second career. She obtained certification as a real estate agent and joined her friend’s company.

Several other immigrants started their own businesses (no. 6, Carmen; no. 29, Georgina; no. 32, Marianne; no. 34, Miriam). Not only did they all secure employment and continue their careers in Taiwan, but they also applied their expertise well, though not without hardship. Most importantly, they were not excluded from the local employment market. Fourteen of our respondents were in top management positions (nos. 3, 4, 9, 11, 19, 24, 25, 28, 31, 32, 34, 37, 39, and 40), and the rest were in middle management positions. Eighteen had taught in the university and worked in research institutes, and 12 had taken up administrative positions. None of them had worked in the civil service sector, which requires certification through Taiwan public examinations.

With regard to employment, our findings were similar to those regarding the Americans in London studied by von Koppenfels (2014). In the case of Taiwan, the success of Hong Kong immigrants was due not only to hard work and persistence, but also to Taiwan’s ‘economic miracle’ in the late 1980s. With degrees earned at universities in Hong Kong and the United States, it was not difficult for Ada (no. 4) to find work in 1972 in Taiwan, where she secured a full-time lectureship. However, she discovered that she was paid much less than someone with similar qualifications teaching in Hong Kong, even than her high-school classmates who remained in Hong Kong:

When I went back to Hong Kong in 1975 for the first time, my high-school classmates in Hong Kong were earning seven times my salary from teaching part time in Taiwan, after receiving a master’s degree in the United States. My classmates’ mother asked me to bring back a bag of used clothes to Taiwan. They were the kind that she used to send to her relatives in the Pearl River Delta.

A recent immigrant who came to Taiwan because of his difficulty finding a job in Hong Kong also found that his salary in Taiwan was lower than what he would have earned in Hong Kong. However, he thought that he would earn more respect as an academic and experience better personal development in Taiwan than in Hong Kong (Lee, 2015).

As a working woman, Ada encountered other challenges in the early 1970s, such as criticism toward women for advancing their careers, and the expectation that she would play a subordinate role in relation to her husband and his family. However, Ada pursued her career with steadfast energy and dedication, and she was offered responsible positions of various kinds. Professionally, she had outdone women her age in Taiwan. Things seemed better a decade later, when Rosa (no. 39) came to Taiwan for the first time in 1982, with her Taiwanese husband from the United States. With a PhD, she applied her expertise well in a research institute, winning respect as a woman despite her young age and inability to speak Mandarin properly. A study of the value of work for married women found that Hong Kong women were concerned with personal talent, interests, and economic freedom, while Taiwanese women worked to help their family’s economy and sustain family business needs (Chen et al., 2006). A survey found that more than 95% of married working-age women in Taiwan who were not working had no intention of entering the job market, mainly because they were taking care of family members, such as children and the elderly. About half (46%) of those aged 50 to 64 said that their financial situation was such that they did not need to work (Taipei Times, 2017). Another reason for women not entering the job market may have been their having less support from domestic helpers than women in Hong Kong. However, the Hong Kong women in Taiwan may have been gainfully employed partly because of social norms that support career women in Hong Kong. In the next section on marriage and the family, we will revisit the subject of gender roles from the perspectives of married women.

To conclude this section on employment, we find that the socioeconomic attainment of Hong Kongers in Taiwan is founded on their professional skills, which meet the demands of the Taiwan job market. Moreover, the timing of their migration, and their Western educations have given them an advantage in building successful careers in Taiwan. Similar findings resulted from studies by Lan (2011) and Tzeng (2010) on Western professional migrants who were working in foreign firms as high-level managers in Taiwan. Because of the ‘global image of English’ and ‘English as cultural capital,’ many Western migrants successfully pursue careers in Taiwan. Similarly, Hong Kong professional women have benefited from this ‘cultural capital’ acquired during their educations during the British Hong Kong days and abroad.

Marriage and family

Marriage and family was the third reason given for immigration to Taiwan. All 10 ‘marriage migrants’ in our study were women, including three who were married to male Hong Kong migrants (no. 19, Rita; no. 29, Georgina; no. 31, Priscilla), and seven trans-border marriage migrants (no. 4, Ada; no. 7, Beatrice; no. 17, Shirlena; no. 18, Jean; no. 26, Cynthia; no. 31, Miriam; no. 39, Rosa). They did not follow the trailing spouse stereotypes, as all had pursued careers successfully, as shown by the following examples.

Priscilla (no. 31), who was employed in an airline company, came with her husband, who was dispatched to take up an executive director’s position in Taiwan. She found work through introduction by a friend who worked in public relations in a five-star hotel. She was working as a CEO and was often in contact with celebrities in Taiwan.

Georgina (no. 29), who had obtained a bachelor’s degree in Art in Hong Kong, came with her husband, who was employed in a research institute in Taiwan. She recalled finding work easily by looking in the yellow pages: ‘At that time, it was easier for foreign designers to find work than locals.’

Cynthia (no. 26) was one of the seven women whose husbands were from Taiwan: ‘I was only 22 years old when I was dispatched from Hong Kong. I married my husband ‘by accident,’ as I did not expect to get married in Taiwan.’

All my family members objected when I wanted to marry a man (from Taiwan) whom I met in Hong Kong, as Taiwan was much less developed 40 years ago than now. My husband visited my family in Hong Kong, made northern Chinese pancakes for my sisters, and gave a flower to my mom. They were all moved. After getting married, I continued my career as a TV program distributer in Taiwan (TWHK#18, Jean).

Beatrice (no. 7) met her husband at the university where she was reading for her undergraduate degree. She worked as a translator, along with raising two children, while her husband taught at the university.

Over the years, Miriam (no. 34) built an extraordinary career in art, using her pocket money and property from her husband’s family. She spent time with many young creative talents to develop their careers. However, she recollected:

I met my husband when I was doing graduate studies in the USA. My mother was not pleased that my husband wanted to come back to Taiwan, where his parents were based. My husband’s family did not encourage me to take up employment.

Marriages between Hong Kong women and Taiwanese men were generally not hypergamous (marriage of a woman to a person of higher social status than her own) in the last century, as Taiwan was quite poor compared with Hong Kong. Ada, who arrived in 1971, told her story:

My husband grew up in a conservative rural community in southern Taiwan, where women were expected to devote themselves fully to the family, not joining the labor force or indulging in material pleasures. It is publicly known that women who marry this sub-ethnic Chinese group are expected not to eat at the dinner table until the men have finished doing so. Although I was teaching in the leading National University in Taiwan (China), my mother-in-law asked me to resign several times and constantly reminded me of my maternal and wifely duties. She was always worried that I devoted so much time to my work, and even suggested that I should not talk to my male colleagues. I could not imagine myself staying home as a housewife, as my school mates in Hong Kong were all working. All the teachers in my high-school days were women, and some were my role models.

Ada found it extremely difficult to live up to the expectations of a good daughter-in-law (in Taiwan), who was supposed to raise children, serve her husband, and please the in-laws. As a woman from a middle-class family in Hong Kong, she could not adapt well to the humble surroundings of a rural area. Despite these challenges, she stayed married, while developing a successful career.

Lynn (no. 21), who came to Taiwan as an overseas Chinese student to study sociology in 1973, understood Ada’s situation. She explained that men from Taiwan have patriarchal values and are more ‘old-fashioned’ than men brought up in Hong Kong, which is much more Westernized. She thinks that some present-day Taiwanese women do not want to get married because they cannot put up with the gender inequality at home and demands from in-laws. These stories illustrate how Hong Kong married women in Taiwan did not follow the traditional pattern of ‘trailing spouse’ as shown in the literature on marriage migration. Their successes in transcending gender stereotypes suggest different challenges between men and women among ‘privileged migrants.’ It is not usual for a Chinese man to follow the path of his wife in a marriage, as patrilocal residence was the norm in 20th-century China. Many aspects of gender roles that differ between Hong Kong and Taiwan need further exploration.

Sense of belonging

In the last section of this paper, we explore the issue of sense of belonging as an outcome of an immigrant’s socioeconomic integration. Combining economic achievement with a strong sense of belonging would enable a number of the Hong Kong immigrants to plant their roots successfully, as in the case of S_CUHK and Ada (no. 4), who persisted in developing their careers and also integrating socially:

I felt discrimination at first, due to the stereotype of Hong Kongers who speak either English or Cantonese, and the alienation from people who fear competition in the same business. I knew Taiwan well [before coming here], and never regarded myself as a passer-by from the very beginning of my stay. I worked seriously to integrate by learning about the work and business culture, being fully committed to my career, and serving the advertising world unselfishly. My best friends now are in advertising, and they no longer treat me as a ‘Hong Kong boy.’ Having lived here for over 20 years, I am bona fide ‘new Taiwanese’! In fact, many foreign and mainland Chinese friends thought that I was a Taiwanese who was born and bred here (S_CUHK).

My students, whom I taught since the early 1970s, are now my best friends. They think that I was a strict teacher, but also a fair and considerate person. They are used to my Hong Kong accent! At the university, I was one of the few who taught courses in English and helped various colleagues with their English. I have organized quite a few international conferences and have published internationally. I am proud of my students who do so well after graduation (TWHK#04, Ada).

However, some feel excluded from the Taiwanese community:

We moved from Hong Kong to the USA, then to Taiwan. To this day, we are foreigners… as we speak with a Hong Kong accent, as we are not typical Taiwanese (G_CUHK).

As we speak Mandarin with an accent, I was often asked if I was a spouse from Vietnam, or Thailand, or the Chinese mainland (A_CUHK).

Perhaps from not trying hard enough over the last 40 years and from living in Taipei, where most people speak Mandarin, Ada did not pick up the Minnan (South Fujian Province, China) dialect. Over the years, she has made a constant effort to work on her English, Cantonese, and Mandarin, so that her multilingual ability is well sustained, enabling her to communicate with a wide range of academics from all over the world. While enjoying her blended, layered, identity, she expressed a strong sense of belonging to Taiwan:

I have no other home to go to. All my good friends are in Hong Kong and in different parts of the world. It is expensive to live in Hong Kong—I simply cannot afford it!

When we asked our respondents whether they would recommend that other Hong Kongers immigrate to Taiwan, most of them expressed no reservations. The slower pace of life compared with that in Hong Kong, as well as more living space, cleaner air, less stress, a good quality of life, and inexpensive medical care, have all helped to make Taiwan a better place to live than Hong Kong. Taiwan is viewed as a suitable place for Hong Kong immigrants who seek a slower pace of life or simply an affordable place to retire. Most of our respondents stayed after retirement, and only a few spoke of returning.

Conclusion and discussion

This paper provides a case study with which to explore the outcomes of spatial mobility of immigrants in a ‘North–South’ direction using the privileged migration paradigm. It reveals how class matters in migration, as most immigrants to Taiwan are female marriage migrants or low-skilled laborers from less-developed regions. Our focus was the economic achievements of Hong Kong immigrants as a means of planting their roots in Taiwan, despite cultural differences. The experiences of Hong Kong immigrants who came as overseas Chinese students are very much like those of other privileged migrants reviewed in our literature, as they arrived with limited resources, but moved upward socially. The rest were fortunate to come with better resources and skills that are valuable to Taiwan, which rose to become a newly industrialized state in the 1980s. Their social experiences from the days of Hong Kong as a British colony blended in quite well in Taiwan, where Chinese culture is well-preserved.

We hope that this research endeavor not only fills in a gap in ‘North–South’ or reverse migration, but also provides some clues as to how immigrants from a more developed region lead an economically viable and socially fulfilling life in a new homeland, which has been an unconventional destination for Hong Kong middle-class immigrants in the 1980s (Skeldon, 1994). The trajectories reported in this study, whether Hong Kongers came as students, employees, spouses, or family members, also exhibit diversities within each category. Re-migration, commonly experienced by Hong Kongers, who are known to be mobile, flexible, pragmatic, and situational (Wong, 1999), indicates that their immigration pattern has been non-lineal, circular, and multi-local. Despite the ease and frequency of their returning to Hong Kong for visits, they have decided not to return to settle permanently unless they can afford to live in such an expensive and materialistic environment. For most of the Hong Kong immigrants, Taiwan has become a final destination in which to retire, where they enjoy good quality of life, low cost of living, and social stability. Playing golf, mahjong, singing karaoke, and enjoying Cantonese and Taiwanese cuisine are common pastimes to indulge in. Despite discrepancies in earnings compared with those of their peers back in Hong Kong, challenging social and cultural adaptations in Taiwan in the early days, and vastly different gender norms for women, they have succeeded as new immigrants in Taiwan.

Taiwan’s policy of recruiting overseas Chinese students has benefited those students who could not afford higher education in a Western country. They have led the ‘first wave’ of Hong Kongers who have planted their roots in Taiwan. In fact, Taiwan is now actively recruiting Chinese students from overseas, including Hong Kong and Macau, as Taiwan faces a declining fertility level and falling enrollment in universities. Globalization has been the driving force for individuals to emigrate for employment when they were young, at a time when Taiwan was well-prepared to attract all kinds of investors and professionals, forming the ‘second wave’ of Hong Kong immigrants. Taiwan has provided immigrants with stable career paths or opportunities for climbing the social ladder. The ‘third wave’ consists of recent arrivals whose knowledge of Taiwan is mainly based on visiting as tourists and media reports. Some young Hong Kongers even want to immigrate to fulfill their ‘Taiwan Dream!’ However, a continuous flow of Hong Kong and Macau immigrants into Taiwan would require that the immigration policy in Taiwan be friendlier as a whole than its amendment in 2014 and in its aim to target diverse professionals.

In this paper, we emphasize diversity in the migration outcomes of Hong Kong professionals, rather than the processes of their achievement, which may be due to factors other than differences in economic background between Hong Kong and Taiwan. Though excluded from previous studies of Westernized professionals, on the one hand, or post-war mainland Chinese immigrants (Waishenjen) in Taiwan, on the other hand, they may at best be called ‘cosmopolitan Chinese professionals,’ similar to Taiwanese who returned from abroad in large numbers at the beginning of Taiwan’s economic boom in the 1980s. Through their expertise, they have, in one way or another, contributed to ‘globalizing Taipei’ (Kwok, 2005) in the last four decades. In the authors’ view, whether they are ‘privileged migrants’ in the true sense of the word is a subject for further scrutiny. While all the literature on privileged migrants seems to emphasize racial differences and hierarchy between countries in the ‘North’ and the ‘South,’ more evidence would be needed on lifestyles, social networks, and employment experiences to test this thesis.