The UK is to offer full Citizenship to Hong Kong Residents. Thoughts?

i'm from hk and thank you what you've said - half of this thread is about how there are 7 million Hong Kongers but only 3 million are eligible to move to the UK, and personally I don't know many people who are planning on moving there. interestingly enough, some of us want to move to other, less xenophobic countries!! anybody who would move to the UK as part of this scheme would probably be affluent enough to contribute a lot more to the economy than they take and wouldn't be the British taxpayer's responsibility please enlighten me as to why the general public would have to pay for us??? we're not refugees?? nobody from Hong Kong would move to the UK without secure finances and knowing what they're getting into.

I think all Hong Kong citizens should be welcome here.

i'm from hk and thank you what you've said - half of this thread is about how there are 7 million Hong Kongers but only 3 million are eligible to move to the UK, and personally I don't know many people who are planning on moving there. interestingly enough, some of us want to move to other, less xenophobic countries!! anybody who would move to the UK as part of this scheme would probably be affluent enough to contribute a lot more to the economy than they take and wouldn't be the British taxpayer's responsibility please enlighten me as to why the general public would have to pay for us??? we're not refugees?? nobody from Hong Kong would move to the UK without secure finances and knowing what they're getting into.

i'm from hk and thank you what you've said - half of this thread is about how there are 7 million Hong Kongers but only 3 million are eligible to move to the UK, and personally I don't know many people who are planning on moving there. interestingly enough, some of us want to move to other, less xenophobic countries!! anybody who would move to the UK as part of this scheme would probably be affluent enough to contribute a lot more to the economy than they take and wouldn't be the British taxpayer's responsibility please enlighten me as to why the general public would have to pay for us??? we're not refugees?? nobody from Hong Kong would move to the UK without secure finances and knowing what they're getting into.

l think many will go to / New Zealand /

What makes you think Wellington will allow them in any significant number? The immigration numbers, especially from Asia, have already created a toxic political atmosphere for such things.

Well we will have to wait and see

I'm all for HK-ers coming to the UK (very enthusiastic, actually), but of course there are going to be sections of the population who will be uneasy at the fact that a large number of people may consider moving to the UK. Many people in this country probably have never felt as economically precarious as they do right now for several reasons - Covid, the leap out of the EU into the unknown, a general feeling that public services are under strain and so on. I'm sure you can probably empathise with this to some degree.

I'm interested in your statement that you would prefer to go to a less xenophobic country than the UK, and I would like to know which countries you feel fit this description. We often see British people hand-wringing and self-flagellating about our alleged racism and xenophobia, but it's interesting to hear an outside perspective. Personally, I think the UK has a lot wrong with it, but I think our openness to welcoming immigrants is actually something we should be relatively proud of, and do rather well in comparison to other countries.

If I look at Europe, I see countries such as Spain, Italy, Germany and France who (like the UK in many respects) are not enjoying an entirely smooth experience integrating millions of immigrants. Each country has a prominent far right movement who I would suggest are better organised and are taken more seriously than anything in the UK. One sort of suspects that the majority of immigrants who are Europe-bound appear to have the UK as their first choice destination - and there must be a reason for this. I look to eastern Europe which is much less open and enthusiastic about non-European immigration than the UK. I look to The US, which is currently governed by a fat, ignorant, narcissistic proto-fascist nutjob, I look to Australia which is no more welcoming to immigrants than the UK, and actually holds many prospective immigrants offshore in camps little better than prisons. I look to Japan which jealously guards its citizenship, even from ethnic Japanese who were born abroad. I look to southern Africa (where I have lived) and remember the increasingly suspicious attitude local people have towards the Chinese (who are extracting much of the continent's natural resources on terms that could be considered exploitative, and who frequently treat their local workforce appallingly)...

Happy to hear your views on this, and your destinations of choice.

Thank you (and everybody else with similar views) for supporting this policy - when I said we'd prefer to go to a less xenophobic country than the UK that was mostly out of annoyance with what some other people had commented, and I understand that those opinions do not represent the whole of Britain. To answer your question, I suppose every country has its own racism issue, but they revolve around different ethnicities in different places. In Hong Kong, ethnic minorities that face racism are mostly those from the Indian subcontinent (not many black people live in Hong Kong, but the ones that are definitely face racism on a daily basis. I believe Caucasians make up a significant percentage of the ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, however, nearly all of them are well-off and the racism they experience doesn't affect their overall quality of life as much). I can't speak for everyone in HK, but the UK's racism has never seemed as serious as America's, and we don't pay much attention to the levels of racism in other countries. Perhaps it's because we have more pressing political issues facing us right now, but growing up I never learnt about racism in Australia or Japan. Countries like Canada and Australia appear to be less racist since there are many established Chinese communities there (however sinophobia and racism, in general, is still prevalent in those places)

I go to an international school following the IGCSE and IB curriculum, and most of our students go to university in the UK. This may be largely due to the fact that our school is a "British" school and if we were to go to other countries e.g. the U.S., we'd be required to take external exams (SATs/ACTs) in our own time, which would be a distraction from the already challenging workload of the IB. I'd agree with you that most people who go to Europe don't consider other countries except for the UK; to be able to go overseas and study pretty much means you have enough money to get into a good school - Hong Kong University is 22nd in the world (QS 2021 I think) and two or three of the other local universities aren't too far behind. Strictly speaking from the perspective of a parent, why would you send your child to a relatively unknown college in Sweden or Portugal when most of the best universities in Europe are in the UK? Additionally, we used to be a British colony, and thus most of us were brought up speaking English. It's a lot easier to immigrate to the UK since they speak English, than Croatia and learn a whole new language.

It surprises me how many Chinese people I know are still heading to the U.S. for boarding school/higher education. My parents have always pushed me towards the UK and Canada, and away from the U.S., fearing I'll get shot and because of the unbelievably exorbitant higher education fees. Despite these two factors, their excuse of a president (your description was rather accurate) and other issues in society, I still want to go to America for university very much. When you look at world university rankings, American universities tend to top the lists, which embarrassingly is the main reason I want to go. Other reasons are a little immature, but Britain sometimes seems so... rainy, dull or cold (though the last one might change soon because of climate change!). I have a Canadian passport and family in Canada, but Canada also seems so... boring. I am somewhat ashamed of these naive views, but the general idea is if I don't get into my top choice of uni in England, I'd go to America (after earning a scholarship because my family isn't affluent enough to afford 4 years of university there). I'm most drawn to Amherst College for its open course curriculum and its high ranking, though in HK the only American universities with any prestige are the Ivy League. My mom had never heard of Caltech (approx. 4th in the world, QS world 2020) until Alex in Modern Family went there. Now that I've written out my own aspirations, I suppose everybody who's still heading to the U.S. does so, not because they're not afraid of how much more "dangerous" America is, but because the pull factors are just too great to ignore.

I've spent a really long time on this, but I just wanted to say I understand why some Brits are worried about Hong Kongers moving to Britain, with everything that's going on in the world right now. Nobody will take a move to the UK lightly, and only those who can afford an upheaval of their lives will do so. We would really appreciate you welcoming us, as many Hong Kongers currently don't feel at ease in their own city. I have faith that the Hong Kongers that do move will try to get along with their local community as well as possible, without disrupting anybody.

(also please don't attack me for saying Britain seems dull!!)

esp with BJ, not holding my breath till we see it, think it was a path to citizenship, but a risky move due to China's huge and growing influence

Bad idea.
This was predictable when they handed HK back, it was always going to be taken back into mainstream China.
HK also has a population of 7.5 million.

There's a better idea out there than this, I just don't know what it is.

Only 3 million will actually be eligible, and it's highly unlikely anywhere close to that number will move to to the UK.I'd be surprised if it was even a million.
Sadly with China's growing influence and power, I don't think there is any better way, short of all out war.

Good idea although China will retaliate, so expect fewer Chinese students. Chinese people are amongst the most industrious, hard working groups that integrate well. I would be surprised if it was a million.

The UK would be in big trouble if there was a sudden influx of 1million immigrants.

Three million people are entitled to come and live here, that's scary. Obviously not all coming together but sporadically I think but still, 65 million population already.

Wow, 3 million+ is a hell of a lot. There’s 55 million people in a small country like England alone, where are they going to get housed?

agree 100%, we already have a huge immigration problem. I though everyone voted for PM Boris Johnson did so because he is tough on immigration and Brexit. Hell, hes doing the opposite

I wouldn't put much faith in China allowing HK residents to move their assets abroad easily.
I think a model where they arrive with similar resources to any other political refugee is more likely.

Nice gesture but I doubt if they wanna come to the UK. Moreover, would China allow people to leave? They would be guarding the ports 🤦🏽*♀️

There's little to wait on, neither Labour/NZ First nor National would commit electoral suicide by allowing any significant number of migrants through the boarder. Canberra might to stick it to Beijing but NZ is much too small.

Australia has already launched its plan to allow Hongkongers to extend their stay in Australia.