Hong Kong must see its young ethnic minorities as an asset, not a liability
Alfred Chan says with an increasing number of ethnic minority youth born here who are more comfortable with the Chinese language than their parents, Hong Kong should redouble its efforts to remove the obstacles they face in finding employment
An interesting characteristic of the ethnic minority population is that the median age is lower than that of the whole population by 7.2 years.
I look at these statistics in a positive light. Many of these ethnic minority youth consider Hong Kong their only home. A lot of them were born here and/or have spent most of their lives in Hong Kong, a fact reflected in the 115 per cent increase – from 38,042 in 2006 to 81,964 in 2016 – in the number of ethnic minorities born here.
Another interesting finding is related to their Cantonese language skills. In 2016, 64.3 per cent of ethnic minorities aged 5-14 were able to read Chinese, although the level of their reading skills is still lower than that of their ethnic Chinese peers. Yet, this is significant, given that language is the biggest barrier for many ethnic minorities in employment and higher education.
With the younger generation better placed to overcome this barrier, it is imperative that they get all the support they need to join the workforce on an equal footing. Currently, many ethnic minorities only know the basics of Chinese, which many employers consider inadequate.
Ethnic minority children should get to learn Chinese in Mandarin, rather than Cantonese
