Hong Kong ethnic minorities fall through the cracks
Report shows some South Asians are living in a parallel, poorer and more deprived version of the city.
Race has become a basis for poverty in Hong Kong, as a landmark report shows that some South Asians live in a parallel, poorer and more deprived version of the city.
The first set of poverty statistics relating to the city’s ethnic minorities has lifted the veil on their plight, revealing that South Asians’ particular problems are linked to a lack of access to support and services.
Experts blamed racial insensitivity – both in policy-making and public education – and criticised the government’s non-committal attitude towards human rights and equality. They said ethnic minority groups had been pushed to the periphery of mainstream society as a result.
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With a per capita GDP of HK$310,113, Hong Kong is one of Asia’s richest economies. However, it is also one of the most unequal places in the developed world. Hong Kong’s Gini coefficient – a globally-recognised inequality scale in which ‘zero’ is complete equality and ‘one’ is complete inequality – is 0.537.
In 2014, about 15 per cent of the city’s population remained poor even after counting policy interventions such as welfare hand-outs. That meant one million people were living below the poverty line, which is set at half the median monthly household income.
But in the ethnic minority-centred poverty report released on December 31 last year, 22 per cent of the city’s 61,400 South Asians lived in poverty even after policy intervention.
Things were worse for South Asian families with children – 73 per cent of Pakistani families lived in poverty, comprising the most hard-up group.