With all the fuss over the 1.6 million mainland migrants supposedly storming the barricades in a desperate rush to reach the land of milk and honey, one possibility has been completely overlooked.
It may be something of a blow to Hong Kong pride to learn that not everybody with right of abode is actually queuing to come here. But a moment's reflection can produce several reasons why life might be preferable across the border.
Because of the tangled web of family relationships which is the inevitable consequence of divided lives, it transpires that many Hong Kong fathers are anxious to keep mainland children quietly at home.
According to figures which were not released when the Secretary for Security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee unleashed the bombshell statistics in Legco last week, more than 30 per cent of children eligible for entry are either the legitimate offspring of wives permanently based on the mainland, unaware that their husband has a second home in Hong Kong, or they are the secret children of a mainland mistress.
The 'second wife' syndrome has been around for years. Any of the social work agencies can produce daunting evidence of the extent of it, so the news is hardly a shock.
But the Census and Statistics Department chose to withhold this information on the grounds that it would complicate matters if it confined its statistics to those who wished to come, rather than those who had the right to do so. That is not an unreasonable approach, given that some children may claim the right to migrate when they are adult.
