My TakeUgly Hongkongers who demonise migrants
- Localists and their like say mainland arrivals are to blame for Hong Kong’s public hospital, housing and welfare woes, but the truth is they are not
One-way permits for mainland migrants into Hong Kong are not the cause of overcrowding in public hospitals, lengthening queues for public housing, or over-exploitation of social welfare. Even as a contributing factor, they play a completely negligible role.
Such social entitlement programmes are tearing at the seams because of the city’s changing circumstances and misguided policies, and misallocation of resources by successive local administrations since the 1997 handover of sovereignty. But the problems that many locals now face have become a daily struggle, and that has understandably created widespread malaise and discontent among many.
Localists have been quick to make mainland migrants scapegoats and populist politicians, who once carried the banners of tolerance and democracy, are only too happy to exploit such sentiments. I once agreed with them that the one-way admittance of 150 migrants per day should be scrapped or at least overhauled. Having looked at the numbers, I am ashamed of myself for having bought into such fake news.
First, the 150 daily or 54,765 annual quotas are rarely filled up. When it comes to welfare, fewer new migrants apply for what is called the Comprehensive Social Security Assistance payment (CSSA).
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Surprise stat: the number of CSSA recipients who are classified as new migrants fell from 35,677 in 2007 to 16,155 in 2017; that of file cases, such as families of new migrants, from 24,454 to 11,524 during the same period. In other words, only 5 to 6 per cent of new migrants receive CSSA.