Opinion | Hong Kong’s overcrowded hospitals and one-way permit system need to be debated, but rationally and without anti-mainland prejudice

Overburdened public services mean Hong Kong should have a rational discussion about immigration, but too much rhetoric has taken the form of fear-based anecdotes while the government’s lack of resources for these areas also needs attention

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Those concerned about migrants overburdening Hong Kong’s public services, especially public health, should stick to rational policy discussions. Photo: Dickson Lee

Published: 12:00pm, 22 Feb 2019Updated: 6:25pm, 22 Feb 2019

Hong Kong is densely populated. Its streets are crowded. Housing is scarce. Human-made pollution is harming residents. Its public health system is bursting at the seams.

Against this backdrop, a debate on immigration can be sensible. This would unavoidably involve examining and reviewing the mechanics and implementation of the system of one-way permits for mainland Chinese to migrate to Hong Kong.

However, I am appalled by the way some of those who call for the reduction or elimination of the one-way permit quotas have resorted to prejudice.

Take, for example, the rhetoric of public hospital radiation therapist Ng Chi-kit, who said that at least seven out of 10 of his patients are new migrants. Apparently, they speak Cantonese with regional accents, the prefixes of their Hong Kong identity card numbers indicate they are mainlanders, and their English names appear to be transliterations of their names in Mandarin.

These arguments tar an entire group of people by reference to their place of origin. If speaking Cantonese with a regional accent makes one blameworthy, God help those who have lived in Hong Kong for decades but continue to speak Cantonese with regional accents. And fact-checkers have exposed the claim regarding Hong Kong ID card numbers as inaccurate.

Mainland migrants attend a press conference in Sham Shui Po, hosted by the Society for Community Organisations, regarding recent discriminatory complaints against them. Photo: Nora Tam