Feel strongly about these letters, or any other aspects of the news? Share your views by emailing us your Letter to the Editor at [email protected] or filling in this Google form. Submissions should not exceed 400 words, and must include your full name and address, plus a phone number for verification. With regard to the case of an ethnic minority mother who
allegedly killed her children, it is of concern that while social services aim to target ethnic minorities, consistent, thorough and long-term help is unavailable.
Being a member of an ethnic minority group myself and conversant to some degree with social services in Hong Kong, I believe that the present trend of differentiating services for minorities may do more harm than good in the long run. While understandably we need people from minority communities in social services to understand the cultural nuances, it is equally true that services should be mainstreamed. Creating specialised services is not helping when there is already a clear-cut division between Chinese and non-Chinese.
Globally, attempts at inclusion focus on mainstreaming and the same was done with
education in Hong Kong. Hence, the rationale for creating specialised services for ethnic minorities is not clear. To create an inclusive society, all members of society should feel welcome in all spaces. There already is a physical and cultural segregation with members of minority groups living in ethnic enclaves and interacting mostly among themselves.
When people are made to feel they cannot be comfortable except in certain spaces, how can one expect integration? Many among the minority youth feel it is they who make attempts at integration rather than the majority. When members of minority groups contact social services such as family services, they often have to wait for an English-speaking representative and, even then, the officer may not be able to communicate fluently in English although it is also an official language. At times, the issue is not language, but the stereotypical understanding of what minorities are and do. We have seen this in the
crass remarks made by people in power with no repercussions at all.
Our institutional barriers have made things difficult for minorities because of the underlying sentiment that they have to adjust to the majority and that their needs are secondary and cannot or should not inconvenience the majority. Expecting people to ask for help in times of crisis is a huge ask, given that in daily life they feel isolated and sidelined. Feelings of ease in daily life, visibility and representation are key long-term objectives in creating inclusion.
