Stay or go? Hong Kong’s protest crisis raises career doubts for expats

Half a year has passed since the city erupted into turmoil, exposing divisions over its future

In a new series, the South China Morning Post looks at the risks and rewards foreign professionals see in Hong Kong after a summer of unrest

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Contingency plans and “red lines” differ by person and family, but many have had difficult discussions with a partner or family back home about what to do. Illustration: Henry Wong

Published: 7:00am, 27 Dec 2019Updated: 6:16pm, 6 May 2021

For one long-time foreign resident of Hong Kong, the city’s violent anti-government street protests this year convinced her it was time to write down a worst-case scenario getaway list.

She noted down the essentials to grab if she needed to flee fast, put the list in a desk drawer in her flat, and found it brought some peace of mind.

“It’s a short list,” she said. “Just my mother’s jewellery, my passport and some photos really.” But writing it down, she said, gave a sense of at least being somewhat ready if the conflict reached the point where she had to escape a city she has called home for 28 years.

The woman, who asked that her name not be used to discuss the protests, is one of the foreign residents that make up almost 10 per cent of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million population. Many are weighing the risks of staying in a city once known for its stability and now blighted by months of unrest.

But so far, there is no evidence of an exodus. Immigration figures show that 731,082 foreigners were living in Hong Kong in November 2018. A year later, the figure was 726,032. This includes domestic helpers, largely from the Philippines and Indonesia, who numbered around 400,000, according to the immigration data.

Foreign professionals working in the finance industry or running businesses in Hong Kong are confronting the “what if” questions about personal safety and protection of children as tear gas, bricks, rubber bullets and firebombings replaced tourists and shoppers on the city’s streets.

Contingency plans and “red lines” differ by person and family, but many conveyed the same story of difficult discussions with a partner or family back home about what to do as the protests went from largely peaceful marches in June against a planned extradition law to pitched street battles between police and radical protesters.