Members of Hong Kong's South Asian minority are among the city's most impoverished people, with larger-than-average families adding to the burden of a language barrier that hinders them in finding jobs.
The Hong Kong Diocesan Pastoral Centre for Workers, which interviewed people using its relief services in October and November, said the language barrier also stood in the way of their receiving welfare.
According to the survey, the median family income of the city's South Asians is HK$13,000 - less than half the Hong Kong median of HK$27,000 stated in a recent government report, and below the poverty line for a four-member family.
The centre said South Asian families had an average of 4.5 members, which meant every working person had to support more than four people, versus the city's average of three.
Under the framework for Hong Kong's first poverty line, set in September, a four-person family with an income of less than HK$14,300 - half the overall mean - is considered poor.