Why many Hongkongers in Britain on BN(O) scheme find themselves at career crossroads
- Challenge of finding work remains a deep concern among those who left Hong Kong for Britain under the British National (Overseas) visa scheme
- At a time when many would be planning their retirement if they had not left city, some face daunting challenge of starting over, often in entry-level positions
When Eric Wong left Hong Kong for Britain with his wife and their four-year-old daughter, one of his biggest worries was how he would provide for his family.
Fearing his English would not be good enough to beat out the competition in their new home in Sutton in south London, the 46-year-old took a gamble as so many other immigrants had before over the centuries and started his own business.
Wong had years of experience working as a wholesale supplier of tea at a traditional cafe, or cha chaan teng. Could Britons, the global arbiters of what constituted a good cup of tea, possibly embrace Hong Kong’s take on their national drink, one that relied heavily on milk and leaves sourced from Sri Lanka?
Although British colonialists had brought their tea-drinking habits to the trading outpost roughly 180 years ago, Wong saw his venture as a way to return the favour, while “adding the Hong Kong spirit”.
Wong and his wife met another Hong Kong couple who had already spent a decade in the country, and he proposed they join together in the new business. They would use their local connections to establish the distribution network, while he would manage the production. But the relationship soon soured and the business folded. Wong grew depressed and unsure about what to do next.
His daughter gave him the courage to try again, he said, and he named his new product after her: Trini Hong Kong Style Milk Tea. In September last year, he approached the supermarkets that had distributed his previous product and convinced them to sign a contract to sell his new one. The drink is packaged in a small bottle and carries a white label for the original flavour and a blue one for the Earl Grey version.
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Wong’s taste of home could now be found in London and Manchester, as well as online, and the profits were enough to make a living, he revealed.
“I had no idea whether it would be successful or not, but I kept pushing myself to make it work,” he said, proud that despite a series of setbacks he eventually succeeded in launching his Hong Kong-style milk tea business in his adopted homeland. “Now I have brought it back to England. It is like bringing it back to the motherland.”
Pain of starting over
An estimated 5.4 million of Hong Kong’s 7.5 million residents are eligible for the scheme, which allows successful applicants and their dependants to live, work and study in the country for up to five years. After staying in Britain for a sixth year, visa holders can apply for citizenship.
The strain of being unemployed is perhaps felt especially keenly by Hongkongers, who highly prize a strong work ethic. At a time when many would be planning their retirement if they had not left the city, the immigrants are faced with the daunting challenge of starting over, often at entry-level positions.
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Hong Kong migrants to UK struggle to adapt, many willing to accept lower pay and job changes
A survey of 609 people conducted last October by Hongkongers in Britain, a British-based civil society organisation, found that only 30 per cent of respondents had landed paid employment, with 81 per cent of employed arrivals hoping to move sectors or find other job opportunities.
Many of those who chose to leave were highly educated, a survey by Britain’s Home Office suggests. A poll carried out in January found that out of 500 successful BN(O) applicants, seven in 10 had a degree while more than half had previously worked in professional or managerial roles in Hong Kong. Some 53 per cent were under the age of 45, with 19 per cent under 25. The survey also found 72 per cent were married, and 59 per cent had one or more children.
A step down
Mark*, 44, who arrived in Nottingham with his wife and their two children, is among recent Hong Kong arrivals who managed to find employment relevant to their previous careers. But his new job as a health care assistant represents a step down from his previous work as a registered nurse in Hong Kong.
He was out of work for a year and even after finding the job, he spent four months completing an assortment of background checks and exams required for the role before he finally started on December 1.
He still needs to complete an English test and the second part of his licensing exam, which can take several more months, before he is recognised as a registered nurse in Britain. Both he and his wife said they made sure they had enough savings to sustain them. Fortunately, the HK$9,600 a month in rent for their three-bedroom house is half what they paid in Hong Kong.
Mark counts himself lucky to have finally found work. In Hong Kong, being unemployed was considered unthinkable as work was considered the “top priority”, he said. He recalled feeling stressed in the months spent preparing for his exams although he tried to use the time well by focusing on obtaining his driving licence and the right schools for his two children.
“I have to settle into a new environment, with a totally different cultural background, and so I do think it’s reasonable for me to take a certain period of time to settle my family and my kids,” he said. “To some extent, I think Brexit was another opportunity for Hong Kong people to refill the human resources impact regarding the leaving of people back to Europe.”
His wife, Sharon, 44, also worked as a nurse in Hong Kong and was undergoing the necessary exams to register in Britain. In the meantime, she had found a part-time job working in a warehouse with about 100 other Hongkongers, although she spends about an hour commuting by bus.
Asked why so many Hongkongers were employed at the warehouse, Sharon said the work was relatively easy to get and while her compatriots had savings to live off, many found it stressful to be out of a job. She listed a few of the career backgrounds of her colleagues at the warehouse: occupational therapist, midwife, teacher and flight attendant.
Sharon said a computer programmer who was working with them switched to a new job in his field within a month of starting, but those in the health care industry like her were concerned their English-language abilities were not good enough yet for them to take up jobs as nurses. Some had given up on returning to their old professions, she said.
“I think it is a waste because they have such a lot of experience,” she said. “At least two or three had worked at least 10 years in Hong Kong.”
She added: “At this stage, if we were still in Hong Kong, we would be starting to plan our retirement. Here we are starting over again. It is difficult … But as immigrants coming to England, I had prepared to start over.”
Helping new arrivals
Last year, the British government launched a £43 million (US$59 million) package to support families arriving under the BN(O) scheme. Local councils across the country use the funds to help the arrivals find housing, education and employment.
Ewa Jamróz, policy director at the Hong Kong UK Welcome Programme based in Yorkshire, said the main concerns involved obtaining the proper documentation for taking in employment and renting accommodation, as well as opening bank accounts.
“The BNO [visa] is still relatively new, so some holders have a digital status only, which is a new way of working. A lot of employers and landlords are not really familiar with this. There have been some teething problems with that,” Jamróz said.
The hub is recruiting 20 volunteers who came from Hong Kong to sit on an advisory panel and help direct the outreach. The main focus of the panel would be on jobs and those who had been in the area longer than others had expressed keen interest in assisting the fresh arrivals with navigating the new systems, Jamróz said.
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Already 27 applications for seats on the panel had been received, which reflected Hongkongers strong desire to work, even on a volunteer basis, she said.
“We know that people are highly qualified, a lot of them have years of experience working at high levels in management, so we know there would be some support needed to understand the UK job market, in terms of how to put together a CV, how to apply for government jobs and addressing those job specifications,” she said.
“We are trying to get a sense of what profession people are coming with, whether they want to continue with those professions in the UK or whether they’re looking for a change of career and how we can best support them.”
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Another organisation helping out is Hongkongers in Britain, founded by Simon Cheng Man-kit, who was granted political asylum in 2020. It had secured a grant to support the employment and mental health of the new arrivals.
Cheng estimated that about 35 per cent of Hongkongers who had jobs were working in the same industry as before. Others were doing jobs unrelated to their former professions, he said, citing the example of some former district councillors who were now working as part-time bartenders.
“Hongkongers are generally resilient and willing to adapt to a new environment with different types of jobs, and they generally need to spend some time to reapply or restudy their qualifications to continue their professions,” he said.
The group helps run a job-matching website for Hongkongers and employers and works with a local charity to co-host employment workshops and coaching sessions.
Working as landlords
According to the British Home Office survey, 70 per cent of arrivals with BN(O) status report being financially secure. While arrivals with plenty of savings can weather the difficulties of integrating into a tough labour market, younger, less experienced Hongkongers face a plethora of uncertainties in their adopted homeland. Language is not the only barrier – cultural differences can also hamper their job searches.
Bella*, 25, sent out hundreds of résumés for work in marketing, public relations and customer service jobs but failed to secure many interviews. She contended that in Hong Kong a cover letter was not important as the focus was more on work history but in Britain, a well-written cover letter was the most important part of the application.
“Another difference is in Hong Kong, I think the employer will focus on ability, but in the UK, they focus more on the personality of the person, such as is this person suitable with the company culture?” she said.
Having only worked for one year in a tutorial centre and as an assistant to a district councillor before moving to England, she worried she did not have as much work experience as other candidates.
Birmingham rises as cheaper option for Hong Kong’s BN(O) movers
While searching for employment, Bella, along with her boyfriend Peter*, are living in a two-bedroom property her family bought as an investment in Manchester. For the past year, they have got by on rental income, while also managing other properties in Birmingham and Manchester. She is also helping her parents buy another home for investment.
But the BN(O) scheme has contributed to rising home prices. In the most popular cities and neighbourhoods, property prices have risen as much as 11.5 per cent in the past year, with those in the Birmingham area increasing by 7 per cent, according to the Land Registry.
Properties outside London had also been popular due to being more affordable. Manchester, a major city northwest of London, is another option for Hongkongers given its cheaper prices and potential to generate higher rental yields.
Yan Yan, a senior associate director from Savills who often deals with BN(O) scheme arrivals, said Hongkongers who had traditionally bought in central London were now looking at Greater London, as well as Manchester, Birmingham and Cambridge.
A property in downtown Manchester, for example, could cost between HK$2 million and HK$3 million, she said, with job opportunities and the city’s regeneration adding to the attraction.
She said a very large portion of her customers were repeats who were acquiring more than one property to rent out.
Marc von Grundherr, a director at Benham and Reeves, which has offices in Hong Kong and London, said his company initially saw an influx of Hongkongers wanting to rent first and that caused demand for rentals in the capital to rise.
“The thinking has been that renting is a ‘try before you buy’ approach with many BN(O) visa holders now buying in London and elsewhere too,” he said.
“This has then translated further to some wanting to purchase UK homes for investment and, no doubt, to rent to the next generation of BN(O) holders now that Covid restrictions here have all but disappeared.”
*Names changed at interviewees’ request
