Exclusive | Thousands of Hong Kong-born people move back to Canada, once again reversing a migration that has shaped cities across the Pacific
- Canada’s Hong Kong-born population has increased for the first time since 1996, upending a flow that resulted in 300,000 Canadians living in the autonomous city
- Academics say political upheaval, personal factors and the ageing of Canadians in Hong Kong are behind the new phenomenon of double-reverse migration
Thousands of Hong Kong people are returning to Canada, as so-called reverse migrants change direction once again, according to census data uncovered by the South China Morning Post.
The figures show that the population of Hong Kong-born people in Canada has increased for the first time since 1996 – thanks to the new phenomenon of double-reverse migration, or re-returneeship.
A massive process of reverse migration, by people who headed back to Hong Kong after obtaining Canadian citizenship, had resulted in an estimated 300,000 Canadians living in the city and reshaped cities across the Pacific, including Vancouver and nearby Richmond in British Columbia.
But the Canadian census data now shows that the flow has changed direction, with at least 8,000 double-reverse migrants and their children moving to Canada from Hong Kong in the five years before Canada’s last census, in 2016.
University of British Columbia geographer Professor Daniel Hiebert, who studies migration, said the Post’s findings “make perfect sense – at least in theory”.
“Let’s say a Hong Kong person first immigrated to Canada in the big wave, at about [age] 40 or 45 in 1990. Life in Canada is nice but somewhat boring and opportunities are limited,” he said.