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Hong Kong expats are relocating at a faster pace than before, but Singapore isn’t their only destination
- While some jobs and expats in law and banking are heading to Singapore, the city state is facing domestic demands to prioritise local workers
- Relocation firms have seen a marked rise in moves from Hong Kong to Singapore, with others heading to Britain, Australia and Canada
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British national Anne is preparing to leave Hong Kong, a place she has called home for the past seven years.
Her family “adores” the city of 7.5 million, but she is giving up its seasons and scenic country parks for Singapore’s urban landscape. For the mother of two young children, the issue is the 21-day hotel quarantine that is mandatory for all returning residents. Anne, a homemaker who declined to be named, has not seen her family in Britain for three years.
“We desperately miss our families but the three-week quarantine and the continual instability of flights is too much,” said Anne, who intends to relocate in April. “My mental health has suffered considerably due to the fear of the consequence of contracting Covid-19.”
Those who get the virus in Hong Kong are immediately sent to hospital for at least 10 days. After testing negative twice, they are isolated in government facilities for another 14 days. On Wednesday, the government said it would ban flights from eight places including the United States and Britain for two weeks, citing a surge in imported Omicron cases threatening to overwhelm health care facilities. It also announced a ban on dining in restaurants after 6pm and the closure of leisure and entertainment facilities for two weeks.
As the pandemic enters a third year with no end in sight, commentators said returning to measures first adopted in 2020 when vaccines were not yet available did not inspire confidence in Hong Kong’s pandemic management strategy, given that other financial hubs were staying relatively open.
The three relocation firms that This Week in Asia spoke to said the exit rate for Hong Kong’s expats, who made up an estimated 10 per cent of the population in 2019, was fast outpacing the rate at which foreigners were moving in.
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