2024-07-26 11:28:14
Many people have immigrated to Hong Kong in the past few years. For ordinary immigrant friends, if you want to find a job locally, nine out of ten times you will not be able to return to your original job. The process is a bit miserable. I recently saw a study that collected objective data and confirmed this feeling.
Poon Lehui, a researcher at the Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at CUHK, and Pan Xuezhi, assistant director of the Shanghai-Hong Kong Development Institute at CUHK, guided students to conduct a study on Hong Kong immigrants to the UK. They wrote an article in Ming Pao about the research results. The research was conducted from July to December last year. It was conducted in the form of an online questionnaire and local entity promotion methods. It received responses from 1,237 Hong Kong residents who immigrated to the UK. The main results were in several aspects.
First, revenue is down. The average monthly household income of these Hong Kong residents before leaving Hong Kong reached HK$46,500, which is much higher than the median income in Hong Kong of HK$30,000. However, after moving to the UK, the average monthly household income dropped to HK$33,000, a sharp drop of 29 %, the median monthly income in the UK is about HK$26,700. Although their average income is still higher than the average income of the British, they still fall from the high-income category to the middle-income level.
Studies have pointed out that there are various reasons for the sharp decrease in income, such as the inability to hire foreign domestic helpers locally, one member of the couple having to give up his job and stay at home, or just doing some part-time work, and drastic changes in the types of work and industries. Considering the high taxes in the UK and the high prices for overseas consumers, the lives of Hong Kong residents in the UK have become difficult.
Second, occupational mismatch, white-collar workers become blue-collar workers. Scholars such as Harry Ganzeboom, who have studied social mobility for many years, established the “International Occupational Socio-Economic Index” (ISEI) to quantitatively assess the professionalism of various types of work for comparison, turning different industries into an index analysis of 0 to 100, such as professionalism Higher managers scored 65 points, and less specialized labor workers scored 24 points. According to the above questionnaire data, the “International Occupational Socio-Economic Index” score of Hong Kong immigrants to the UK dropped from 41.2 when they were in Hong Kong to 24.2 after moving to the UK.
This change from high to low represents multiple meanings. First, Hong Kong immigrants to the UK have changed from mainly working in clerical or professional jobs in the past to labor workers, reflecting the problem of occupational mismatch. Their professional skills cannot find relevant jobs in the UK. Secondly, each type of work has its own social identity and values. When switching from a professional job to a labor worker, the job changer has to accept the feeling of being a “half-way monk”. The family also has to adjust to the changes in income and living expenses. It is difficult for the individual to adapt. In severe cases, Depression may occur.
I have come across many examples of this career downgrade, either directly or indirectly. One of my friends was the person in charge of a medium-sized advertising company in Hong Kong. After immigrating to other places, he “immediately landed” and wanted to work as the lowest-level copy boy in the advertising department of the media. They all have friends of friends. Originally, the two of them were middle-class people in Hong Kong. After moving to England, one of them became a warehouse worker and had to go to work at four in the morning. Because the locals were unwilling to do these “pig skull” working hours, he could find it. This job, while my partner works for Uber, is one of the easiest jobs to find in the UK, but the income is certainly not ideal.
The author of the article, Pan Lehui, also mentioned that an academic friend who studied for a PhD with him gave up his job as a lecturer after moving to the UK and worked as a warehouse attendant in a local supermarket. This is actually similar to the situation when a large number of new immigrants from mainland China flocked to Hong Kong in the 1970s. They may be university professors, doctors, and engineers in the mainland, but after arriving in Hong Kong, their academic qualifications are not recognized and they can only work as janitors or construction workers. I have met some friends from the Mainland who felt good when they first came to Hong Kong because Hong Kong has rich material conditions. But then they struggled for food, rice, oil and salt, and lamented the difficulty of life.
Third, the reason for moving to the UK. The CUHK academic did not mention the reasons why the interviewees migrated. Based on experience, immigrants to the UK are mainly divided into two categories. First, most people immigrate for political reasons; second, because the UK has the “5+1” right of abode immigration program, immigration has become very easy, and a small number of people have a “don’t give up” mentality. , I also feel that my children can receive a better education locally. In the past, it cost 500,000 yuan a year to send my children to study in the UK. Now that I have moved there, it is very convenient for my children to study in the UK and pay local tuition fees.
Political reasons vary from person to person, but if you only want to educate your children, immigrating to the UK is not a good choice. Looking at this year’s DSE Diploma of Secondary Education Examination results, there are 17,000 students who meet the minimum requirements for university admission. There are 13,000 joint admissions places. On average, 1.4 people are competing for one place. The university admission rate is extremely high, and those who meet the basic requirements for university admission are also It’s not difficult. Even if an individual fails to pass the Chinese subject, if other grades are satisfactory, the university will make an exception and include them. So unless you go to the UK to study at prestigious universities such as Oxford and Cambridge, if you just study a general studies department at an ordinary university and stay in Hong Kong to further your education, there are actually quite a lot of opportunities.
A survey by CUHK scholars also revealed immigrants’ intention to stay in the UK. In the survey, 53% of the respondents insisted that they would not return to Hong Kong, 24.9% were unsure whether they would return, and 21.1% planned to return. This also shows that a considerable number of Hong Kong people who immigrated to the UK have plans to return.
Immigration is a personal choice, but when you move to another place, you have to be prepared to downgrade your status from white-collar workers to blue-collar workers. I remember that one of the lyrics of Xu Guanjie’s song “Together in the Same Boat” was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people: “Immigrants to foreign countries to deliver food and pour tea.” This shows that it is indeed not easy to move to a foreign country.
Lu Yongxiong
After Hong Kong perfected its political system, the system operates smoothly. However, Western countries think that what Hong Kong is doing is not their own, so naturally they are not happy.
In a recent interview with the British media, New Democratic Party chairwoman Sylvia IP discussed the issue of democracy in Hong Kong, saying that under Western democratic systems, people will not vote for the common interests, but only for their own interests, so it is dangerous to follow public opinion. She also believed that the Western system model of pluralism and diversity has never been part of China’s tradition, describing Hong Kong’s democratic experiment in the past 20 years as a failure.
The political system is a complex issue, and the rhetoric of Western media often takes the wrong direction. We can study how Hong Kong develops democracy from different angles.
First, there is no Western-style democracy in Hong Kong’s capitalist system. Under British colonial rule, Hong Kong has not implemented a Western-style democratic political system for more than 100 years, and there is no universal suffrage component in major parts of the system. In 1979, Hong Kong Governor MacLehose went to Beijing to meet with Deng Xiaoping. After learning that China would insist on resuming the exercise of sovereignty over Hong Kong, he returned to Hong Kong and quickly started the process of Hong Kong’s political development. District councils were established in 1982, and self-directed constituencies began in 1985. Members and indirectly elected members of functional constituencies of the Legislative Council. At the same time, in 1984, Sino-British negotiations concluded and a joint statement was signed. Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping proposed the future policy of governing Hong Kong, including “one country, two systems, a high degree of autonomy, Hong Kong people governing Hong Kong, and the existing capitalist system and way of life remaining unchanged for 50 years.” . It should be noted that the “existing” mentioned by Deng Xiaoping refers to the current situation in 1984. The success of Hong Kong’s capitalist economy at that time had nothing to do with the implementation of Western-style elections.
Second, the Basic Law sets universal suffrage as only one goal. Many people say that the Basic Law already states that the Chief Executive must be elected by universal suffrage. This is also a misunderstanding. I personally covered the drafting process of the Basic Law. At that time, there were two opinions in the Drafting Committee. One was the opinion headed by Szeto Wah and Martin Lee, who believed that Hong Kong should quickly implement direct elections; the other was the opinion of the Mainland Drafting Committee and the Hong Kong Business Professionals. The Boundaries Drafting Committee believes that direct elections are not suitable for Hong Kong.
Since the United Kingdom had already introduced direct elections to the Legislative Council when the Basic Law was still being drafted, a compromise plan was finally worked out. As far as the election of the Chief Executive was concerned, Article 45 of the Basic Law stipulated that the Chief Executive “ultimately reaches a “The goal is to have a broadly representative Nominating Committee and be elected through universal suffrage after nominations based on democratic procedures.” The last three words “goal” are added intentionally. This is not a system that must be implemented, but a goal. How or whether to achieve this goal depends on the actual situation in Hong Kong and the results of the progressive development of the political system.
The Basic Law, as a mini-constitution, stipulates long-term matters in the future and cannot be modified at will. At that time, the three words “objectives” were carefully written, which has now been proven to be very correct. The difficulties and impacts that occurred during the development of Hong Kong’s political system highlighted the wisdom of drafting the Basic Law at that time.
Third, a good political system must solve the problems of development and distribution. When discussing democratic political systems, many people fall into the “universal suffrage theory”, which treats the process as an end, sanctifies, idolizes, and rigidizes the process, and forgets the purpose of developing a democratic political system. Judging from the history of the development of Western-style democratic systems hundreds of years ago, with the gradual development of the economy, the bourgeoisie emerged. The feudal royal rule at that time constituted a great constraint on the bourgeoisie’s promotion of economic development. Finally, under the promotion of capitalists , forcing the emperor to agree to form a parliament and share power. The purpose of the Western-style democratic system is to adapt to the goals of economic development. There is also a distribution problem behind this. If the emperor monopolizes political power, he will also monopolize the interests of economic development, which will directly conflict with the capitalists. Take France as an example. In the end, through revolution, French King Louis XVI was guillotined.
On the other hand, if democracy is carried out for the sake of democracy and a political system is created that paralyzes social and economic development, no one will think that this is a good system. Take Hong Kong as an example. As early as 2015, the government had complained in the Legislative Council that there were 4 public housing projects with a total of 8,800 units. Due to the funding progress, the occupation deadline was significantly delayed, of which 6,400 were public housing units. . The interests of residents waiting for public housing are not represented. For example, if they cannot rent low-cost public housing and have to live in subdivided housing, and the rent difference is 7,000 yuan a month, the households on the waiting list have lost 84,000 yuan in one year. In this year alone, A total of NT$540 million has been lost from these more than 6,400 waiting households for public housing. Hong Kong’s system at that time was ineffective, which seriously hindered the overall development of Hong Kong and harmed the interests of the lower classes.
Fourth, Hong Kong pilots consultative democracy. Before and after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991, the United States once believed that Western-style democracy was the end of history. American political scientist Fukuyama became famous because of this. Now, Fukuyama’s fable is just a joke. The great wheel of history is rolling forward and will not end because of a major event. No one can say which system is perfect or terminal. In recent years, Western democratic systems have been riddled with problems, and the rise of populist politics has led to serious social divisions and fully exposed the stubborn diseases of Western democratic systems.
If pluralism and the fight against political polarization are synonymous, then Hong Kong’s political system does not necessarily insist on adding elements of political pluralism, because the more diversity there is, the more struggles there will be, and then the above-mentioned filibuster failure will occur. Hong Kong’s current democratic system is relatively close to a consultative style. There is no confrontational party political form, but a lot of consultation and consultation processes have been added. The government and groups representing different interests of society constantly consult and revise government policies. Content can also revise or postpone some unpopular or flawed policies. The government’s suspension of garbage levy is a good example.
If Western political culture is diversified, the Western model of discussing political system development should also be diversified. It should not just consider its own system to be the best system in the world. When we discuss the development of democratic political systems, we do not necessarily have to follow Western logic. When we see that the fourth president of Ukraine, Anukovych, was completely based on the Western democratic political system, but because he was pro-Russian and not pro-American, he was overthrown by a color revolution supported by the United States. We know that the United States The West focuses on results, not processes, and they care less about systems.
Lu Yongxiong
1722055001
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