!
}
ponk year of 1962. This figure may help to bring back a sense of perspect- ive to the refugee problem" in Hong Kong, especially when one boars in mind the fact that China's population is about 700 million (so the number of refugees is a very small proportion of those who could come); the fact that there has always, throughout China's history, been a drift towards the south of people looking for better land, more work, and a higher standard of living; the foot that in every basically agricultural country tho dovolopmont of industry in the cities causos n fairly large- sanle migration from the countryside of people looking for work. Had it not boon for the ideologiant frontier botwoon Hong Kong, would the
influx (of refugoos ronlly have been very much amollor ?
1
{
One must also romember that the influx of rofugods to Hong Kong has
beon more of a bonofit to the Colony 'than 'a detrimont, and the only people
to suffer to any significant extent aro those residents of the Colony who who
were bought out from their homes by wealthy refugees in the early days,
and therefore had to join the squatters, and those among the refugees
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I
:
who made the unfortunate choice of building their huts on land' which the',
Government does not or cannot use, a choice which now bars them from the the chance of resettlement. (This assumes, of course, that resettlement is a step upwards, and although for 77% of resettlement tenants the space allocation is under the W.H.O.'s minimum habitable area, xikk for the other 23% with more spaco it no doubt is an improvemont.)
}
The rofugoo altuation has always boon painted blacker than it really is, one must suspect, because some thinking people in the Government of Hong Kong feel that not onough has boon dono for the duudgrants, or possibly, and this soCIS more likely, bocause the Government has a vestod interest in sponding as little of its money as possible on such an unprofitable enterprise as housing the poor.
1
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While it is no doubt true that genuino govornmontal concern for the livelihood and living conditions of the squatters and the homoloss was probably one reason for the inception of the housing programme the p following account from Hong Kong University Professor Keith Hopkins study, "Public Housing Policy in Hong Kong", seems to give a more balanced view:
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