1.
Refugees...2
They know that if they can make it undetected over the border and into urban Hong Kong their relatives will have to help them, whether they really want to or not.
It is also true that leaving Kwangtung Province is by now a con- tinuing historical process. The Cantonese have emigrated all over the world to escape the poverty of their little farms, to improve their status in life and to find a better future for their children. Coming to Hong Kong is regarded as almost part of that tradition.
It seems that the Chinese government do not take the traffic to Hong Kong very seriously. Many of the illegals now being caught and sent back are on their fourth or fifth attempt, so any punishment they may receive back in China is very mild and not much of a deterrent.
It would be quite wrong to regard the illegals as refugees;
are not. They do not come to Hong Kong for freedom or through political discontent, they come for the age-old reason that the poor have always left the countryside are paved with gold.
they
W
because they think city streets
That the peasants of Kwantung Province think this is largely Hong Kong's own fault. Brash commercialism is what Hong Kong is all
about and it shows in every facet of its life. Its television service
certainly backs this up and thousands of mainland Chinese watch it every night.
They know from the advertisements that life is rich and good and easy in Hong Kong and they can have it if they only make it over the border.
They see people winning thousands of dollars for answering a question.
They know about the Mark Six lottery where a man can win a million
Hong Kong dollars for the cost of two.
When their Ilong Kong relatives come visiting at Chinese New Year
they take into China colour televisions, washing machines, air-conditioners,
stereo sets and all kinds of luxury goods which may have taken them months of hard saving to get. But they fail to tell that side of the story, so their relatives naturally think that, if they can only get
to Hong Kong, life will be good.
The Chinese try to make it into Hong Kong by boat, across the marshes which divide the New Territories and China proper, riding on goods grains, swimming. Many are caught, a number die.
But many make it into the golden land. And that is usually where their
troubles begin.
For a start, their relatives may not be very pleased to see them.
If they were smuggled in by racketeers, the family will probably have
to hand over two or three thousand dollars to prevent the police being
informed. They will pay, but they resent the uninvited member.
GG6564
}
20.11