ARYAGY
CONFIDENTIAL
Secretory & State S
09 110V 1588
MFD 341/5 нко
Private Secretary
FROM: C O Hum
A
и
Hong Kong Department
Z DATE: 9 November 1988
3
cc: PS/Lord Glenarthur
PS/Mr Eggar 5
Mr Gillmore
Mr McLaren
г
EMIGRATION FROM HONG KONG
Α
B
1. Ministers will wish to be aware of the main points from the Hong Kong Government's memorandum on emigration, which was submitted to the Executive Council on 18 October. It is the result of a study by
a task force on emigration which was established in May.
2. The memorandum gives a concise and readable account of the Hong Kong Government's present state of knowledge on emigration matters,
and an analysis of possible ways of containing the problem. The
overall tone is balanced and realistic.
3.
The memorandum contains no surprises. The contents of an
earlier paper were leaked to the Hong Kong press during the summer; and the main findings of the task force were well covered by the
Governor in his speech to Legco in October.
The Problem
4. The memorandum rightly acknowledges the limitations of the
various sources of statistical data. The position is complicated by
the fact that some emigrants later return to Hong Kong (often
having acquired a new nationality in the interim). But taken together the various sources provide what is likely to be a pretty
accurate picture of the present situation. The key conclusions are:
CONFIDENTIAL