SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
DSR 11C (Revised 5/87)
have taken pains to establish the facts and to draw up
plans to deal with the problem.
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In Confidence
50.
In May 1988 the Hong Kong Government established a
task force to obtain the clearest possible picture of
current emigration trends. After careful study of the
available data, it assessed that between 1981 and 1986
emigration averaged about 20,000 per year. In 1987 the
level of emigration was about 30,000 and in 1988 it was
about 45,000. Of these, the task force estimated that
about 10,000 belonged to the skilled or professional
class. It was also estimated that several thousand
former Hong Kong residents return to Hong Kong every
year, often after having acquired foreign nationality.
The net loss of qualified people is therefore somewhat
less than might at first appear.
51. There are likely to be a number of different reasons
for these trends. Uncertainty about the future is
undoubtedly one factor in people's decisions to emigrate.
But population mobility has long been a feature of Hong
Kong: many of the territory's residents migrated from
China and elsewhere and there is a well established
tradition of going overseas for education, training,
career development and permanent settlement.
relevant that there are now greater opportunities for
Hong Kong people to emigrate, particularly in the main
destination countries (the United States, Canada and
Australia, where some 97% of the total have gone in
recent years).
It is also