professional,
technical,
administrative
and managerial
category. This is disproportionately high since this
category represents only 5.5% of the population of Hong
Kong as a whole. In recent years over 90% of all emigrants
have gone to Australia, Canada, or the United States of
America."
At the top of page 3, the draft could be taken to imply that all
key people will be able to qualify for citizenship. I would
suggest a slight redraft of lines 3-7, as follows:
"to selected people in Hong Kong who play key roles in the
Territory's continuing administration and prosperity. This
will given an assurance for the future without the
recipients needing to leave Hong Kong. The UK Government believes that this will encourage key people to stay in the
Territory, to the benefit of Hong Kong as a whole".
The date in line 2 of the next paragraph should be 26 July, the
day on which the legislation received Royal Assent. It has not
yet been brought into force, though we expect the necessary Order to be made later this year.
Line 5 of the same paragraph should refer to "minor children".
We suggest that the second sentence of this paragraph should
read:
"The principal
beneficiaries will also, provided they
remain in Hong Kong, be able to pass British citizenship to a future spouse married before these special arrangements came to an end in 1997; and under the normal operation of British Nationality law, will be able to pass citizenship
to future children. There will be no special arrangements to benefit grandchildren or other members of the family."
Page 4, paragraph 2: once Parliament has approved the selection scheme, it is intended that the application process in Hong Kong will be launched as quickly as possible. Applications will be