IV. Emigration and Nationality
13. Emigration from Hong Kong reached a record high in 1990, with an estimated outflow of some 62,000 people compared to 42,000 in 1989. The level of emigration is not expected to decline in the immediate future.
14. Many of those leaving are well-educated and professionally qualified people, particularly in the age group of 25-44. This loss of experienced and well-qualified personnel has inevitably put severe pressure on the supply of skilled manpower to fill key positions in Hong Kong.
15. Many of these emigrants are leaving Hong Kong only in order to obtain the insurance of a foreign passport. If they could acquire such an assurance without leaving Hong Kong, many of them would prefer to stay. With these considerations in mind, the Government introduced a nationality scheme to give full British citizenship to 50,000 key people and their dependants without requiring them to leave the territory in order to qualify. The British Nationality (Hong Kong) Act received Royal Assent on 26 July 1990. The British. Nationality (Hong Kong) (Selection Scheme) Order 1990, setting out details of the selection scheme, came into force on 1 December 1990.
16. The scheme will be operated in two tranches. Applications for the 43,250 places under the first tranche will be accepted up to the end of February 1991. A second tranche will be reserved for allocation nearer to 1997 in order to cater for those who will by then have moved into key positions and to give anyone who failed to secure a place in the first round a second chance.
17. The scheme has had a stabilising effect on the community and has helped to restore local confidence. It has also acted as a catalyst, encouraging other countries to implement various insurance schemes specifically for Hong Kong people. The Government continued to encourage the international community to support Hong Kong in whatever ways it could, including the introduction of schemes to give Hong Kong people the right of abode without their having to leave the territory. A number of countries have taken action of this kind. For example, the United States' Immigration Act of 1990 provides for the issue of immigrant visas to Hong Kong people, while allowing recipients to defer their settlement in the United States for a number of years.
18. There are indications that former Hong Kong residents who have acquired the right of abode overseas are returning to Hong Kong in increasing numbers. This trend is likely to accelerate given the slowdown of economic growth of many of the destination countries. Thus although the level of departures is expected to remain high in the coming year, these recent developments provide some grounds for cautious optimism.
V. Refugees and Illegal Immigrants from Vietnam
19. There is a continuing influx of Vietnamese into Hong Kong. Although almost all of those arriving still hope to settle in the United States, most of them are not refugees in the accepted international definition of the term, nor have they crossed the open seas in small boats to get to Hong Kong. This is largely because it has become easier and simpler in recent months to travel by road or rail through Vietnam and China and enter Hong Kong by boat across the Pearl River estuary. The cornerstone of our policy in dealing with this problem continues to be full implementation of the Comprehensive Plan of Action which was agreed internationally in the Geneva Conference of June 1989. The Plan provided for the maintenance of first asylum, the screening of the new arrivals to determine their status, the resettlement of those found to be refugees and the repatriation of all those found not to be refugees to their homes in Vietnam.
20. In 1990, following efforts made in 1989 to encourage departures and to discourage new arrivals, there was a sharp drop in arrivals and a steady flow of departures through the resettlement and repatriation programmes. Even so there was a net reduction of only 3,688 in the Vietnamese population during the year. By the end of 1990 Hong Kong was still burdened with looking after the 52,036 Vietnamese who remained. It is imperative that effective and durable solutions should be worked out for these people so that they need not languish indefinitely in camps in the territory.
6