Mement in and out of Hong_Kong

4. The HKG are developing a new computer system to identify on

a monthly basis beneficiaries who either leave or return to Hong

Kong.

This will enable us to deduce whether there is a net loss

of beneficiaries over time and is an improvement over previous proposals to monitor the net movement of British citizens as a

whole including expatriates. We have asked if information could

be supplied by age and sex (to indicate whether

whether heads of

households or their children are leaving) and destination although it is not yet clear whether such a breakdown can be provided.

Monitoring the movement of beneficiaries into the United Kingdom

5.

If we are to use UK sources to obtain some idea of the

numbers coming here for a lengthy time we will need to rely

mainly on the IPS which can provide information about inward migrants, ie persons who enter for a year or more having resided abroad for a year or more. To improve the accuracy we need to

ask an extra question of a certain group of people.

Yes. They might not want 6.

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To ask "Are you a beneficiary under the Hong Kong Act?" is

too sensitive and may well lead to poor survey response, poor results and affect the survey more generally. It would be less sensitive to ask the indirect question "Did you acquire full British citizenship prior to March 1991?" (rather than after

February 1991) and this is the route that I would recommend

despite the fact that negative responses will include persons

obtaining British citizenship under the 1981 Nationality Act. Carefully targeting a particular group of persons should minimise these numbers although it too is not straightforward.

7. Last country of residence and country of birth (in the case

of migrants) are ascertained by the survey although neither one, or both in combination, are ideal filters since a minority, but

an unknown number, of beneficiaries will have lived or will have

been born outside of Hong Kong. The best option in terms of practicality and simplicity

simplicity which I would recommend is to

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