ROZAAU (2)
CONFIDENTIAL
Background
1. The Hong Kong Government do not ask people who are leaving Hong Kong to state their destination and proposed length of stay when they pass through immigration control points. There are therefore no comprehensive statistics of the number of people emigrating. The fact that many who left have since returned, either on passports related to newly acquired nationality or on the strength of their old Hong Kong documents, makes it impossible to compile emigration statistics accurately. But it is estimated that the number of emigration visas issued in 1987 by recipient countries was about 37,000, compared with about 22,000 in 1986. One major reason for this was increased opportunities for immigration into some leading recipient countries, particularly Canada and
Australia.
2. The topic of emigration is now quite widely discussed in Hong Kong. Particular concerns have been expressed in relation to the banking sector, but the problem applies also in other middle-class and professional areas. Mr Martin Lee ascribes the increasing number of emigrants to uncertainty about the future, and in particular to the pace of development of representative government.
CONFIDENTIAL
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