TNAG-1840-FCO40-2615-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 32

to a significantly increased international effort. Accordingly, the Government have decided to proceed with the new resettlement plans. The refugees will be resettled in ways which minimise the pressure on housing resources in certain urban areas of the country. A major international effort is now required to resettle the 15,000 boat

people in Hong Kong who have refugee status. But it is crucial to

the success of this that there should be no further significant influx of boat people.

XI:

51.

Emigration

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.

52. In late 1987 and early 1988, there were indications that

emigration was rising and that a significant proportion of those leaving were skilled and professional people. This was naturally a

cause for concern and 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 estimated 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 those emigrating in

1988, the task force estimated that about 11,000 held professional,

administrative and managerial jobs. It was also estimated that

several thousand former Hong Kong residents return to Hong Kong

every year, often having acquired foreign nationality. The net loss of qualified people is therefore somewhat less than the numbers of those emigrating.

53. 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, though of course the traditional

reasons remain valid. It is also relevant that there are now

greater opportunities for Hong Kong people to emigrate, particularly in the main destination countries: for example, the number of people emigrating to Canada has risen from 7,900 in 1984 to 24,600 in 1988.