TNAG-1845-FCO40-2620-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 29

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MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE

22 March 1989]

[Continued

Vietnamese authorities concluded a Memorandum of Understanding on the principles and procedures for voluntary repatriation to Vietnam. The UNHCR is taking charge of practical arrangements for the return of those who have expressed a wish to return to Vietnam. The first group of about 80 is due to go back on 2 March. The UNHCR will provide modest financial assistance to help those repatriated to resume their lives in Vietnam. HMG have contributed US$125,000 and the Hong Kong Government have contributed HK$1m towards this programme.

50. In December 1988, the Government announced that they were prepared in principle to accept for resettlement an additional 1,000 Vietnamese refugees from Hong Kong over the next 2-3 years, provided that other Governments were prepared to contribute commensurately. These 1,000 refugees would include relatives of Vietnamese already here and others with the potential quickly to become self-sufficient in the United Kingdom, together with some who had been in the refugee centres for a long time and had not yet been accepted elsewhere. The Government have conducted an intensive diplomatic campaign to urge other resettlement countries to respond to this initiative. The response to our call has been very good and amounts to a significantly increased international effort. Accordingly, the Govern- ment 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. EMIGRATION

51. 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.

54. Despite the outflow, the overall stock of skilled and professional people in the community continues to grow, mainly because of the increasing numbers of newly qualified people who enter the job market from the universities and other tertiary institutions. The overall impact of emigration on the economy is not yet serious, although shortages of skilled personnel are being experienced by some companies in certain sectors. The Hong Kong Government are however concerned about the impact on the economy if the present net outflow were to continue for some years. They are therefore planning a series of measures designed to contain the effects of emigration, such as more emphasis on training in the areas where there are shortages of skilled people. They are also seeking to make Hong Kong a more attractive place for people to live and work, by steadily improving the standard and quality of life in the territory. Residents of Hong Kong have always been free to come and go as they wish. There is certainly no question of stopping people leaving Hong Kong and the Joint Declaration provides for the maintenance of this freedom of movement after 1997.

XII:

NATIOnality

55. There are currently over 3.28 million Hong Kong residents who are British Dependent Territory Citizens (BDTCs) by virtue of a connection with Hong Kong. Since Hong Kong will cease to be a British Dependent Territory after 30 June 1997, it will no longer be appropriate for people who are BDTCs by virtue of a connection with Hong Kong to be described as such after that date. The British Memorandum associated with the Joint Declaration provides for such people to acquire a new status, which will carry benefits similar to those enjoyed by BDTCs, such as the entitlement to use a British passport and to receive British consular protection in third countries. The new status will not, however, be transmissible to later generations. The British Nationality (Hong Kong) Order 1986, which was fully debated in Parliament, created the new status of British National (Overseas) (BN(O)).