TNAG-1848-FCO40-2623-House-of-Commons-Select-Committee-on-Foreign-Affairs-enquiry-1989 — Page 44

the

account of the extent of the person's investment in the United Kingdom,

extent to which he needs to travel on business and all other relevant

factors.

Students

14. It has been suggested that time spent in this

this country as a student

should count towards settlement and citizenship. Admission as a student does

not provide an avenue to settlement since, by definition, students are coming

here for a temporary purpose. However, if a person has nevertheless achieved

settled status and applies for citizenship, it is already the case that

periods of time spent here as a student can be counted towards meeting the

residence requirements for citizenship (see paragraphs 18-21 below). To

allow students from Hong Kong to count towards settlement time spent here

while studying would not only raise questions of fairness (paragraph 5 above)

but would also have unacceptable implications for the Government's policy of

keeping primary immigration to a minimum.

The non-ethnic Chinese community

15.

should be

The

There are an estimated 11%1⁄2 thousand non-ethnic Chinese British Dependent

Teritories citizens in Hong Kong. OMELCO has suggested that these people

granted British citizenship rather than British Overseas

citizenship if from July 1997 they would otherwise be stateless.

Government considered the arguments put forward in support of this request

but concluded that the granting of British citizenship was not justified in

the present circumstances. In response to a Parliamentary Question from

Mr Colin Moynihan, the Home Secretary stated on 23 April 1986 (0.R. Written

Answers cols 146-148) that if any British national were in the future to come

under pressure to leave Hong Kong, the Government of the day would be

expected to consider sympathetically the case for admission to the UK. This

assurance was repeated by Lord Glenarthur on 16 May 1986 in the context of a

debate on citizenship for Hong Kong ethnic minorities, and again on 23 March

1989 during the debate on the policy on the issue of British passports to

Hong Kong citizens.

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