TNAG-2477-FCO40-3607-The-Hong-Kong-Association-1992 — Page 81

d

CONFIDENTIAL

worker category being able to qualify. Hearsay evidence, however, is that recession in target countries has

discouraged emigration generally. (But Mr Heap has told us

perhaps in reaction to recession elsewhere

that

-

the

general level of confidence in Hong Kong is higher than for some years.

3. Other posts which have been consulted confirm this

GRA

trend. The Australians also report a fall in the number of applications 13% in 1990/91 over the previous FY year. The Americans said that emigration to the US is largely family-related. Except for a surge in 1989/90, the number of applications for immigration has been quite stable over the past few years. With large backlogs of applications waiting to be processed, both the Americans and Australians expect the level of emigration from Hong Kong to remain constant for the next few years.

Air Service Agreements

UKRep JLG have, on 27 February, proposed to their Chinese counterparts a resolution of the deadlock on ASAS.

THIS IS A COPY THE ORIGINAL HAS BEEN

CLOSED UNDER

FOI EXEMPTION NO.

27.(!)....

NESACL/4

CONFIDENTIAL