UK offers clear route to British citizenship for 3mil+ Hong Kong citizens

[Cam77]

The UK government has effectively just offered virtual no strings right to remain/full British citizenship to 3 million HK citizens + spouses/dependent children (as far as I understand it).

Five years no strings leave to remain for those eligible for BNO passport+any dependents. I think the legislation hasn't been passed, but just a matter of time.

Given the historical closeness between HK and the UK and the current situation in HK, I would not be a bit surprised if, say, half a million Hong Kongers take up the offer of moving to the UK in the next year or two.

Have to admit I didn't expect that from the Tories. Just curious whether people support this move by the British government?

YABU = No
YANBU = Yes

I think I heard them say it was open only to those born before 2007.

Yes, but they can bring their families so younger people could come as well.
They'd be a huge asset to the UK if they all came but may prefer to go somewhere else.

My DH's family are ex HKers, lived in UK for 30+ years. They have a lot of friends and family still over in HK, all of which are native Cantonese, so not mainlanders.

From what I've heard, none of them are interested in coming over here. Infact all I've heard is that they think the protestors are trouble makers and they'd be glad if they left and became someone else's problem.

Actually, there isn't much pro-british sentiment among them. They say the British got their ancestors hooked on opium and exploited them. Hong Kong is their home, family and heritage, they won't leave unless something huge happens.

I dont have any opinion on this, just adding my anecdotal "evidence".

Was that the language? "A clear route to British citizenship"?

Not "offered British citizenship"?

Mm. I'd look at the small print before getting too excited.

Typically when there's a citizenship issue like this, the Home Office sets up what it describes as an obstacle race – so that the government of the day gets to announce the UK is honourably offering citizenship to people from X, while in practice very few people get in.

"Of course you can have citizenship. As long as you were born on a Tuesday, can produce a 100% attendance certificate from your kindergarten 25 years ago, and get signatures from 8 people born in the UK who have known you well for 10+ years."

The Home Office has behaved like this for decades. It would be unusual if it chose not to on this occasion. And frankly that language sounds like obstacle course.

But I'll wait and see.

I am / was a remainer and have been horrified by much this government is doing, but I agree with them on this. It’s the right thing to do in my opinion.

@PersonaNonGarter

I am a Tory and I completely support this. It is so exciting that the UK govt is able to do something so bold and so morally right.

This is the reality and the best part of Brexit. We can honour our duties to the ex-Commonwealth who we owe so much.

Who'd of thought it, the Tories doing something morally right!

(I know the OP says "no strings", but still, check the small print.)

Totally support this, it's the only hope many of them have. Genuine asylum seekers, activists and their families will have an awful time under full Chinese rule.

Fully agree with this and good to see the UK standing up to the Chinese government. What they are doing is horrifying, if not unexpected.

I am a Tory and I completely support this. It is so exciting that the UK govt is able to do something so bold and so morally right.

This is the reality and the best part of Brexit. We can honour our duties to the ex-Commonwealth who we owe so much.

There is absolutely nothing at all that stopped them doing this in 1997 which is when they should have done it. Morally speaking. I wouldn't be surprised if they buggered off from HK to get away quickly, and then pushed off to Canada or Australia.

Who'd of thought it, the Tories doing something morally right! shock

The Windrush victims ?

@SerendipityJane

Who'd of thought it, the Tories doing something morally right! shock

The Windrush victims ?

Eventually......

Hong Kong is their home, family and heritage, they won't leave unless something huge happens

Then it will be too late.

My parents were immigrants who escaped their country in 1938. A lot of their friends didn’t leave.

@Desiringonlychild
Possibly, but I think the government has been rapidly developing Shanghai and Shenzhen for this purpose. If they really lose local talent from HK, they can replace it easily enough from other first and second tier cities in China. The mainland youth of today, unlike arguably 30 years ago, would easily be up to the task.

Of course it’s the right thing to do.

The Windrush victims ?

Well exactly. The hostile environment is a textbook case of an intentional Home Office obstacle race. Children who arrived as part of the Windrush generation have "a clear route to citizenship" too – as long as they produce impossible documentation that most of us don't have.

Anyway. Let's see what the actual deal is for Hong Kongers.

That's very possible, Cam.

Hong Kong and Shanghai used to be spoken of in one breath (hence the bank HSBC), and Shanghai is booming again.

@happysunr1se

Actually, there isn't much pro-british sentiment among them. They say the British got their ancestors hooked on opium and exploited them. Hong Kong is their home, family and heritage, they won't leave unless something huge happens.I dont have any opinion on this, just adding my anecdotal "evidence".

Well, actually, it’s interesting to hear the other side. According to a HK university poll I saw a couple of months back, support for full independence was in the mid-teens. I think that’s lower than the support for London inpendence from the UK! Let alone Scottish or Catalonian independence figures. I think it’s fair to say the coverage in the west is fairly “lopsided”. A few hundred or a few thousand protestors in HK is always portrayed as representative of a city wide 8 million movement. Elsewhere, they’d be painted as a small rabble of extremists.

The generally mild HK police were frequently portrayed as SS officers, while the police who drenched the streets of Catalonia in blood and threw elderly down stairs a few years years back were “engaged in scuffles” etc.

Of course there is vast malcontent among the under 25s in HK (not just at the mainland - housing, local corruption etc - we don’t here a lot about this in the West either...) But not everyone in HK is under 25.

[quote Cam77]@Desiringonlychild
Possibly, but I think the government has been rapidly developing Shanghai and Shenzhen for this purpose. If they really lose local talent from HK, they can replace it easily enough from other first and second tier cities in China. The mainland youth of today, unlike arguably 30 years ago, would easily be up to the task.[/quote]
I've travelled a lot in a lot of countries. And one of the things that struck me in China was a real difference between the people we met day-to-day and anyone given a primo government job. The people we met day-to-day were really ingenuous. Any problem we had, with no shared language, was solved easily. There were so many times when we needed something form them or they needed something from us and they found a way. Charades, finding a cousin who spoke a little English, showing us things, teaching us a few phrases for the next place, it was really interesting.

As soon as you enter a post office, government office, airport, anywhere official, people are incapable of thinking outside the box. They are either selected or trained to do no thinking. Everything has to be floated up to a supervisor, lots of 'computer says no' type of answers,

My impression has been that the reason HK was so successful was that all those brilliant people were promoted and valued. As long as China learns that lesson, they have millions of people who could replace the talent in HK. I wonder if they will learn that though. Because obedience may be more important than financial centres.

No. We are overcrowded !

@Cam77 my HK friends are generally ambivalent.thats one thing Singaporeans and HKers have in common- there is a stereotype that they are more interested in the economy than in politics but that is generally true.

However, there is a big difference between a 50 year old HKer and a 25 year old HKer. The 50 year old HKer probably has an established career and is probably an owner of a small and expensive flat. The 25 year old sees the daily intrusion of the CCP in education and sees that in the future a lot of the best jobs might be occupied by mainland Chinese youth..a lot of mainland Chinese buy apartments in HK for their children in cash. The experience is so different and therefore I can understand why the young people are protesting, civil liberties aside.

This looks similar to the provisions set up for people entitled to an Ancestry Visa (Commonwealth citizens with a British-born grandparent): you get right of abode for a period of time - without the usual gatekeeping like minimum salary, educational qualifications, etc. - and then a chance to apply for citizenship dependent on good behaviour and financial self-sufficiency. It doesn't seem clear if BNO citizens will have access to public funds or the NHS.

People who do want to leave HK may appreciate the relatively guaranteed path, especially since the pandemic will likely make it harder to get work or student visas elsewhere and many attractive countries are still closed to new arrivals. Might see people coming to the UK as a kind of safe haven for a bit and then moving on. They won't have a clear path to the EU though (unless they qualify for blue cards) since they won't have British citizenship before the end of the transition period.

But it seems like the people most likely to be involved in dissent, protest, and demonstrations and therefore most in danger from the new security act would be exactly the people who fall through the cracks - 18-23s and those slightly younger whose parents don't want to leave.

www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-53246899

@Feellikedancingyeah

No. We are overcrowded !

LOL.

Population density UK: 274/km square. Population density HK: 6659/km square.

Funny how we can offer this to 3m HK residents, no questions asked and everyone seems to think it’s wonderful, but we can’t do the same for Syrian refugees who have literally nothing and live in fear of their lives, without asking them to jump through hoops to prove just how terrible their lives are.

The UK literally does not have the capacity to house any more people

The U.K. as a whole literally does.

@MrsTerryPratchett
I have spent time in China and agree with you to a point. However, I’d say that China is changing rapidly and excelling in new areas. Off the top of my head example, 20 years ago no one would have associated China with tech, but now I think half the mobiles sold in the world are a Chinese brand. The danger will be to what extent Xi can contain his strong authoritarian tendencies. He is a worry for sure.

Just what we need with a recession and mass unemployment.

@MrsTerryPratchett
but large parts of Hong Kong looks like someone went crazy on Sim City - up up up! I don’t think there’s anywhere else on Earth quite like it? Even the big mainland cities look nice and spread out by comparison!