🇭🇰Welcome to Hong Kong l Witness
85.5 هزار بار بازدید -
11 سال پیش
-
Some 50,000 mainland Chinese people
Some 50,000 mainland Chinese people obtain one-way permits to move to Hong Kong each year.
They then have to wait a further seven years before gaining residency and, in the meantime, have no status whatsoever and no access to healthcare, education, or public housing.
They suffer routine discrimination, even from other migrants who have already gained residency, and live in pitiable and squalid conditions - for example, a family of five can often live within a space of 100 square feet.
For some, this raises problems of mental as well as physical illness, and their only help comes from the New Women Arrivals League, which lobbies on their behalf and supports them however they can.
Filmmaker's view
By San San F Young
As a Hong Kong native, I am fiercely proud of my home; its evolution through a colourful history; its cosmopolitan energy; and its status as one the world’s most exciting and successful cities. We are also a thriving financial and commercial centre with a cultured, educated population and we are surrounded by panoramic skylines and idyllic hidden beaches. It is for these reasons that I understand why many Hong Kong locals feel so threatened by what is seen as the "mainland invasion".
Since border controls relaxed after the 1997 British Handover, cross-border travel and migration has risen to high levels. Around 35 million mainland Chinese visited Hong Kong last year, with over 50,000 permanently moving to the small, already crowded city.
Anyone born in Hong Kong is automatically entitled to free schooling and other benefits, which is probably why a significant number of mainland Chinese women come specifically to give birth on Hong Kong soil. As a result native mothers struggle to find space in maternity wards. Non-native women now account for half of all births.
Locals blame the rich mainlanders for turning the city into a shopping mall and forcing up property prices, while the poor are blamed for burdening the system. Complaints also include corrupt cross-border traders, political influence, convenience-marriages, Chinese air-pollution travelling south, pressure on welfare systems, and generally what is seen as a threat to the native Canton culture.
Although we are undeniably and often very happily intertwined, mainland Chinese and Hong Kong Cantonese can consider themselves very different. mainlanders are painted by locals as uncouth and unsubtle, while mainlanders respond by calling people from Hong Kong " The Running Dogs Of The British” - a people who have forgotten their loyalty.
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They then have to wait a further seven years before gaining residency and, in the meantime, have no status whatsoever and no access to healthcare, education, or public housing.
They suffer routine discrimination, even from other migrants who have already gained residency, and live in pitiable and squalid conditions - for example, a family of five can often live within a space of 100 square feet.
For some, this raises problems of mental as well as physical illness, and their only help comes from the New Women Arrivals League, which lobbies on their behalf and supports them however they can.
Filmmaker's view
By San San F Young
As a Hong Kong native, I am fiercely proud of my home; its evolution through a colourful history; its cosmopolitan energy; and its status as one the world’s most exciting and successful cities. We are also a thriving financial and commercial centre with a cultured, educated population and we are surrounded by panoramic skylines and idyllic hidden beaches. It is for these reasons that I understand why many Hong Kong locals feel so threatened by what is seen as the "mainland invasion".
Since border controls relaxed after the 1997 British Handover, cross-border travel and migration has risen to high levels. Around 35 million mainland Chinese visited Hong Kong last year, with over 50,000 permanently moving to the small, already crowded city.
Anyone born in Hong Kong is automatically entitled to free schooling and other benefits, which is probably why a significant number of mainland Chinese women come specifically to give birth on Hong Kong soil. As a result native mothers struggle to find space in maternity wards. Non-native women now account for half of all births.
Locals blame the rich mainlanders for turning the city into a shopping mall and forcing up property prices, while the poor are blamed for burdening the system. Complaints also include corrupt cross-border traders, political influence, convenience-marriages, Chinese air-pollution travelling south, pressure on welfare systems, and generally what is seen as a threat to the native Canton culture.
Although we are undeniably and often very happily intertwined, mainland Chinese and Hong Kong Cantonese can consider themselves very different. mainlanders are painted by locals as uncouth and unsubtle, while mainlanders respond by calling people from Hong Kong " The Running Dogs Of The British” - a people who have forgotten their loyalty.
More from Witness on:
YouTube - http://aje.io/witnessYT
Facebook - Facebook: AJWitness
Twitter - Twitter: AJWitness
Instagram - Instagram: ajwitness
Website - http://aljazeera.com/witness
- Subscribe to our channel: http://aje.io/AJSubscribe
- Follow us on Twitter: Twitter: AJEnglish
- Find us on Facebook: Facebook: aljazeera
- Check our website: https://www.aljazeera.com/
#AlJazeeraEnglish #Witness
11 سال پیش
در تاریخ 1392/12/04 منتشر شده
است.
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