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Written by: Cheng Xue
2021-06-17 20:00
Last update date: 2021-06-17 20:00
Holding an ID card with the words "permanent resident" printed on it, Will never calls himself a "Hong Kong citizen."
At the same time, he does not consider himself a "Hong Kong drifter."
"I don't like to use a group identity to label myself. When a group of people gather together, there will always be stupid people." He joked.
Cherry and Will have the same idea, "I think "Hong Kong Piao" is a circle, and I don't want to enter this circle." She said.
Objectively speaking, "Hong Kong drifters" mainly refer to mainlanders who come to Hong Kong to work or study through various "Talent Admission Schemes".
In terms of its definition, Cherry and Will are both standard "Hong Kong drifters", but they do not agree with this identity.
This kind of understanding seems to be contradictory, but in fact it is because the "Hong Kong Drift" embodies the epitome of the conflict in Hong Kong. This identity itself is full of tears.
This is the fourth one in the "Drifting in Hong Kong" series
To undertake the above:
Hong Kong drift.
One | Hong Kong, where you can leave, Hong Kong where you can’t leave
Professor Zhou Yongxin of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration of the University of Hong Kong believes that "Hong Kong drifters" are not "immigrants" but "floating populations" in the sociological sense. "They have high academic qualifications, abilities or professional skills. Unlike the "new immigrants" who have settled down in Hong Kong, they are more mobile and may go wherever they go."
Zhou Yongxin's views are also reflected in the figures.
According to statistics from the Immigration Department, a total of 57,126 applications for the "Admission of Mainland Talents Scheme" were approved between 2003 and 2012, of which only 7,033 persons who came to Hong Kong under the scheme obtained the right of abode between 2010 and 2019.
Based on this estimate, only 12% of the talents coming to Hong Kong under the "Introduction of Mainland Talents Program" have lived in Hong Kong for seven years and eventually become permanent residents of Hong Kong.
With an annual quota of 1,000 people (increased to 2,000 in 2020), few people come to Hong Kong to settle under the "Quality Talent Admission Scheme" based on the points-based assessment system. The authorities approve only a few hundred applications each year.
The newly launched "Technology Talent Admission Scheme" was implemented in May 2018. As of the end of September 2019, the authorities had received only 291 quota applications and only 86 work visas were granted.
Zhou Yongxin, professor emeritus of the Department of Social Work and Social Administration of the University of Hong Kong, believes that "Hong Kong drifters" are not "immigrants" but "floating populations" in a sociological sense.
(Photo by Zheng Zifeng)
As for non-local students, statistics show that the number of mainland students arriving in Hong Kong has increased in recent years, but more and more mainland students choose to leave Hong Kong after graduation.
In 2019, the Immigration Department issued 30,707 visas to students from the Mainland to study in Hong Kong, an increase of 65.7% from 18,528 in 2015.
However, during the same period, the number of mainland students staying in Hong Kong under the "Non-local Graduates Staying in Hong Kong/Returning to Hong Kong Employment Arrangement" only slightly increased by 2.3%, from 9,541 to 9,757.
In 2015, Duan Media estimated that the number of "Hong Kong drifters" who actually stayed in Hong Kong reached 79,800, which means that one out of every 100 Hong Kong people is a "Hong Kong drifter".
In addition, Duan Media’s "Hong Kong Drift Questionnaire Survey" showed that 80% of the respondents were young people aged 18 to 30, and young people aged 18 to 25 accounted for nearly half of the total.
More than half of the surveyed "Hong Kong Drifters" have a graduate degree, nearly 35% have a bachelor degree, and 7.7% have a doctoral degree or above.
More than 30% of the "Hong Kong drifters" surveyed are students at school. Among the remaining "Hong Kong drifters", 23.8% are engaged in finance, real estate, and insurance industries, with the largest number of people; followed by 18% in culture, education, and media industries, engaged in scientific research and technology Only 7% of such industries.
Roughly outline the basic features of "Hong Kong Drifting": young people, highly educated, highly mobile, and mainly engaged in the "Gemdale Insurance" industry.
However, this is not what Hong Kong mainstream public opinion has about "Hong Kong drifting."
After 2003, the Hong Kong government launched various Mainland talent recruitment programs and expanded the proportion of non-local students recruited by local universities. The "Hong Kong Piao" gradually accumulated a stigma of competing with local students for educational resources and job opportunities.
In 2013, some netizens advertised in newspapers to oppose the large-scale recruitment of mainland students to occupy the resources of local universities, accusing mainland students of staying in Hong Kong for jobs after graduation, demanding reductions in mainland students, and guaranteeing employment opportunities for Hong Kong people.
After the Occupy Central incident in 2014, the conflicts between mainland and Hong Kong intensified, and many disputes broke out between mainland students and local students: controversies such as university accommodation, traditional and simplified Chinese characters, student union fees, and major issues such as the future of Hong Kong’s democratic politics. Similar The incident continues to deepen Hong Kong people's negative impression of "Hong Kong drifting".
In the anti-amendment social movement in 2019, "Hong Kong Drifting" has become even more heart-breaking-the CUHK flag incident, the University of Hong Kong campus conflict, and all kinds of "private" have put "Hong Kong Drift" on the front line of dry-port conflicts, bearing pressure and Criticize.
"It is actually a false proposition to say that "Gang Piao" divides up job opportunities." said Ye Zhaohui, a professor of population health in the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, University of Hong Kong.
He explained with the theory of "dividing the cake", "If there are four people sharing a nine-inch cake, each will share a quarter. Then two people will make the cake 18 inches larger and each will share a sixth. , Is the cake in hand bigger or smaller?"
"It is actually a false proposition to say that "Gang Piao" divides up job opportunities." said Ye Zhaohui, a professor of population health in the Department of Social Work and Social Administration, University of Hong Kong.
(Profile picture/Photo by Lu Yiming)
As Ye Zhaohui said, "Hong Kong Drift" is actually a talent that helps Hong Kong make the cake bigger.
In the absence of natural resources, Hong Kong is committed to developing into a knowledge-based and innovation-led economy. Therefore, competitiveness depends more on the ability to gather human capital to promote economic growth.
Talents help develop innovative concepts, introduce new technologies, and create creative content. These three are precisely the key points.
However, in recent years, human resources have become the bottleneck of Hong Kong’s economic development. Hong Kong’s human resources are facing severe challenges both in terms of quality and quantity.
On the one hand, Hong Kong’s population is seriously aging and the fertility rate is declining, which will directly affect the manpower supply.
Zhou Yongxin analyzed that in the early 1990s, Hong Kong had reached its birth peak, and the number of newborn babies reached 71,646 in 1994.
According to calculations, today, thirty years later, the birth peak should also be ushered in. However, the number of newborn babies in Hong Kong has continued to decline in recent years, and the number of newborn babies in 2020 is only 41,958.
With the decline in the birth population, government statistics in 2020 show that the provisional population of Hong Kong is 7.474 million, a decrease of 0.6% compared to 2019, the first decline since 2002.
According to the "Manpower Projection Report for 2027" published by the Bureau of Labor and Welfare, Hong Kong's manpower supply will increase from 3.64 million in 2017 to a high of 3.67 million to 3.68 million between 2019 and 2022, and then drop to 2027. Of 3.57 million people.
(See chart) In other words, between 2017 and 2022, the local manpower supply is projected to grow by an average of 0.2% annually, and it will decrease by 0.6% from 2022 to 2027.
Between 2017 and 2027, local manpower supply will drop by an average of 0.2% year-on-year.
As mentioned above, labor is one of the sources of economic growth. The shrinking population and the decline of labor after peaking will inevitably affect the overall economic development. Therefore, the need to increase manpower is increasingly urgent.
Zhou Yongxin pointed out that the future growth of Hong Kong's population and labor force will mainly rely on immigrants, so the quality of immigrants will directly affect the social development of Hong Kong.
On the other hand, the "14th Five-Year Plan" clearly supports Hong Kong's construction of an international innovation and technology center and actively promotes the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
The essence of the "technology war" is the "talent war," which also requires Hong Kong to join the increasingly fierce global competition for talent.
Hong Kong’s population is seriously aging and the fertility rate is falling, which will directly affect manpower supply.
(Profile picture)
However, many talent admission programs in Hong Kong have not been effective and the brain drain rate is quite high.
The International Management Development Institute (IMD) in Lausanne, Switzerland, released the "IMD World Talent Ranking 2020" (IMD World Talent Ranking 2020), and pointed out that in terms of attracting and retaining talents, Hong Kong’s cost of living has always been high, and it ranks No. 1 in the world. 60 people are not very attractive to overseas talents.
"We have not even taken the first step of the talent policy." Ye Zhaohui criticized, "Take "Hong Kong Diao" as an example, how many "Hong Kong Diao" stay in Hong Kong? Who are they? How many "Hong Kong Diao" leave Hong Kong? Why did they go? The Hong Kong government does not even have relevant data, let alone understand the "Hong Kong drifters" group." In his view, the starting point of the talent policy should be to understand the composition of talents and their needs, and help them solve problems. They stay in Hong Kong.
"Hong Kong's industries are barren and the real problems are complicated"
Xiao Cheng is the talent that Hong Kong urgently needs to seize.
He studied for a PhD in "Scalable Validation of Industrial Data Streams" (Scalable Validation of Industrial Data Streams) in Sweden. After graduation, he joined the Industry 4.0 industry and engaged in intelligent manufacturing.
In 2019, he came to Hong Kong through the "Technology Talent Admission Scheme" and worked as an assistant professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Last year, he entered a machinery manufacturing company specializing in industrial data analysis.
After more than ten years of wandering overseas, Xiaocheng began to miss his hometown, eager to take root and stabilize in the familiar cultural environment.
After arriving in Hong Kong, he realized that his wandering was not over.
"Even though it is a Chinese community, there are still some cultural barriers. I feel that I am still outside the mainstream society and I have no sense of belonging and stability." He confessed, "Hong Kong is just my transit point. Back to the Mainland. One is because Hong Kong does not have the soil for me to develop a professional field; the other is because life here is not very attractive to me."
As far as career development is concerned, Hong Kong's science and technology industry is still a desert in Xiaocheng's view.
(Profile picture)
As far as career development is concerned, Hong Kong's science and technology industry is still a desert in Xiaocheng's view.
"When I was in Sweden, I had the experience of doing research in universities and working in a company, and Hong Kong also had the same experience. However, whether it is in terms of policy support, industrial development, integration of production, education and research, or company culture and innovative atmosphere, Hong Kong The gap is far away.” From the perspective of policy support, Xiao Cheng found that although the Hong Kong government verbally supports the development of innovation and technology, it does not have very specific development plans and support arrangements.
"For start-up companies, the entrepreneurial environment in Hong Kong is the worst compared to Europe, America, and the Mainland." He found that no one around him can do high-tech entrepreneurship in Hong Kong, and they all need to rely on Shenzhen or other mainland companies. city.
In terms of talent introduction, compared with the preferential policies of other cities in the Mainland, Hong Kong has done little.
"Europe is more tolerant of talents and more diverse ways of cooperation." For example, it is possible to apply for project funds from schools, governments, enterprises and the EU based on needs.
"In other words, there are multiple levels of financial support to help you complete the research direction you want to do."
The development of "integration of industry, university and research" in Europe is relatively mature, and enterprises and universities have formed long-term and stable cooperative relations to transform scientific research results into products.
"Schools in Hong Kong, taking my group as an example, also cooperate with fixed companies. But these companies are often people with scientific research background who start their own companies and continue to engage in scientific research. You will find that this kind of cooperation is scientific research and scientific research. Instead of turning scientific research into products, I didn’t see the latter.”
What confuses Xiaocheng is the corporate culture and innovation atmosphere in Hong Kong. "No one wants to do something new." He said with a sense of helplessness.
When working in Sweden, Xiaocheng's department is the R&D department, and half of his time is doing scientific research.
"When you put forward some new ideas, the company will provide resources and platforms, give time and manpower to help you implement your ideas." With the company's encouragement, employees are willing to put forward their opinions and work hard to achieve them, forming a virtuous circle.
But there is no such environment in Hong Kong.
Xiaocheng observed that from the company's point of view, industrial innovation is not ranked first, so the company will not provide sufficient resources for employees to practice creative ideas.
"The company's senior executives also want to do industrial innovation, but due to high costs and slow returns, the progress is very slow." He analyzed.
On the one hand, employees lack the motivation to innovate. On the other hand, due to the high pressure of life and work, the first thing they must consider is "keep their job," and naturally they have no spare capacity to come up with new ideas.
"At present, our company is still at the very early stage of electronic production line-the strategy is correct. Only by doing this well, can we combine scientific research and produce output." However, Xiaocheng and mainland companies found that the mainland The company's development efficiency is higher and its ambitions are farther.
"They have clearer plans and specific timetables, unlike Hong Kong where they are still in a state of "walking and walking". To me, the way of working in the Mainland is more attractive."
In addition, real problems such as high property prices in Hong Kong, scarce education and medical resources have also made Hong Kong Piao hesitate to settle in Hong Kong.
(Profile picture)
In addition, high property prices in Hong Kong, shortage of education and medical resources and other practical problems have also discouraged Xiao Cheng from settling in Hong Kong.
"Working in Sweden is relatively easy, buying a house is cheap, and public medical and educational resources are sufficient. I gave up the environment and chose Hong Kong, a difficult place, which made me feel that there was a gap." He said.
During the "PolyU Siege" in 2019, the school arranged for Xiao Cheng to live in a youth apartment in Shenzhen.
"I like life in Shenzhen very much. Walking on the street gives me a sense of intimacy and feels that I belong there." This feeling strengthened his determination to return to the mainland.
(Cherry, Will, and Xiaocheng in the text are all pseudonyms.)
The above was published in the 269th issue of "Hong Kong 01" Weekly (June 15, 2021) "Floating in Hong Kong". If you want to read the full text, please
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