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Specialists say the shift is being propelled by a political crackdown in Hong Kong, which got here underneath a sweeping nationwide safety legislation in 2020 after anti-government protests.
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Ken Tung says he lately helped a brand new arrival from Hong Kong discover a basement unit in Metro Vancouver for less than $500 a month lease, because of a reduction by a sympathetic landlord.
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“It’s value,” mentioned Tung, who mentioned he has helped a minimum of 100 younger individuals from Hong Kong settle in Canada over the previous three years.
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However Tung mentioned he’s taking part in a comparatively restricted function resettling Hong Kongers in comparison with Vancouver-based teams, together with church buildings, which have helped hundreds.
“I do know many church buildings and their individuals are serving to Hong Kong newcomers…. Individuals are donating furnishings and decreasing the lease to assist them out,” mentioned Tung.
Tung and others like him are facilitating a shift that reveals up in new Canadian census figures.
The information launched this week reveals the Hong Kong-born inhabitants of Canada is on the rise, with a big majority settling within the Vancouver area, reversing a return-migration development that had seen hundreds of Hong Kongers leaving Canada.
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Specialists say the shift is being propelled by the political crackdown in Hong Kong, which got here underneath a sweeping nationwide safety legislation in 2020 after anti-government protests.
The 2021 census reveals a 6.1 per cent improve in Hong Kong-born individuals in Vancouver’s census metropolitan space previously 5 years, bringing the full inhabitants to greater than 76,000. It had been falling for many years.
The rise of 4,395 accounts for 90 per cent of the Canada-wide improve of Hong Kongers since 2016, when the earlier census was performed.
Many extra are on the best way, utilizing new migration pathways that Canada opened as much as Hong Kongers final 12 months.
Tung mentioned he wasn’t stunned by the census numbers.
He mentioned Hong Kongers arriving in Metro Vancouver lately primarily fell into 4 classes — returnees who already maintain Canadian citizenship, individuals arriving on new work permits, college students and a few asylum seekers.
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He mentioned their motivations have been largely the identical.
“The reply is easy — they will’t see a future in Hong Kong,” Tung mentioned
The nationwide safety legislation has been used to focus on protesters and political opponents of the Hong Kong authorities and the Chinese language Communist Social gathering.
Tung mentioned these leaving Hong Kong did so after watching Hong Kong go from being “open, modernized” to “hardcore communism.”
Hong Kong was Canada’s largest supply of immigrants within the lead-up to the 1997 handover to China, however Hong Kongers’ presence in Canada had been shrinking steadily for years as hundreds moved again to the previous British colony.
The crackdown in Hong Kong was adopted by the institution of latest Canadian migration pathways in response.
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However whereas the census reveals 2,385 current Hong Kong immigrants to the Vancouver census metropolitan space within the previous 5 years, that quantity is outstripped by the precise improve within the Hong Kong-born inhabitants, suggesting greater than 45 per cent of the newcomers already held Canadian citizenship or another standing.
One such newcomer, a monetary analyst who declined to be named for security causes, mentioned he was born in Hong Kong however immigrated to Canada together with his mother and father and completed his research right here.
His mother and father introduced the household to Canada after the 1989 Tiananmen Sq. crackdown in Beijing, which triggered an exodus from Hong Kong and Taiwan.
However within the mid-2000s, he went again to Hong Kong for work. It wasn’t till final 12 months he determined to reverse path once more, returning to Vancouver together with his spouse and son.
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“I used to have the liberty to talk my thoughts, have decisions in studying totally different information media and talk about in public with none repercussion. That is actually helpful to me … And due to this fact when it’s gone, Hong Kong is now not Hong Kong,” he mentioned.
He mentioned he was making residing in Hong Kong and having fun with the low-tax atmosphere there, however determined there’s “one thing extra essential than the cash.”
“I’ve a child and it’s not just for myself but additionally for his future. I can’t stand residing in that atmosphere,” he mentioned.
“It’s a really robust journey to undergo. Seeing younger individuals getting oppressed and intellectuals being jailed and detained. It’s undoubtedly a saddening journey.”
Kennedy Chi-Pan Wong is a PhD candidate in sociology on the College of Southern California who has studied Hong Kong migration patterns.
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Wong mentioned his analysis confirmed many current migrants have been Hong Kong political prisoners’ relations, pals or colleagues.
The U.S.-based Hong Kong Democracy Council says there are 1,163 political prisoners in Hong Kong as of September.
“That really creates a big pushing power (as we name it) in migration research, that actually push individuals overseas,” mentioned Wong.
Along with the political unrest, different elements have additionally come into play, comparable to Hong Kong and mainland China’s strict pandemic guidelines, mentioned Wong.
He mentioned the COVID-19 guidelines that had inhibited mobility had created concern about doing enterprise in Hong Kong, and town’s future prosperity.
The inflow appears to be like set to speed up, with greater than 20,000 permits for research, everlasting residency and work granted to Hong Kongers final 12 months after Canada launched a brand new open work allow pathway final 12 months for Hong Kong residents who’re current graduates of post-secondary establishments.
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A few of these pathways solely got here into impact after the Could 2021 census.
Wong agreed that the height of newcomers from Hong Kong hasn’t arrived in Canada but.
In the meantime, the monetary analyst who returned to Vancouver mentioned he hoped the brand new arrivals would assist seize a few of Hong Kong’s earlier spirit.
We “will join with them and ensure the tradition and values are preserved,” he mentioned.
This story was produced with the monetary help of the Meta and Canadian Press Information Fellowship.
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