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Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents

#261

Post by FabHK »

tomp wrote: post #248
koheripbal wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No - because these are RICH Asian migrants, not POOR North African and Syrian migrants. It's a combination of differential racism and elitism.

> "differential racism" So basically the existing word "racism" didn't fit (because racist Brits would hate Asian HKers just as much as brown Syrians and black Africans) so you invented a new completely concept but conveniently attached the word "racism" to it for maximal emotional impact? Despicable.

Eh? Racism judges people by their race, and judges different races differently. The word fits just fine. Adding "differential" was unnecessary, but maybe added to highlight the uneven extent of the negative judgement.

Having said that, the GP does not provide any evidence that racism was the motivating factor here.

Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents

#262

Post by [deleted] »

CWuestefeld wrote: post #233
TimTheTinker wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m really curious: what is your experience that you’re referring to?

My wife grew up in the PRC. Before Communism they were a very prominent family (her great uncle was a literary pioneer; his brother, her grandpa, a judge prominent enough that he was mentioned in the movie Lust Caution ; and their brother a successful MD), and as a result were "black" under the Communist regime. With the exception of my wife's grandmother, every member of her extended family spent time in either pris…

[deleted]

Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents

#263

Post by FabHK »

nsl73 wrote: post #134
arethuza wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About a quarter of the world has been a British colony at some point!

Their two systems one county deal with China is being taken away, which effects not only Hong Kong people, but British honor.

In particular, it contravenes the treaty (the Sino-British Joint Declaration).

Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents

#264

Post by throw51319 »

Apfel wrote: post #210
throw51319 wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Life in China is fine right now. They are living about 50x better off than their parents. They are educated. The CCP is super clever and imbued a sort of nationalistic pride from birth. Instead of the US's more complicated dualistic individualism/patriotism combo, the Chinese people actually get some sort of pride for being a cog in the CCP machine. It's a completely different paradigm and obviously super dangerous b…

It should be pointed out that life in Hong Kong is definitely not markedly better for young people than it was for their parents.

Yup, and exactly part of the reason they are protesting. Goes to show how much "relative" economic success is important to peoples' satisfaction of government.

Even in the US, that is the #1 issue in every Pres election. How's the economy? Aka do people with 401k's think that they are better off, and thus do they think they are doing better against their peers (their competition for finding a mate/maintaining their mate)

Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents

#265

Post by akamaka »

freddie_mercury wrote: post #65
eggsnbacon1 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hong Kong was a British colony for generations and is still strongly influenced by western culture. Probably why China has such an obsession with crushing it. Adopting HK citizens is a far easier sell than Syrians. They already speak English, are highly educated, wealthy, westernized, and have special status in UK law. Letting a ton of refugees in is a large burden on the host country. They don't share British cultur…

> Adopting HK citizens is a far easier sell than Syrians. They already speak English No they don't. According to the Hong Kong government's 2011 census only 41% of residents spoke English moderately well (not even fluently, just moderately well). 20% reported not being able to speak any English whatsoever; not even a few sentences. Only 57% of residents of Hong Kong considered themselves "bilingual". Only 30% of stud…

41% is a lot! For comparison, only 34% of foreign-born Hispanics in the US speak English proficiently.

Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents

#266

Post by throw51319 »

vertex-four wrote: post #125
throw51319 wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Laughable. The ways things are going currently, if you don't agree with the left on things you can lose your job. You can't voice an opinion that is different or you get labeled a racist. You can see this every day in plain sight.

There's a reason some portion of the left is pretty intolerant of the current situation - it literally results in violence to people who don't even share their opinions in the first place.

The "current situation" is not as clear-cut as many would make it out to be. Watching an emotional video is not the smoking gun that shows one side to be completely right, but that's what's happening now.

I would think a good write up/analysis using high quality statistics would be the way to decide what is happening in the "current situation".

But a graphic and emotional video is going to pull the strings much harder.

Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents

#267

Post by fatjokes »

tomp wrote: post #257
fatjokes wrote: post #145

I'm super curious to see how this will turn out for the UK. A lot of the comments here mention HK's relative high education, English proficiency and wealth. If those are true: the upside will be easier settlement into the UK, maybe increased entrepreneurship. The downsides are: driving up local housing prices, increased competition for jobs. If those are false, the UK may experience an influx of lower-wage labor and…

> The downsides are: driving up local housing prices, increased competition for jobs. No, no. Increasing housing prices are a long-standing policy in the UK (and many other Western countries, as evidenced by low credit rates and extra bonuses for mortgages) and a gift to many voters (whose personal wealth is tied to their homes), and would be a welcome boost in times of COVID. If the UK was afraid of brain drain of L…

Nope, not buying those. Perhaps I should have defined "downside" with "for whom".

> Increasing housing prices are a long-standing policy in the UK (and many other Western countries, as evidenced by low credit rates and extra bonuses for mortgages) and a gift to many voters (whose personal wealth is tied to their homes), and would be a welcome boost in times of COVID.

Would you apply that same argument to say, Vancouver? Would you say their increased housing prices is a welcome boost? The locals certainly don't think so.

> If the UK was afraid of brain drain of London's financial elite (UK's big "export" is finance) because of Brexit just a year ago, vacuuming up HK's financial elite would be a welcome counterweight.

My understanding is that the "brain drain" is because the finance jobs would move to somewhere in the EU (and the expertise would simply move with them). It's not like they're leaving because the UK doesn't pay well in that sector (e.g., Canada vs. the US in the tech, medical sectors).

Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents

#268

Post by skissane »

free_rms wrote: post #251
skissane wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don’t see how handing HK over to ROC would have been “pro-colonialist”.

Presuming to control HKs fate after taking it in the freaking opium wars is. Giving HK back to China is an act of decolonization. Putting them under Taiwan and loading up the island with US weapons would not be.

Is Taiwan’s democracy “pro-colonialism” too?

PRC is itself a colonialist power. See all the Uighurs in concentration camps.

Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents

#269

Post by puapuapuq »

99_00 wrote: post #198

I live in Vancouver. The pattern for many Hong Kong immigrants is to have the mother and children live in Canada while the father works in HK.The family doesn't declare the foreign income in Canada. So they enjoy the benefits of a low tax HK income. And they get all the nice things that go with living in high tax Canada while not contributing to it -free healthcare, subsided University, safe communities, clean enviro…

It depends on your job. Software Engineer wage is way lower in Hong Kong than Canada. Low income tax in Hong Kong does not make it attractive at all.

Re: Hong Kong: UK makes citizenship offer to residents

#270

Post by FabHK »

TimTheTinker wrote: post #230
muro wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I grew up in a communist country. Good riddance to them, only a shame that so few were prosecuted for ruining the lives of so many.

Who in their right mind downvotes this ^? If you do downvote, I'd really like to know why. Communism is manifestly a negative influence on mankind's well-being... don't know how anyone could rationally think otherwise (unless you grew up in a communist country and believe the propaganda).

In particular as GP didn't even make a political statement about theoretical political systems whose veracity could be discussed on some abstract grounds, but made a personal statement about themselves and their direct experience.
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