Asylum seekers’ Occupy movement in Hong Kong

Abstract

This piece offers preliminary reflections on the theoretical justification of a highly organised protest staged against the non-profit organisation contracted by the Hong Kong Government to provide asylum seekers with humanitarian assistance. In so doing, it reveals the central role played by asylum seekers reacting to border policies and practices that cause their immiseration.

Refugees and civic stratification: The “Asian rejection” hypothesis and its implications for protection claimants in Hong Kong

“…The latest wave of refugee surge started in the 2000s – this time the refugees or asylum seekers come mainly from war-torn countries in Africa, such as Somalia, and from South Asian countries, such as Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka (Shum, 2014). Unlike previous inflows, the recent arrivals are racially and ethnically diverse and they came to Hong Kong both by air and by boat (Shum, 2014; Vecchio and Beatson, 2014). Excluding irregular migrants, the magnitude of the flow is much more moderate, numbering in the thousands or tens of thousands.…”

“…Refugee groups alleged that the system of subcontracting food rationing to specific food stores invited corruption and abuse. The amount and quality of food rations had been reduced despite an increased budget allocated to the ISS-HK by the Hong Kong government; refugees said that they often received only sub-standard or rotten food (Vecchio and Beatson, 2014).…”

“…That’s like one-tenth of the population (Refugee Union Leader, 2015).The transportation allowance was only given on a per need basis before; deposits for house rentals were not covered previously. Although these gains do not seem very significant, the seven-month long protest throughout 2014/2015 drew together “civic activists” who sought to address the iniquity of the system and “subvert the rationale underpinning years of subjugation” and “forged a space for refugees to reclaim their legitimate agency” (Vecchio and Beatson, 2014: 102). They further argued that “if refugees are generally accused of seeking asylum to obtain undeserved benefits, [the protest exposed] the fact that all non-profit groups seem to be benefitting from the status quo” (Vecchio and Beatson, 2014: 103).…”

“…Although these gains do not seem very significant, the seven-month long protest throughout 2014/2015 drew together “civic activists” who sought to address the iniquity of the system and “subvert the rationale underpinning years of subjugation” and “forged a space for refugees to reclaim their legitimate agency” (Vecchio and Beatson, 2014: 102). They further argued that “if refugees are generally accused of seeking asylum to obtain undeserved benefits, [the protest exposed] the fact that all non-profit groups seem to be benefitting from the status quo” (Vecchio and Beatson, 2014: 103). In the absence of legal provision and recognition of refugees and asylum seekers, the relatively free civil society environment in Hong Kong allows some space for the aggrieved to voice out their needs and concerns.…”

The securitization of refugees in Hong Kong: government, members of the legislative council and Chinese newspapers (2005 to June 2019)

“…This research study is vital since by now because existing studies fail to review refugee policies in Hong Kong comprehensively. It is observed that most of the existing refugee studies in Hong Kong are concentrated on the legal perspective (Jones, 2009; Lau, 2017; Loper, 2010; Ramsden, 2013; Ramsden and Marsh, 2013, 2014), the lived experiences of refugees (Lau and Gheorghiu, 2018; Mathews et al , 2014; Shum, 2019; Vecchio, 2016), the roles of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and refugee community organizations (Lau, 2019; Vecchlo and Beatson, 2014) and the health caring perspective (Wong et al , 2016). Although there is a small body of studies examine the relationship between the formation of refugee policies and media frames (Ng et al , 2019) and the effectiveness of related policies (Ng, 2019), the present study evaluates the securitization process of refugees in terms of a longer time frame.…”