Social Inequality and the Rise of Localism in Hong Kong

Abstract

An increasing number of people define themselves as Hong Kong citizens or as Chinese Hong Kong citizens, rather than as Chinese citizens. This shift in identity accompanies growing social inequality, revealed by Hong Kong’s Gini Coefficient increasing from 0.525 in 2001 to 0.537 in 2011. Rising social inequality has led to localism/local-based nationalism. Is there a relationship between social inequality and increased localism? This paper argues that the growth of social inequality and increased localism in Hong Kong is partially related to migration schemes employed there to attract highly skilled global talent. This calls attention to increasing intra-ethnic distinction and discrimination in Hong Kong and its relationship to growing social inequality and localism.

Auditing ethnic preference in Hong Kong’s financial job market: The mediation of white privilege and Hong Kong localism

“…For example, Siu (2009) demonstrates that Hong Kongers perceive mainland Chinese as rural and poor (p. 118) and attribute the conditions of new immigrants ( xin yiming ) to ‘differences in cultural orientation, social status, and economic well-being from people like themselves (p. 119)’. Some Hong Kongers believe these new immigrants (especially those with fewer skills) rely heavily on social assistance and compete for a limited supply of public housing, schools, and hospital resources (Lee et al, 2016; Nagy, 2015). Wang (2012) found that Hong Kongers devalue Mainlanders regardless of the level of skills they possess.…”

“…Racial/ethnic preference or discrimination, however, does not solely occur between Caucasians and locals in Hong Kong. With the increasing number of mainland Chinese immigrants and Hong Kong localism, numerous studies have found that mainland Chinese face hostility from locals, thus hindering their integration into the local society (Law and Lee, 2007; Lowe and Tsang, 2017; Nagy, 2015; Ng et al, 2015; Tian, 2019). To address these issues of discrimination, the Hong Kong government made discrimination against new Chinese immigrants illegal and extended the Race Discrimination Ordinance to include people from China (Bauhinia Foundation Research Centre, 2017).…”

“…However, in Hong Kong 'white privilege' has been associated with the region's history as a British colony and English language proficiency (Leonard, 2008(Leonard, , 2010. In the context of a global financial hub, high ethnic diversity, colonial legacy, as well as an increasing wave of immigrants from China, stricter political control from the Chinese government exemplified by the national security law, and localism (Ho, 2018;Lee et al, 2019;Nagy, 2015;Veg, 2017), Hong Kong appears as a theoretically unique and empirically important case to study the patterns of ethnic preference and discrimination. Would ethnic preference and discrimination in the Hong Kong labor market present in the same way as shown in Western countries?…”

The development of Hong Kong students’ civic attitudes under Chinese sovereignty

“…The greater differences among groups in 2009 may reflect the rise of anti-China sentiments following the 2008 Beijing Olympics, when the strength of national identity of Hong Kongers reached a peak (Ma, 2015). These sentiments are reportedly caused by factors such as perceived increase of Beijing's intervention in Hong Kong internal affairs (Ma, 2015;So, 2016), the protracted democratization process (Ortmann, 2015) and the negative effects of rapid Hong Kong-Mainland socio-economic integration (Lui, 2015;Nagy, 2015). These contexts continued to be exacerbated after 2009, leading eventually to the emergence of "localism" in the early 2010s.…”

Income and Wealth Inequality in Hong Kong, 1981–2020: The Rise of Pluto-Communism?

“…To a large extent, there has been an escalating social unrest in Hong Kong over the past twenty years (i.e., the 2003 1 st of July protest and the 2014 Umbrella Revaluation). It is generally believed that beneath the political issues about democratic rights which trigged the protests directly, there is also a bedrock of economic and social conditions that nurtured the development of social unrest, in which the city-state's rising inequality and extreme concentration of wealth is the most important one (Ng, 2013;Nagy, 2015;So, 2016;Dieter, 2019).…”