The Economy of Seeking Asylum in the Global City

Abstract

This article explores asylum seeker survival strategies and agency in relation to the structural, post-industrial conditions that have emerged in Hong Kong. The focus is on the livelihoods of asylum seekers within spaces of illegality and social exclusion, how such spaces are formed, and how asylum seekers exploit local conditions to establish profitable networks across borders. The article considers asylum seekers' engagement in income-generating activities and the importance of legal status in the sectors of the economy in which they most often work: recycling and trading. Far from being a burden to society or opportunistic deviants taking advantage of Hong Kong's economic prosperity, as they are normally depicted in public discourse, asylum seekers are economically productive. They act in economic spaces in which disadvantaged strata of the local resident population organize their means of survival, thereby improving the economic opportunities for locals.

Asylum Seekers as Symbols of Hong Kong’s Non-Chineseness

“…On the other hand, those asylum seekers who are fleeing persecution in their home countries are often afraid to work illegally, for fear of being deported, and can only stew for years on end. (21) It seems possible that Hong Kong authorities are using this situation to enable a flexible irregular labour force; but in any case, it seems clear that working asylum seekers significantly benefit the local Hong Kong economy (Vecchio 2016).…”

“…In particular, in the academic literature, asylum seekers are rarely depicted as having much agency in their host society-they may speak out about the harsh conditions under which asylum seekers live (as they do in Hong Kong: Vecchio and Beatson 2014), but they are not portrayed as having influence on the society in which they have arrived, at least not until they have become refugees and then citizens. (2) The lives of asylum seekers in Hong Kong too are generally portrayed as being bleak in academic writings (see Vecchio 2015 for the only book-length account in recent years on Hong Kong asylum seekers; see also Vecchio 2016;Mathews 2011: 78-83, 169-194;; and for a legal perspective, Loper 2010, among other writings). These portrayals were published too long ago to have depicted how asylum seekers have recently become embraced by segments of the local population in Hong Kong.…”

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

“…This puts them in an extremely vulnerable and precarious situation where, on the one hand, their meager entitlement reduces them to impoverishment, while on the other hand, any attempt to work to supplement their income will immediately make them illegal and an easy target for exploitation, threats and harassment. Despite the precariousness of their situation, studies have found that they are actively involved in certain low-end industries, such as the re-cycling and garment industries and trade services, that require a transnational network (Vecchio, 2016). These industries run on an extremely tight margin and survive only “by avoiding government regulations related to minimum wage, safety and overtime conditions, and ensuring more flexibility in working hours and in the dismissal of unnecessary employees” (Vecchio, 2016: 3).…”

“…Despite the precariousness of their situation, studies have found that they are actively involved in certain low-end industries, such as the re-cycling and garment industries and trade services, that require a transnational network (Vecchio, 2016). These industries run on an extremely tight margin and survive only “by avoiding government regulations related to minimum wage, safety and overtime conditions, and ensuring more flexibility in working hours and in the dismissal of unnecessary employees” (Vecchio, 2016: 3). One other livelihood option for refugees or asylum seekers is self-employment.…”

“…They join the growing number of tourist traders from the Indian sub-continent or Africa; thus, they do not compete with locals for jobs. According to Vecchio (2016: 4), asylum seekers “strengthen the business capacity of low-income residents, in turn supporting Hong Kong's well-established ideology of self-reliance.” While refugees and asylum seekers manage to adapt to the local economy and society, in the eyes of the government, they do not have the same rights as nationals, as starkly stated by a government notice to non- refoulement claimants (Immigration Department, 2015: 20):You will not be treated as ordinarily resident in Hong Kong for the purposes of the Ordinance during any period in which you remain in Hong Kong only by virtue of your non- refoulement claim (whether or not your claim is a substantiated claim and whether or not permission has been given to you to take employment … you may still be removed to a specified country that is not your (claimed) Risk State(s).…”