Abstract
As an immigrant society, Hong Kong’s most valuable assets are its millions of hardworking immigrants. During the 1990s there was a mass exodus of elites from Hong Kong and pundits made grim predictions about the city’s future. Now, return migrants constitute a significant segment of its human capital. This chapter discusses why elite transmigrants return to Hong Kong, why some of them return for a relatively short time before moving on, and the impact of government policy on their decisions. Four vignettes of the returnees are presented to tease out themes, patterns and insights embedded in the migratory lives of the returnees interviewed. These include push-pull factors such as family ties, opportunities for career advancement, education, discrimination and political factors. Many of the problems faced by returnees are deeply embedded in social and economic organization, and may represent the failure of social systems in which the individuals are enmeshed. Therefore, this chapter discusses strategies Hong Kong return migrants adopt before and after their return and how this results in hybridity; and a wide range of recommendations on government policies offered by the interviewees.
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Chan, Kb., Chan, Ww.V. (2021). The Hong Kong Study. In: Return Migrants in Hong Kong, Singapore and Israel. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40963-0_2
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