Abstract
For a long period of time, immigrants have played an important role in the development of Hong Kong. With an influx of over 50,000 immigrants from mainland China on a yearly basis, this is truer than ever in Hong Kong. The behavior of these immigrants is a worthwhile topic for researcher. This study focuses on various aspects of housing, ranging from the tenure choices and housing conditions to the residential mobility of new Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong. Thus far, the literature has rarely explored situations that arise when immigrants have the same racial background as the people in the host cities. This research is intended to fill this gap in knowledge. Our findings reveal that Chinese immigrant households tend to start off overwhelmingly as private renters in the housing market. They also tend to live in inferior housing. However, as the duration of their residence in Hong Kong lengthens, the types of tenure become more diverse and the quality of their housing improves, indicating an upward mobility in terms of housing conditions.
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Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the referees and others who have contributed to this paper. Our special thanks go to Mr. Manfred C.M. LAM, Ka-hung YU, and Benjamin H.C. CHAN for their valuable assistance. This research was supported by the Hong Kong RGC CERG (BQ364 and BQ664) and PolyU Research Grant (Z02Z).
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HUI, E.CM. Residential mobility of Chinese immigrants: An analysis of housing conditions and tenure structure. J Housing Built Environ 20, 379–399 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-005-9021-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10901-005-9021-6