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A new report to the Hong Kong legislature revealed that about 879,000 immigrants from the mainland have settled in the city since the 1997 handover, comprising 12 per cent of the city’s population of 7.3 million.
This would mean that out of every eight Hong Kong residents at present, one of them was from the mainland.
The report, submitted jointly to a Legislative Council subcommittee by several government sectors including the Security Bureau and the Immigration Department, stated that about 879,000 new arrivals have settled in the city for family reunification through the one-way permit system since the handover.
“In 2014, cross-boundary marriages made up almost 40 per cent of locally registered marriages,” stated the report submitted to a subcommittee studying issues relating to mainland-Hong Kong families.
Those who stayed in Hong Kong for seven years through the one-way permit scheme were then eligible to apply for permanent residency and able to utilise the city’s social welfare system.
“As cross-boundary marriages are common nowadays, the population policy review undertaken by the Steering Committee on Population Policy in 2014 reaffirmed the continued need for the (One-Way Permit) Scheme so that eligible mainland residents can come to Hong Kong in an orderly manner for family reunion,” the report said.
It also said that different government offices had a range of services available to help new arrivals integrate into the community, such as the Labour and Welfare Bureau’s provision of vocational training.
