Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
Hong Kong life, a very very Hong Kong life and then, I'm visiting here for
a week almost, and right now, I have nothing else to do and I'm dying to go
back already'.
For some focus group participants whose families had single-mindedly
sought a passport for security reasons, its acquisition removed any further
rationale for staying overseas. Canadian citizenship also offered greater flex-
ibility and predictability in international travel; some respondents for exam-
ple used their passport when moving through immigration control to the
Mainland. So the passport had a double function: 'before it was insurance.
Right now it is for the convenience.'
At the same time, there was a sense that young adults might be compromis-
ing other dimensions of life in the rush for career development: 'The only
reason I want to come back is to find a job. Because in Canada it's not easy to
find a job'. Another participant filled out the thinking behind this declaration:
[I'm here] because of job opportunities. Yes, mainly. And because I'm still
young enough so I can tolerate the environment. And I'm more mobile
I guess. Just to give it a shot here.
These responses give a sense, not yet of return as a Faustian bargain, but
certainly an indication of the loss of valued features in Canada and also the
toleration of unwelcome features of Hong Kong life. On a later visit
to the city some of these misgivings took on more substance. Unpublished
research conducted for the government of Hong Kong has revealed uneasi-
ness among returnees as they encounter prejudice against them in everyday
life.
11
No sooner had I learned of this study than I spoke to Alex, Hong
Kong-born and undertaking a professional programme following an under-
graduate degree in Canada where she had lived most of her life. Though
performing well in her studies and anticipating a career in Hong Kong, life
there was not without its difficulties: 'I'm highly stressed here. I've lost 16
pounds since arriving and don't eat well. It's the long hours… There's also
discrimination against those who come back. I face it every day.'
The same week at a public event I heard a senior university scholar speak
disparagingly of those Hong Kongers who had 'run away' in the 1990s.
Now they return with fluent English, an education regarded as superior by
many employers, and displaying a level of cosmopolitanism attractive to a
city with strong global aspirations.
12
As competitors in the labour market
and sporting a more jaunty familiarity with a globalizing world it is not dif-
ficult to predict that their return might cause discomfort, even jealousy,
among those whose human capital and family resources did not allow them
to enrich their own résumé in a transnational social field.
13
It is not of course unique to Hong Kong to act as a magnetic lure to
the young white-collar worker, even to an international flow of young
