Forum April 2023: Welcoming work for Hong Kongers in other countries/regions
While over 144,000 Hong Kongers have moved to the UK in 2 years since the launch of BN(O) visa scheme, many Hong Kongers have also moved to other places to start their new lives. Popular destinations include Canada, Australia and Taiwan. Our April forum invited overseas organisations which support Hong Kongers to settle in to share their insights. It aims to learn from the overseas experience and understand what possible challenges the Hong Kongers may face during integration, to give the local welcoming groups some inspirations on current and future welcoming work for Hong Kongers.
We are honoured to have Charlotte Lee of Australia Hong Kong Link (AUHK Link) in Australia, Anna Wong of Community Family Service Ontario (CFSO) in Canada, and Bin-Jou Liao of Taiwanese Civil Aid to HKers (TAHK) in Taiwan to speak in the forum. They talked about various support they provide to Hong Kongers, as well as the challenges they and those Hong Kongers faced.
The forum begins with Charlotte sharing the work of AUHK Link including offering assistance and advice to Hong Kongers in different areas such as employment, education, supporting Hong Kong business and preserving culture and values. She also explained the need for AUHK to serve as a coordination effort and to provide a platform to inform Hong Kongers in Australia about the activities across the country. According to Charlotte, Hong Kongers in Australia are overcoming various challenges like trying to be employed in their original profession in Hong Kong, paying medical fees, helping their children to adapt to a new environment and get over cultural shock.
Our second speaker, Anna of CFSO shared cases and struggles about Hong Kongers in Canada based on her front line experience. She also shared the insights of CFSO’s survey and explained the importance of providing support on Hong Kongers’ mental health for settlement. Apart from mental health and other issues that Hong Kongers may face, Anna noted it is equally essential for Hong Kongers to understand their rights, how the system works and to access accurate information. Therefore CFSO produces a series of youtube videos to help filling the gap. She also suggested a funding and service model involving the government, corporations, academic sector and the community for a holistic support to address the needs in Hong Kongers’ settlement.
Followed by the sharing from Bin-jou of TAHK, he shared the reasons Hong Kongers choosing Taiwan as their destination such as the social and economical environment, affordable health care services and the warm welcoming character of Taiwanese. He also explained the visa routes available and the situation for Hong Kongers who want to settle in Taiwan. Bin-jou observed that some Hong Kongers flee to other countries for re-settlement because of the uncertainty of the time it takes for the residency application process and the chance of a successful application. Despite the warm welcoming received by Hong Kongers in general, there is scepticism on Hong Kongers’ motivation to move to Taiwan with Taiwan’s political environment and the upcoming Taiwanese presidential election.
It is agreed by the speakers that preservation of culture, language and tradition to the next generation is one of the Hong Kongers’ major concerns. Members discussed further in how to support and encourage Hong Kongers to come forward to ask for mental health support. Despite Hong Kongers in different places facing unique challenges, they share many similarities in their settlement experience and needs. We appreciate the sharing of these valuable experiences from our speakers which help better understand and address the needs of BN(O) Hong Kongers in the UK.