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68% of conservative voters, 71% of labour voters, and 77% of libdem voters support this. https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2020/07/01/suppo
by sampo 6y ago
68% of conservative voters, 71% of labour voters, and 77% of libdem voters support this.
https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2020/07/01/support-helping-british-passport-holders-hong-kong https://yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2020/0...
- nly 6y agoSurprising isn't it, given how much of a driving force EU immigration was in the Brexit debate.
- runawaybottle 6y agoIs it surprising? UK has a problem with certain races coming over. What’s the difference between Syrian refugees and Hong Kongers? They would both be seeking refugee status essentially.
- akie 6y agoThey have a problem with Europeans coming over as well.
- runawaybottle 6y agoThat’s not what rallied Brexit. The right riled up people with “scary” immigration, the same way “scary” Mexican immigration was used by Trump. But hey, Hong Kongers are “better” immigrants. We can all see through this I hope.
- AuryGlenz 6y agoI don’t think it’s wrong to prefer to have educated immigrants over non-educated. One creates wealth and resources and the other drains it. One is more likely to be law abiding and the other less likely. If Wakanda existed I doubt there would be much opposition to letting their citizens immigrate.
- growlist 6y agoEducated, entrepreneurial, hard working, law abiding, socially conservative, respectful of their host. Who wouldn't welcome migrants like this?
- arethuza 6y agoI suspect that description applies to a lot of migrants to the UK from the EU - certainly most of the people I know who migrated here from Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy....
- ginko 6y agoThat fits Polish immigrants to the UK to a t.
- soapdog 6y agoIt fits every single immigrant I met here, including myself.
- rat9988 6y agoYou mean rich migrants I guess.
- growlist 6y agoWell, the rich ones are certainly more welcome than the stabby ones.
- Veen 6y agoCertain religions would be a more accurate way to put it than certain races.
- Lio 6y agoDoes the UK? Or do some subsection of the UK population? I know I don't have a problem with Syrian refugees and I would imagine that just one person out 60 something million would be enough to refute your statement.
- barneygale 6y agoHong Kong was a British colony until 1997.
- arethuza 6y agoAbout a quarter of the world has been a British colony at some point!
- nsl73 6y agoTheir two systems one county deal with China is being taken away, which effects not only Hong Kong people, but British honor.
- FabHK 6y agoIn particular, it contravenes the treaty (the Sino-British Joint Declaration).
- csomar 6y agoHong Kong is very British, though. Most of the other colonized parts are not (Exceptions maybe Canada, NZ and Australia). But traveling from Hong Kong to Shenzhen, you can feel that there is a significant culture gap. Also Hong Kong appears to have lots of British banking connections like HSBC and Standard Chartered.
- mytailorisrich 6y agoHongkong looks somewhat British in some aspects but not many. I think the main culture gap is that HK has kept a traditional Chinese culture that was swept away on the mainland. > like HSBC The name which means the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Company. A bank founded in China (Hongkong) by the British.
- refurb 6y agoI think Hong Kong looks very British! At least in comparison to the other Asian nations that don't have a British Colonial history.
- ksec 6y agoIt kind of depends, immigration wasn't a big part of it from talking with many business partners. Many just dont like the idea rules are being made in Brussels.
- arethuza 6y agoThe claim that Turkey was soon going to join the EU (which isn't going to happen) and flood the country with Turkish immigrants was a major component of vote leave messaging: "Turkey/NHS/£350 million". Edit: FYI Dominic Cummings actually blogged about the important of Turkey to their success: https://dominiccummings.com/2017/01/09/on-the-referendum-21-branching-histories-of-the-2016-referendum-and-the-frogs-before-the-storm-2/ https://dominiccummings.com/2017/01/09/on-the-referendum-21-...
- nailer 6y agoTo be fair Angela Merkel flooded Germany with millions of immigrants from the middle East.
- nailer 6y agoHere's a source if you need one: https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-border-crisis/germany-s-merkel-faces-political-crisis-over-migrant-policy-n883441 https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/europes-border-crisis/germ...
- baybal2 6y agoTurkey has actually turned in a net labour importer not so long ago, and it has a robust industrial sector. Rural Turkey has unemployment issue, but that's a separate matter to Turkish migrants to EU. Turkish migration to EU is much more white collar, and urban. P.S. The most hilarious rightist conspiracy theory I've heard of was that of Boris Johnson being a Turkish spy
- grey-area 6y agoThey may be disappointed when they discover the rules aren't made in Brussels because the UK joined the EU, but because it's the UK's largest trading partner and the largest trade bloc in the world. Brexit will simply make their position worse.
- Veen 6y agoIt wasn’t so much the fact of immigration, but the lack of control over immigration.
- mhh__ 6y agoperceived lack of control.
- cm2187 6y agoHow could the UK control it?
- foldr 6y agoWe could have opted in to stricter controls on migration from Eastern Europe, but no-one wanted to at the time, as there would have been no benefit to doing so. https://theconversation.com/the-huge-political-cost-of-blairs-decision-to-allow-eastern-european-migrants-unfettered-access-to-britain-66077 https://theconversation.com/the-huge-political-cost-of-blair...
- philwelch 6y agoThere’s nothing “perceived” about it—the UK was forced to admit any “EU citizen” who wanted to come and immediately grant them permanent residency, which already represents a fundamental loss of control.
- foldr 6y agoWhy are you putting "EU citizen" in scare quotes? It's a perfectly well-defined concept. The UK was certainly not obliged to immediately grant them permanent residency. See e.g. here https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/residence/residence-rights/workers/index_en.htm?expandable=3 https://europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/residence/residence-ri...
- Veen 6y agoWhile there was no obligation to grant permanent residency, the criteria that would allow removal before the five years (or two years in some cases) are narrow. If someone had a job and in some cases when they didn’t, it was impossible to remove them unless they posed a serious threat. That is, in fact, a significant limitation on the control the UK could exert over immigration from the EU.
- koheripbal 6y agoNo - because these are RICH Asian migrants, not POOR North African and Syrian migrants. It's a combination of differential racism and elitism.
- mellosouls 6y agoIt's a combination of differential racism and elitism. Is it possibly more representative of your own prejudices that you see only negative motivation here?
- koheripbal 6y agoThis is the "he who smelt it, dealt it" form of logical argument.
- mellosouls 6y agoConsidering you are ascribing the worst possible motives to millions of people in a gross generalisation - it's a fair question to ask.
- tomp 6y ago> "differential racism" So basically the existing word "racism" didn't fit (because racist Brits would hate Asian HKers just as much as brown Syrians and black Africans) so you invented a new completely concept but conveniently attached the word "racism" to it for maximal emotional impact? Despicable.
- notahacker 6y ago> because racist Brits would hate Asian HKers just as much as brown Syrians and black Africans Even a racist as extreme and obsessed with whiteness specifically as Hitler deemed some nonwhite races worthy of respect, even as he plotted others' extermination. Clearly it is absurd to define 'racist' so narrowly that even the actual Nazis don't qualify
- FabHK 6y ago
- notahacker 6y agoI think most people accurately assume that not many Hong Kong citizens will come, and none of the focus of recent anti-immigrant sentiment has been on ethnic Chinese people.
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- dragonwriter 6y agoHong Kong is a part of the Empire that was severed recently, and not because the people there actively sought that outcome. I suspect that for some of the people concerned about immigration, that makes Hong Kongers more British-separated-by-ill-conceived-policy than foreigners.
- harikb 6y agoWhether UK citizens approve this or not, logistical challenge of making this happen is immense. I think UK politicians know this is just a threat. Moving people & jobs physically to UK, when people have physical investment in a house, school, bank accounts, investments is not easy. I can see people moving if CCP is literally killing non-protesting citizens like holocaust. On top of it, what is to prevent CCP from blocking people from leaving? People will take a lot before they physically leave the country. And CCP knows that very well.
- mytailorisrich 6y agoTo be honest I think that the Chinese government would not care or actually be quite OK with it. Indeed, who would leave HK? Arguably the anti-CCP, the "troublemakers". So that'd mean less 'trouble' in HK and there is a large supply of mainlanders happy to move to HK. Obviously the Chinese government will officially be outraged but privately they may think good riddance.
- nangz 6y agoTalking to a Chinese friend who is quite pro-CCP, they are pissed that UK is offering this and say that mass emigration of HKers would be a major loss of face for the CCP.
- mytailorisrich 6y agoYes, but that does not mean there would not be a silver lining. This offer of residency is political and possibly symbolically negative for China, but in practical terms it does not hurt China at all.
- hungryhobo 6y agoThe sentiment in the mainland is more or less get out and leave the us the land
- Mediterraneo10 6y agoOne of the major phenomena of Hong Kong in the 1980s and early 1990s was families getting out if they could afford it, because everyone was nervous about the Chinese handover. This wave of emigration even plays a role in contemporary Hong Kong film of the era like Chungking Express. And even before the fears of the handover, many educated HKers were emigrating to the US for the sake of higher wages. Yes, HKers have ties to HK that are a hassle to break, but plenty of people have broken them and up and left.
- OJFord 6y ago> The continued relevance of these questions meant that thirty years later, in June 2020, YouGov were able to asked respondents the same questions, allowing us to discover how public opinion has changed in the intervening period. > Interestingly, the results reveal a fall in public awareness on the issue. In 2020, about half the population (51%) reported having heard about the proposals – though this figure seems likely to rise with the PM’s recent announcement. Back in 1990, the figure was a much higher 78%. It goes on to list the coronavirus and Tiananmen as possible reasons; isn't the most obvious contributory factor that a lot of voters have been born since then, and it hasn't been on the national curriculum or often reported on?