Abstract
Citizenship status is the legal membership of a political community such as nation-state, while citizenship identity is the subjective meaning a person gives to that community. The citizenship status of ethnic minorities in postcolonial Hong Kong is particularly problematic due to the complex legal institutions laid down by Britain and China. Although many ethnic minorities are Hong Kong permanent residents, their national citizenship is less clear. Many remain citizens of their countries of origin, while some have successfully acquired Chinese or British citizenship. This chapter explores how ethnic minority youth construct their citizenship identities under the Hong Kong context. It also explores the factors that might have influenced their citizenship identities. Based on in-depth interviews with four young Hong Kong Filipinos, we found that their citizenship identity is diverse, with a participant holding dual identities with Hong Kong and the Philippines and two not identifying strongly with any polities. For some participants, citizenship status is not closely linked to their citizenship identities, which are also shaped by factors like discrimination, cultural compatibility, inter-ethnic networks, and instrumental considerations. Lastly, like many local Chinese youth, most participants hold varying degrees of anti-China sentiment. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed.
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Notes
- 1.
It allows Hong Kong to retain its capitalist economic system and way of life for at least 50 years since 1997.
- 2.
The Basic Law of the HKSAR stipulates that only Chinese citizens are eligible to become Chief Executive (Article 44), Members of the Executive Council (Article 55), and principal officials of the HKSAR government (Article 61). Only 20 per cent seats of the Legislative Council can be taken by non-Chinese citizens (Article 67). Only Chinese citizens can become the Chief Justice of the Court of Final Appeal and the Chief Judge of the High Court (Article 101).
- 3.
This was a large scale pro-democracy protest in 2014 which occupied the city center for 79 days.
- 4.
The Basic Law (Article 5) states that the capitalist system and way of life of Hong Kong shall remain unchanged for 50 years.
- 5.
Lee Bo is one of the five booksellers of the Causeway Bay Bookstore who were allegedly abducted and then taken into custody by the Mainland authorities in late 2015. His abduction was probably linked to his selling of politically sensitive books about Chinese political leaders and the Chinese Communist Party. This incident caused widespread concern among the Hong Kong people over their freedom of expression and the autonomy of Hong Kong.
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Acknowledgment
The research reported here was supported by a grant from the Research Grants Council, Hong Kong (Project No.: 18402514).
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Ng, HY., Kennedy, K.J. (2019). Citizenship Status and Identities of Ethnic Minorities: Cases of Hong Kong Filipino Youth. In: GUBE, J., GAO, F. (eds) Education, Ethnicity and Equity in the Multilingual Asian Context. Multilingual Education, vol 32. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3125-1_8
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