‘We’re all thinking about how to contribute’: Hongkongers are boosting Britain’s suburbs

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When Wing-sun Chan left the social and political upheaval of Hong Kong for suburban Manchester two years ago, he embodied several trends at once.

Like many in this new diaspora, the 39-year-old father of two was drawn to a leafy northern suburb known for its robust education system. He also prioritized integration into British society.

After Beijing cracked down on democracy in Hong Kong and passed a national security law in 2020, a new generation of Hongkongers has arrived in the UK, a highly skilled workforce eager to integrate who is gradually changing the face of the British suburbs.

“We don’t want a new isolated Chinatown interested only in internal solutions,” said Cheng. “We’re also focused on building bonds and connections with the community.”

More than 144,000 Hong Kongs they moved to the UK from early 2021 using government visas for British citizens (Overseas), renewable five-year residence permits introduced after the Chinese government’s 2020 crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

Simon Cheng, founder of the Hongkongers community organization in Britain, said there were “huge differences” between these settlers and previous generations, who before 2020 had come “mainly for economic reasons”.

The latest influx is also part of a wider increase in net migration to the UK, which achieved a record according to figures released last week, driven by immigration from outside the EU, including through humanitarian routes such as the BN(O) programme.

“Post-2019 immigrants have strong political awareness and self-consciousness like Hong Kong,” Cheng said.

Yet it is a group that aims to assimilate into British society rather than cluster closely with other Hongkongers, think-tank British Future found last summer in a paper for the Levelling, Housing and Community Department.

This latter generation of settlers, predominantly in their 30s and 40s with children, were attracted to the suburbs of cheaper towns beyond London, particularly those with robust education systems, such as Chan’s chosen Sale house in Trafford.

“It’s a very different geographic pattern of settlement to other migrant groups,” said Heather Rolfe, director of research at British Future, which focuses on public attitudes towards diversity and equality. The “top priority for Hongkongers is good schools for their children,” she added.

Hong Kong YouTubers have been influential in promoting some venues, he said, including Trafford, nearby Warrington and Solihull in the West Midlands, all of which are quieter towns or suburbs highlighted for their schools.

“The pull of the suburbs is really interesting because migrant groups in the past have avoided the suburbs, seeing them as very white and places where they would stand out and experience discrimination,” she said.

Chan agreed. “I’m not saying that all Hong Kongers have moved because of their children’s education, but one of the main factors is that we hope our children can grow up in a society that embraces freedom and freedom,” he said. she said.

Accessibility was also key, he added. “If I had been in London I would have been under a lot of stress, because the cost of living is so high.”

There is no accurate local data for Hong Kong’s last diaspora, but the Manchester council-run English for Speakers of Other Languages ​​service has seen a 13-fold increase in approaches for advice from BN visa holders ( O) between 2020 and 2023.

Already known internationally for its football, the city and its suburbs have been actively promoted to Hong Kong investors in recent years.

Carl Donaldson, chief sales officer at Select Property, an investor and developer with offices in Hong Kong, said there had been a pattern of young people being “priced out of Hong Kong” due to a lack of viable land, settling in Manchester as alternative .

“We’ve seen this trend grow over the past five or six years and we expect it to continue,” he said.

Janine Miu, founder and chief executive of Hong Kong-based consultancy UK Immigration Specialist, said that when she set up the business in 2014, about 80 per cent of inquiries came from clients who wanted to move to London.

Now around half choose Manchester and only around 30% opt for the capital, while many of those headed for London are moving towards its borders.

But he said the “peak” of the initial wave had passed. A new type of question — prompted by the extension of BN(O) eligibility to adult children of parents who have already seen — was on the rise.

“We’ve seen more and more inquiries on this type of application this year,” he said, adding that people are also “starting to worry” about whether the visa regime will stick around after 2025.

Those already in the UK have the potential to be a boon to the economy, noted British Future, which found 70% were university graduates and 39% had a professional background.

“This qualifications and experience framework of Hong Kongers indicates their potential to fill skills gaps in a number of occupational areas and stimulate economic growth through new businesses,” he noted.

But unless qualifications were recognized or converted, some people would be forced into lower wages or lower standard jobs than they would have at home.

Chan said he knows highly skilled Hong Kong colleagues who have taken jobs in warehouses and teachers who have taken jobs as teaching assistants.

Those people “didn’t expect to be able to fill the same position they had in Hong Kong,” he added, but said Hongkongers had a lot to offer the UK economy post-Brexit as the country seeks to forge new relations .

After moving to Sale he set up a community interest company, Trafford Hongkongers, to strengthen ties with the local community.

“It involves dialogue, conversation, mutual understanding,” she said. “We are all thinking about how we can contribute to our new country.”