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<h1 class="gmail-title" id="gmail-page-title">Who, really, are Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities? No policy can work without understanding</h1> </div>
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<div class="gmail-field gmail-field-name-field-subheading gmail-field-type-text-long gmail-field-label-hidden"><div class="gmail-field-items"><div class="gmail-field-item even"><p>Chura
Thapa says the government policy for social integration not only lacks
finesse and focus, but also does not take into account the importance of
preserving the cultural identities of the groups</p>
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<div class="gmail-node-published" datetime="2017-04-04T14:12:15+08:00">PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 04 April, 2017, 2:12pm</div><div class="gmail-node-updated"><span class="gmail-node-updated-date gmail-node-updated-date-hl">UPDATED : Tuesday, 04 April, 2017, 9:02pm</span></div> </div>
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<p><a class="gmail-scmp_button_comment gmail-count-processed gmail-popup-processed" href="http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2084614/who-really-are-hong-kongs-ethnic-minorities-no-policy-can#comments" title="Comments" style="display:block">Comments: <span class="gmail-icon gmail-scmp-icon-comment"><span class="gmail-addthis-counter">25</span> </span></a></p>
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<div class="gmail-scmp-v2-author-image gmail-author-image"><a href="http://www.scmp.com/author/chura-thapa"><img alt="Chura Thapa" title="Chura Thapa" class="gmail-lazyload-processed gmail-loaded" src="http://cdn4.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/70x70/public/default_images/author.png?itok=hDu29UdT" height="70" width="70"></a></div><div class="gmail-scmp-v2-author-name"><a href="http://www.scmp.com/author/chura-thapa">Chura Thapa</a></div> </span>
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<p class="gmail-v2-processed">In Europe, the drive for social integration
rests on two clear principles: one, to provide immigrant and minority
groups with economic opportunities; and, two, to preserve cultural and
linguistic diversity. To this end, many European governments allow
minority children to be educated in their own language, on top of
learning the dominant one. For example, Turkish minorities in Germany
are allowed to run Turkish-language schools in the areas where they live
in large numbers.</p><div id="gmail-mrec-holder22" style="border-width:0px;border-style:none;border-color:currentcolor;vertical-align:bottom;display:inline-block;width:100%;height:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);max-height:400px;float:left;overflow:hidden;margin-right:100%;margin-bottom:0px"><div id="gmail-advid-holder22" style="border-width:0px;border-style:none;border-color:currentcolor;vertical-align:bottom;display:inline-block;width:100%;height:0px;background-color:rgb(255,255,255);max-height:400px;float:left;overflow:hidden;margin-bottom:0px"><div style="display:inline-block;width:100%;height:30px;font-size:12px;font-family:"latoregular",sans-serif;background-color:transparent;float:left;text-align:left;margin-top:20px"><div style="width:100%;height:30px"><p style="color:rgb(153,153,153);font-size:0.9em;display:inline-block;font-family:latoregular,sans-serif">ADVERTISEMENT</p></div></div><div id="gmail-vid_ads_div_adsparc22" style="border-width:0px;border-style:none;border-color:currentcolor;vertical-align:bottom;display:block;width:100%;height:400px;background-color:transparent;max-height:400px;margin:0px auto;float:left;overflow:hidden"><div style="float:left;height:399px;display:inline-block;width:620px;background-color:rgb(0,0,0);margin:0px auto" id="gmail-myadcontent22"> <div style="display:block;width:30px;height:30px;background-color:transparent;float:right;text-align:center;margin-top:0px" id="gmail-closebtn22"><img src="https://s3.amazonaws.com/sf.adsparc.com/native/img/close-btn-new.png"> </div></div></div></div></div>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed">In Hong Kong, by contrast, the debate on how to
integrate ethnic minorities into society has largely focused on the
learning of Cantonese language skills. While it is important to develop
Cantonese competency, the debate misses a few critical issues.</p>
<h4 class="gmail-v2-processed gmail-link"><em><a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2059977/diversity-drive-working-hong-kongs-ethnic" shape="rect">Is the diversity drive working for Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities?</a></em></h4>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed">First and foremost, it is important to recognise
the rights of minority groups to choose a medium of instruction and to
preserve their heritage language.</p>
<div class="gmail-blockquote-quote gmail-v2-processed">The government has failed to adopt defined criteria in identifying ethnic minorities for integration</div>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed">Ostensibly in Hong Kong, the government
encourages ethnic minorities to learn Chinese as a second language. Yet,
at the same time, it promotes an assimilationist agenda by pushing
minority students into monolingual Chinese-langauge schools, in the name
of Cantonese learning and social integration. This may have an adverse
impact on these students’ cultural identification and overall
educational development.</p>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed">Second, the government has failed to adopt
clearly defined criteria in identifying ethnic minorities for
integration. At present, South Asians appear to be the only minorities
targeted in this way, without regard to criteria such as their different
socio-economic, linguistic or educational levels. Meanwhile, other
minority groups such as the British, Australians, Japanese and Koreans
are excluded.</p>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed">For example, the Indian community is the most
affluent among South Asian groups, with a poverty rate of 9.7 per cent.
As a comparison, the overall poverty rate in Hong Kong is 15. 2 per
cent, and that of the Pakistani community is 50.2 per cent. Further, a
majority of Indians in Hong Kong are professionals, managers and
administrators. Thus, in terms of socio-economic circumstances, they are
similar to the Australian, British, Japanese and Korean communities
here. Yet, they are treated differently.</p>
<h4 class="gmail-v2-processed gmail-link"><em><a href="http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/2060050/discriminatory-language-abounds-describing-hong" shape="rect">Discriminatory language abounds in describing Hong Kong’s ethnic minorities</a></em></h4>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed gmail-image gmail-no-float"><span class="gmail-image-caption-container gmail-image-caption-container-none" style="display:inline-block;width:660px;float:none;clear:none"><img title="Chief-executive elect Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor (seated, third from left) meets members of the ethnic minority communities while campaigning for the office in February, when she was still a candidate. She won the election last month. The government needs to recognise the cultural and linguistic diversity of the different ethnic groups, and come up with clear strategies for maintaining their cultural identities. Photo: Felix Wong" class="gmail-caption gmail-lazyload-processed gmail-magic-processed gmail-loaded" src="http://cdn1.i-scmp.com/sites/default/files/images/methode/2017/04/04/9d7ef7ce-18ee-11e7-b4ed-ac719e54b474_1320x770_141210.JPG" style="width: 660px; height: 385px;"><span style="display:block" class="gmail-image-caption gmail-hover-processed"></span></span></p><div class="gmail-scmp-inline-newsletter"><form class="gmail-scmp-newsletter-subscribe-form gmail-newsletter-323850 element-processed-processed" action="/newsletter/ajax/checkstatus/2084614" method="post" id="gmail-scmp-newsletter-subscribe-form"><div><div class="gmail-newsletter-description"><div class="gmail-name">Opinion</div>Get updates direct to your inbox
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<h4 class="gmail-v2-processed gmail-link"><em><a href="http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2077116/hong-kong-needs-do-more-make-its-non-chinese-residents-feel" shape="rect">Hong Kong needs to do more to make its non-Chinese residents feel at home</a></em></h4>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed">Thirdly, it appears many Hong Kong Chinese do
not respect or recognise the value of ethnic diversity. The way District
Court judge David Dufton was verbally abused for jailing seven police
officers convicted of assault during the Occupy Central protests, with
much of the criticism heaped on his non-Chinese background, showed how
murky the picture is when it comes to the city’s embrace of cultural
diversity.</p>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed">The government should do better. First, it
should clearly define ethnic minorities. If it considers all non-Chinese
people ethnic minorities, there should be a clear mechanism to include
members of these various communities in different sectors of government
structure.</p>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed">Secondly, before it draws up a policy for social
integration, the government needs to take into consideration the
different socio-economic and educational backgrounds of the groups.</p>
<p class="gmail-v2-processed">Despite its assimilative language policy,
cultural diversity will remain in Hong Kong. As such, in addition to its
Chinese-language education policy, the government needs to recognise
the cultural and linguistic diversity of the different ethnic groups,
and come up with clear strategies for maintaining their cultural
identities. The complex dynamics of language practices and teacher
resources should not be ignored.</p><p class="gmail-v2-processed"><a href="http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2084614/who-really-are-hong-kongs-ethnic-minorities-no-policy-can">http://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/article/2084614/who-really-are-hong-kongs-ethnic-minorities-no-policy-can</a><br></p><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div class="gmail_signature">**************************************<br>N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to its members<br>and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner or sponsor of the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who disagree with a message are encouraged to post a rebuttal, and to write directly to the original sender of any offensive message. A copy of this may be forwarded to this list as well. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)<br><br>For more information about the lgpolicy-list, go to <a href="https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/" target="_blank">https://groups.sas.upenn.edu/mailman/</a><br>listinfo/lgpolicy-list<br>*******************************************</div>
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