University Wire interviewed a non-random sample of 426 post-secondary students aged 18 to 25 between February 26 and March 4 through an electronic questionnaire to understand their thoughts on immigration. The results showed that 53.3% of the respondents were considering or had decided to immigrate, and about one-third of them started to think about immigrating between July and December last year (i.e. after the implementation of the Hong Kong National Security Law).
Among the respondents who have considered or decided to emigrate, the most popular reason for them to emigrate or consider emigrating is that “the situation of human rights/freedom in Hong Kong has deteriorated” (98.7%), followed by “no confidence in Hong Kong’s constitutional development” (97.4%), and “the pressure of home ownership in Hong Kong” (97.4%). followed by “no confidence in the development of Hong Kong’s political system” (97.4%) and “think Hong Kong has more pressure to buy a home/longer working hours/higher prices” (88.5%).
In addition, 35.7% of the respondents had considered but did not intend to emigrate, and the most common reason for not emigrating was “I don’t want to give up my relationships in Hong Kong” (20.8%), followed by “the financial burden of emigration is too heavy” (16.7%), and “I have a responsibility to Hong Kong and don’t want to leave” (14.9%).
Harry (a pseudonym), a fourth-year student of CUHK’s Department of Political Science and Administration, said he originally expected to immigrate at the age of 30, but now he decided to apply for the program early next summer because of the opening of Canada’s lifeboat program.
Harry believes that Hong Kong’s current political environment, social stability and lifestyle is not a suitable place to settle down, he also pointed out that work in Hong Kong can not see the future, immigration to Canada can be exchanged for work-life balance, so he plans to switch to the local job search, he believes that there is no shortage of public relations or marketing-related job vacancies in Canada, and is confident that within six months to get the relevant jobs.
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