Inclusiveness in Hong Kong should go beyond token gestures

South China Morning Post

2 days ago

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The
letter , 'Ethnic minorities in Hong Kong: how community centres can foster integration' (August 5), rightly questions whether the city has done enough to build a robust multicultural environment.
True integration, however, requires more than symbolic gestures; dismantling the systemic barriers faced by non-Chinese residents demands structural reforms.
Hong Kong's demographic diversity is too often oversimplified. While 91.6 per cent of the population is ethnically Chinese, the remaining 8.4 per cent encompasses communities with deep roots – some that can be traced back to the colonial era – as well as newer arrivals.
A blanket label like 'ethnic minorities' flattens varied experiences and perpetuates stereotypes about non-Chinese groups, South Asian heritage or lower socioeconomic status. This risks turning diversity into a problem to be managed, rather than seeing it as an asset to be embraced.
The 2021 Population Census reveals telling residential patterns: non-Chinese groups are concentrated in districts like Yau Tsim Mong and Central and Western. History explains some of this clustering. South Asians deployed to Hong Kong as colonial-era police and soldiers settled near barracks, creating enclaves such as Yuen Long's Nepali community and Central's Muslim cluster. Economic factors further shape these patterns, with low-income families crowding into older neighbourhoods and so on.