Although the number of people moving out of Hong Kong has been declining, the number of people applying to move to Taiwan has surged sharply, according to data from Hong Kong and Taiwanese authorities.
The latest Hong Kong Security Bureau statistics showed that 4,900 people emigrated from Hong Kong to Canada, Australia and the US last year, the lowest figure in nearly a decade.
Those three countries are the most popular destinations for Hong Kong emigrants.
The data showed that 800 Hong Kongers emigrated to Canada last year, down from 1,000 the previous year, while the number for Australia declined 13 percent to 1,900.
Emigrants to the US increased by 300 to 2,200.
The bureau said that the figures represented only the numbers of people applying for police clearance certificates for their emigration bids and do not reflect the exact number of people who have managed to move overseas.
Meanwhile, Taiwan gave the green light to 7,498 applications by Hong Kongers for residence permits last year, the highest in more than 20 years, according to statistics compiled by the National Immigration Agency.
In that year along, 697 Hong Kongers acquired long-term resident certificates, the statistics released on Dec. 31 last year show.
A report in the Sing Tao Daily yesterday cited Cheung Ka-hei (張家禧), head of the Hong Kong-based Goldmax Immigration Consulting Co, as saying that apart from the traditional emigration destinations, an increasing number of Hong Kongers have chosen Taiwan and other Asia-Pacific countries like Malaysia as their future homes.
Cheung said that last year’s Occupy Central movement, which aimed to press the Chinese government into allowing an electoral system in Hong Kong that meets international standards in terms of universal suffrage, prompted Hong Kongers to consider moving to Taiwan.
Meanwhile, the Chinese-language Apple Daily cited investment immigration consultant Eddie Kwan (關景鴻) as saying that compared with the US and countries in Europe, the amount of investment required for those planning to move to Taiwan is relatively low, at about NT$10 million (US$313,700), a figure that Kwan said is affordable for most Hong Kongers.
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