Unemployment of the Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong

APSS 348 Economics and Social Problems

Topic: Unemployment of the Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong

Student Name: Kwan Hok Kan

Student ID: 10575614D

Date: 2011-11-8

Lecturer: Mr. Tang Ho Man, Alex Seminar Instructor: Ms. Ho King Yan, Grace

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Content

Introduction

Reasons of unemployment of South-Asian Ethnic Minorities

Cost of Unemployment: Individual cost and Society Cost

Role of Government

Government Solutions

Market Solution

Society Solution

Limitations

Suggestions

Benefits and Limitations allocation of stakeholders

Reflection

Conclusion

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Introduction

Hong Kong is a developed city in the world and famous with her high GDP, active economic activities and mature economic system. More importantly, it is also a multi-racial society of which 95% are local Hong Kong people and 5% are non-Hong Kong people in other races�.

However, unemployment has been a problem in this Oriental Pearl. The unemployment rate of overall working population in Hong Kong has been floating between 3.1% -8.8%

A 26 segment × 3 exposure (78 frames in total) pa...

English: A 12 segment panoramic image of the Hong ...

English: Full view of Kowloon and Hong Kong

(Census, 2011)�. While it is compared to that of South-Asian ethnic minorities in Hong Kong, it is relatively lower. The unemployment rate of South-Asian ethnic minorities can even hit about 40% (CityU & Unison, 2003)�, which seems more serious than local unemployment problem.

In Hong Kong, majority of South-Asian ethnic minorities are from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan, Maldives and Sri Lanka. 262,146 (76.6%) of them are working population. Excluding Domestic Helpers, others mainly are Indian (6%), Nepalese (4.7%) and Pakistani (3.2%) (Census, 2006)�. They come to Hong Kong because their own countries are not stable and have disrespectful racisms (基督教勵行會(秀茂坪)服務中心, 2006)�. Most of them (75.4%) engage in Elementary Occupations like construction workers and security guards. For example, 42.9% of Nepalese are in this group. Their median income (Excluding Foreign Domestic Helpers) is $8500, lower than that of overall Hong Kong working population ($10,000)(Census, 2006)�. According to City University and...