To what extend is poverty and social exclusion of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong due to

the society’s failure to allocate resources and provide opportunities fairly?

Hong Kong has been known as one of the most multicultural places in Asia, it embraces
people from various ethnic backgrounds. However, with the rapid growth of ethnic
minorities in the city, social inequalities are increasingly evident. According to the Census
and Statistic Department, the poverty rate among ethnic minorities increases from 15.8% in
2011 to 19.4% in 2016, showing further deterioration of inequality. (Census and Statistic
Department, 2018) There have been different explanations for such poverty and social
exclusion, while this essay will argue that the major reason behind this is due to society’s
failure in resource allocation and provision of fair opportunities.

The individualist theory explains the poverty of ethnic minorities due to their personal
inadequacies. It is believed that an individual is poor because of personal reasons such as lack
of intelligence and capability to work hard and achieve a higher socioeconomic status. Ethnic
minorities may also lack the motivation to move up the ladder, resulting in most of them
occupying low-skilled and low-paid jobs. There is no doubt that talent and self-motivation
affect a person’s financial attainment, yet this does not apply to every ethnic minority. A study
from the Lingnan University found out that despite having tertiary education attainment,
43.5% of well-educated ethnic respondents are being unemployed. (Leung, 2018) Moreover,
most ethnic minorities have difficulties in finding white-collar jobs. As a result, they can only
turn to manual work, such as construction and food delivery which is relatively deprived.
This proves that individual inadequacies do not fully explain poverty among ethnic
minorities, especially those who are capable and talented. Instead, the underlying reasons
behind their unemployment should be analysed for the full picture.

Another explanation of poverty and social exclusion among ethnic minorities is the culture of
dependency, again it can be proved that this is not applicable to the situation in Hong Kong.
From the New Right’s perspective, welfare provided by the government has created a culture
of dependency. As a result, ethnic minorities can simply rely on financial aid to survive, they
eventually lost the incentive to work and remain poor. However, in Hong Kong, cash subsidy
from the government to ethnic minorities is relatively slight. According to the government’s
Poverty Situation Report on Ethnic Minorities, it is observed that ethnic minorities are mostly

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 self-reliant and less dependent on cash benefits. Within their poverty group, the share of non-
recipients of cash assistants has increased evidently. Furthermore, recurrent cash benefits
were only able to lift 4600 people out of poverty (Census and Statistic Department, 2018),
showing that the government did not provide a lot of direct financial aid to ethnic minorities.
The culture of dependency is imperceptible in Hong Kong, instead of losing incentive to
work, 85.9% of them are part of the labour force. (Census and Statistic Department, 2017)
Hence, poverty among them cannot be explained by the overprovision of social welfare.

It should be the society’s failure to allocate resources through government support that
explains the poverty and social exclusion of ethnic minorities in Hong Kong. Although cash
aids are not widely acceptable by ethnic minorities, there is a need to allocate more resources
to them in various areas, especially in education. Statistics from the children council show
46.2% of ethnic minorities pointing out that schools did not provide enough support for them
to learn Chinese. (Chan, n.d.) Without a standardized Chinese language curriculum and any
support, a lot of them encounter difficulties in learning Chinese, and this further affects their
learning at school with other subjects also taught in Chinese. There is evidence that education
is crucial for social mobility. Together with the polarization of the labour market, knowledge-
based skills are becoming more important for people to have a secured and highly rewarded
job. Yet, due to the lack of resources in education, ethnic minorities are disadvantaged in the
labour market. Without knowledge-based skills, they can only take up insecure and low-paid
jobs. Also, without Chinese proficiency, it is less likely they will be employed in Hong Kong,
let alone occupying white-collar jobs. Therefore, failure in allocating education resources to
ethnic minorities paves the way to their poverty and social exclusion.

In addition, society did not provide fair opportunities for ethnic minorities in the workplace,
thus leading to their poverty and social exclusion. Studies found out that over 65% of ethnic
minorities felt discriminated against when they are looking for a job. (YMCA of Hong Kong,
2018) Despite ethnic minorities’ ability to speak fluent Cantonese, a lot of companies in
Hong Kong refuse to hire them once employers found out their ethnicity. There is a bias that
they perform worse at work, are more likely to engage in crime, and are more suitable for
physical labour. Although the government has spent resources in securing employment of
ethnic minorities. It is still far from enough to help build mutual trust and reduce
discrimination. The decisions to hire or not and hire for what types of jobs are still in the
hands of companies. Multiple rejections and a long period of unemployment have pushed

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 ethnic minorities to serve as the new reserve army of labour. According to Byrne, the
unemployed who are desperate for work will be willing to take low-wage jobs, such as
working as a part-time and casual labourer. Being exploited by capitalists, most ethnic
minorities do not have stable and compensating jobs. With limited income, they fall into
poverty and are unable to get rid of it.

In conclusion, society fails to allocate sufficient resources in education and fails to provide
fair job opportunities to ethnic minorities. This results in them taking jobs that are low-
skilled, low-paid, and insecure. Hence, the lack of income leads to the poverty and social
exclusion of ethnic minorities. Although individual inadequacies and the culture of
dependency may contribute to such social inequality, their effects are relatively low in Hong
Kong. Therefore, to a large extend poverty and social exclusion of ethnic minorities is due to
society’s failure to allocate resources and provide opportunities fairly.

(1000 words)

References

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 Censes and Statistic Department. (2018, February). Hong Kong Poverty Situation Report on
Ethnic Minorities 2016. Retrieved May 09, 2021, from
https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/data/stat_report/product/B9XX0004/att/B9XX0004E20
16XXXXE0100.pdf

Censes and Statistics Department. (2017, December). Thematic Report : Ethnic Minorities.
Retrieved May 09, 2021, from
https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/en/data/stat_report/product/B1120100/att/B11201002016X
XXXB0100.pdf

Chan, R. (n.d.). The Government should adopt effective measures to help ethnic minorities
deal with their difficulties in learning Chinese. Retrieved May 09, 2021, from
https://childrencouncil.org.hk/app/webroot/files/cms/14th_Motion3_eng.pdf

Leung, Y. (2018, July 3). 高學歷搵工更艱難 ‧ 少數族裔青年的囧處境 「香港少數族裔

青年求職模式及支援實況」研究結果. Retrieved May 09, 2021, from
https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr16-17/chinese/hc/sub_com/hs52/papers/hs5220180709cb2-
1736-4-ec.pdf

YMCA of Hong Kong. (2018, May). 對本港不同行業聘用少數族裔人士情況之研究.

Retrieved May 09, 2021, from
https://www.eoc.org.hk/EOC/Upload/UserFiles/File/Funding
%20Programme/policy/1314/20150601/Chinese%20YMCA_Report.pdf

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