Integration or Ethnic Enclave? Emergent Stratification and the future of Mainland Immigration to Hong Kong

In this article we draw on insights from traditions of migration, political integration, and assimilation or adaptation in order to make sense of recent historical encounters of two peoples - the Chinese peoples from British Colonial Hong Kong and from the Peoples Republic of China. We discuss both their integration and the possible re-stratification based on a new ethnic enclave. Using Hong Kong Census Data 1991,1996, 2001 & 2006, our analysis offers a mixed message regarding the assimilation of the mainland Chinese in Hong Kong. On the one hand, two important indicators of social integration – place of residence and language – show that new arrivals from the Mainland are well-integrated into Hong Kong. Marriages were also increasingly exogamous from 1991 to 2006. On the other hand, there are persistent gaps in the incomes of mainland-born and Hong Kong native workers, driven in part by lower returns to years of schooling among workers born on the mainland. Further, those born on the mainland were unlikely to have accessed postsecondary education, and this disadvantage increased over the years. We conclude that new arrivals to Hong Kong are socially integrated but economically disadvantaged and lack educational opportunities.