Immigration and public attitudes towards social assistance: evidence from Hong Kong

ABSTRACT

The paper investigates the puzzling phenomenon of why Hong Kong citizens have much lower support for increasing spending on social assistance when all other welfare programs have been favored by local residents. With a random sampling survey, we find that citizens’ support towards raising the requirement of immigration is negatively correlated with their support for social assistance (the CSSA scheme). This study highlights that the perception of “who benefits” will influence citizens’ support for welfare spending. The Hong Kong story enriches the debate about the impact of citizens’ attitudes towards immigration on welfare spending against a backdrop of deglobalization and anti-immigration.

KEYWORDS:

• Immigration
• deglobalization
• public attitudes
• poverty
• Hong Kong
• China

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The Hong Kong government has put encouraging people to rejoin the workforce and avoiding work disincentives as a guiding principle for the CSSA scheme. For details, see page 2 for a government’s paper presented to the legislature: https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr19-20/english/panels/ws/papers/ws20191111cb2-145-5-e.pdf. Accessed on 9 December 2019.

2. The HKSAR Government Press Release. 2019. “The operation of one-way permit”.

https://www.info.gov.hk/gia/general/201903/20/P2019032000536.htm?fontSize=1. Accessed on 9 December 2019.

3. Ibid.

4. There are reports that some immigrants have hidden income but may still receive CSSA. Next Magazine, 2018. “The case of new immigrants cheating the CSSA.” https://nextplus.nextmedia.com/news/latest/20181023/632506. Accessed on 29 January 2019.

5. Reclaiming the Social Worker Movement. 2018. “Response to Next Magazine’s report of ‘The case of new immigrants cheating the CSSA’.” https://www.inmediahk.net/node/1060229. Accessed on 29 January 2019.

6. Similar questions can be found in surveys in other countries. For example, the polls for Brexit also used such questions. See: https://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/19/britain-uncovered-survey-attitudes-beliefs-britons-2015. Accessed on 30 January 2019.

7. MOSers’ Facebook Page (28 February 2018). https://www.facebook.com/groups/maonshanhk/.

8. Research and Statistics Section, Social Welfare Department, HKSAR. 2018. “Statistics on Comprehensive Social Security Assistance Scheme, 2007 to 2017.” https://www.censtatd.gov.hk/hkstat/sub/sp390.jsp?productCode=FA100078. Accessed on 29 January 2019. The “cases” could refer to both individuals and families, according to the government report.

9. Hong Kong’s pension regime is “voluntary private” according to the classification of Marcinkiewicz and Chybalski (2019), before the introduction of the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes in 2000.

10. Some local advocacy groups do point out that immigrants from mainland China (as vulnerable people, see Clifton, Díaz-Fuentes, and Fernández-Gutiérrez’s (2019) insightful debate on vulnerable citizens in the European context) need to be paid attention to, and their contributions to economic prosperity should not be ignored.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by Department of Asian and Policy Studies, Education University of Hong Kong; Shanghai Jiao Tong University Project WF220513006; the Ministry of Education of China Project 18YJC810010.