Citizenship for Hong Kongers would show UK means business
We didn’t take the chance when we had it in 1997. But we could finally fix that in 2020. With Hong Kong in turmoil, China threatening fresh pressure on the territory, and 300,000 holders of British National (Overseas) passports under threat, Dominic Raab, the Foreign Secretary, has held out the prospect of those people being offered full citizenship of the UK – with the right to live and work in this country.
Sure, that will be controversial politically. Immigration is not always, to put it mildly, popular with the voters, especially for a government that won a big majority with a promise to take back control of the borders.
But it would be absolutely the right decision for the economy. Why? Because it would help the UK make a crucial shift from low-skilled to high-skilled immigration, because those people could help turn Britain into a commercial hub that links Europe and Asia, and because it would be the most powerful possible symbol that leaving the European Union was about becoming “Global Britain” rather than “Little England”.
You can argue about the rights and wrongs of the politics. But welcoming around 300,000 hard-working, entrepreneurial Hong Kongers would be a fantastic boost for business.
It was always a controversial decision not to offer full British citizenship to Hong Kong’s citizens when the territory was handed back to China in 1997.
Instead, they were offered the option of British National (Overseas) passports. That gave them the right to travel around the world.
But, crucially, it didn’t give them the right to live and work in the UK. It was hardly this country’s noblest, or most generous, moment.
Around 300,000 people still hold BNO passports. With China threatening the quasi-independence of the territory, they might finally be offered full citizenship rights, or at least the option of living and working in this country.
That depends on how the political situation plays out. In truth, however, that offer should be made immediately, and without any form of restriction. It would be a huge boost for the economy, and at a time when it could really use it. Here’s why.
First, Hong Kong is home to some of the best-educated, hardest-working, most entrepreneurial people in the world. The OECD’S Pisa league table of education systems ranks it fourth in the world for maths, 10th for science, and fourth for reading (while the UK, in case you were wondering, doesn’t make the top 10 in any of those). It is
‘Hong Kong is home to some of the hardest-working, most entrepreneurial people in the world’
joint 13th in the world measured by per capita GDP, ahead of Germany and France, and of course this country as well. Over the past 50 years, it has recorded annual average growth of 5pc (don’t even ask what our figure is, it will just get you down). You don’t get those kinds of results by accident.
For a rocky little place, with no natural resources, and constantly bullied by its far larger parent country, it is a remarkable achievement.
The UK needs to move from primarily low-skilled, poorly educated immigration from eastern Europe to attracting high-skilled, highly educated new workers from wherever they happen to come from. That is one of the ways economies grow. There would be no better place to start that process than by welcoming lots and lots of immigrants from Hong Kong.
Next, the Hong Kong Chinese have fantastic links right across Asia. The city has always been a trading, financial and commercial hub, making connections and shifting money and goods around the world.
It has been home to some of the great entrepreneurs of the 20th century, from Sir Li Ka-shing to Lee Shau-kee, who controls Henderson Land. It is still creating plenty of billion-plus internet start-ups.
The UK should be aiming to be a link between fast-growing Asia, and a rich but often stagnant Europe.
That is a natural role for the City, and also for the UK’S legal, accounting, engineering consultancy and technology firms. Making those kinds of connections is precisely what Hong Kong’s instinctive wheeler-dealers are so good at. The more of them choosing to base themselves in Britain, the easier it will be to build those bridges – and the faster the UK will grow.
Finally, it will send out precisely the right message, and at just the right time. As our transitional deal comes to an end, and as it looks more and more likely we won’t even be able to reach a trade deal with the EU, we could use a bold statement that the country remains open to and engaged with the rest of the world – even if it is a little less involved with the pen pushers in Brussels.
There has always been a tension between the Little England and Global Britain versions of Brexit.
The Johnson Government was meant to be more in favour of the second than the first. But this would be a great moment to make that real. Opening our doors to a wave of immigrants from Hong Kong would be a decisive symbol.
In truth, a country that has allowed in 109,000 Bulgarians (average GDP per capita $9,000 or £7,275) and 420,000 Romanians (average GDP per capita $12,000) can hardly say no to 300,000 Hong Kong residents who come from a territory four times as wealthy. Or at least it can’t do so while claiming its immigration policies are based on anything even vaguely resembling a rational thought process.
It remains to be seen what happens in Hong Kong over the next few weeks. And it is debatable whether many would want to move here, even if they were allowed to. It is a rainy little island, there are no views of the South China Sea, and outside of WC1 it is impossible to get decent dim sum.
Even so, the offer should be made, and made generously. And the more Hong Kong residents who took up full citizenship rights, the better it would be for the British economy.