| Total population | |
|---|---|
| Hong Kong-born Canadians (2021 census) | 213,855 [1] |
| Ethnic Hongkonger Canadians [a] (2021 census) | 81,680 [1] |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Greater Toronto Area, Metro Vancouver [2] | |
| Languages | |
| Cantonese, English, French | |
| Religion | |
| Chinese folk religions, Buddhism, Christianity, Taoism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Chinese Canadians, Taiwanese Canadians | |
| Hong Kong Canadians | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chinese | 香港裔加拿大人 | ||||||||||
| Jyutping | Hoeng1gong2 jeoi6 Gaa1naa4daai6 jan4 | ||||||||||
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| Alternative Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Chinese | 加拿大港人 | ||||||||||
| Jyutping | Gaa1naa4daai6 Gong2 jan4 | ||||||||||
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Hong Kong Canadians are Canadians who were born or raised in Hong Kong,hold permanent residency in Hong Kong,or trace their ancestry back to Hong Kong. In Canada,the majority of Hong Kong Canadians reside in the metropolitan areas of Toronto and Vancouver. Many Hong Kong Canadians continue to maintain their status as Hong Kong permanent residents.
The largest wave of immigration to Canada from Hong Kong occurred during the late 1980s and early 1990s,as a result of the uncertainties concerning the handover of Hong Kong from the United Kingdom to China in 1997. In the decades that followed the handover of Hong Kong,a number of Hong Kong Canadians have moved back to the territory.
Most Hong Kong Canadians are immigrants or descendants of Chinese migrants who settled in Canada from the late 1970s. However,a minority of Hongkongers migrated to Canada during the 1950s and 1960s. [3]
In 1984,the Sino-British Joint Declaration was signed,finalizing an agreement between the British and Chinese governments to transfer and reorganize Hong Kong as a Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China on July 1,1997. Anxiety over the impending handover sparked a large wave of emigration from Hong Kong to the Anglosphere between 1984 and 1997. One of the most popular destinations chosen by Hong Kong emigrants of the time was Canada,where thousands of Hongkongers settled in Greater Toronto and Metro Vancouver. [2] [4] According to the Canadian International Council,approximately 335,646 Hongkongers moved to Canada between 1984 and 1997. The immigration of Hongkongers to Canada peaked in 1994,with 44,271 Hongkongers migrating to the country in that year alone. [5]
A number of Hong Kong family units that moved to Canada during the 1990s were examples of an astronaut family,where most of the family unit was based in Canada,but one parent continued to live and work in Hong Kong. [2]
The early 21st century saw a "reverse migration" of Hongkongers,with a number of Hongkongers who migrated to Canada prior to the handover returning to the territory during the late 1990s and early 2000s. [5] Many of those who returned to the territory did so for financial opportunities. [5] The resulting "reverse migration" saw the number of Hong Kong-born Canadian residents drop between 1996 and 2011. [5]
However the trend reversed again during the 2010s,with the number of Hong Kong-born Canadians living in Canada increasing between 2011 and 2016 Canadian census. [5] Hong Kong-born Canadians who moved back to Canada in the 2010s cited a variety of reasons for returning to Canada;including personal reasons,as well as political reasons relating to the Hong Kong-Mainland China conflict. [5] The increase in the number of returning Hong Kong-Canadians has also been attributed to those who are returning to Canada to retire,after they moved back to Hong Kong for employment in the late 1990s. [5] In addition to returning Hong Kong-born Canadians,the 2016 Canadian Census also reported an increase in the number of new migrants from Hong Kong that became permanent residents in Canada. [5] According to Immigration,Refugees and Citizenship Canada,new visa applications from Hongkongers increased by 20 per cent to 10,819 in 2020. [2]
On November 12,2020,Marco Mendicino,the Canadian Minister of Immigration,increased measures to expediate the process for Hong Kong residents to resettle in Canada as students,workers,and permanent residents. [6] A new work-permit scheme was introduced in Canada in February 2021,that targeted young professionals who earned a postsecondary degree or diploma in the past five years from an institution recognized in Canada. [7]
For the 2021 Canadian census,a group of Hong Kong Canadians launched a campaign across Canada to encourage the Canadian government to recognize Hongkongers as an official identity,and for Hong Kong Canadians to write-in Hongkonger as their ethnic origin and Cantonese as one of their spoken language. [8] [9] Earlier censuses did not provide Hongkonger as an option,and anyone who noted it on the census form was grouped as Chinese. Hongkonger was later included in the 2021 census as an ethnicity. [8] A total of 81,680 people identified "Hong Konger" as their ethnic origin,while 213,855 people listed their place of birth as Hong Kong. [1]
Olivia Chow,born in British Hong Kong,became the first Chinese-Canadian mayor of Toronto in July 2023,following the 2023 Toronto mayoral by-election. [10] [11]
The 2016 Canadian census reported that only 215,775 Canadians residing in Canada were born in Hong Kong. [5] The number of Hong Kong-born Canadians living in Canada peaked in 1996,with 241,095 Hong Kong-born Canadians reported in that year's census. [5] Between 1996 and 2011,the number of Hong Kong-born Canadians dropped as many Hong Kong-Canadians chose to return to Hong Kong during the 2000s. [5] From 2011 to 2016,the number of Hong Kong-born Canadians residing in Canada increased again. [5]
In 2006,among the 790,035 speakers of any variety of Chinese,300,590 were speakers of Cantonese. [12] According to 2001 statistics,44% of Cantonese speakers were born in Hong Kong,27% were born in Guangdong,and 18% were born in Canada. [13] Among the Cantonese speakers who were born in Guangdong,a large percentage immigrated from Hong Kong.
Hong Kong boasts the second-largest community of Canadians living abroad,second only to Canadians residing in the United States. [4] There were approximately 300,000 Canadians living in Hong Kong in 2011. [14] [4] [15] Most of these Canadians are dual nationals originating from the Hong Kong who migrated to Canada prior to the handover of the territory. [14] A number of Hongkongers eventually returned to the territory after acquiring Canadian citizenship. [4]
A 2011 report from the Asia Pacific Foundation of Canada,found that the majority of Canadians living in Hong Kong have only resided in Canada for four or five years. [4] However,7 in 10 Canadians living in Hong Kong have family living in Canada;with more than 60 per cent of Canadians living in the territory stating they have plans to return to Canada at some point in the future. [4] The same study also found that 46 per cent of Canadians living in Hong Kong considered Canada their home "sometimes" or "all the time," while 37 per cent of Hong Kong-born Canadians stated they would "never" consider Canada home. [3]
Demographic features of the population of Hong Kong include population density, ethnicity, education level, the health of the populace, religious affiliations, and other aspects.
The culture of Hong Kong is primarily a mix of Chinese and Western influences, stemming from Lingnan Cantonese roots and later fusing with British culture due to British colonialism. As an international financial center dubbed "Asia's World City", contemporary Hong Kong has also absorbed many international influences from around the world. Moreover, Hong Kong also has indigenous people and ethnic minorities from South and Southeast Asia, whose cultures all play integral parts in modern-day Hong Kong culture. As a result, after the 1997 transfer of sovereignty to the People's Republic of China, Hong Kong has continued to develop a unique identity under the rubric of One Country, Two Systems.
British National (Overseas), abbreviated as BN(O), is a class of British nationality associated with the former colony of Hong Kong. The status was acquired through voluntary registration by individuals with a connection to the territory who had been British Dependent Territories citizens (BDTCs) before the handover to China in 1997. Registration for BN(O) status was limited to the 10-year period preceding the transfer as a transitional arrangement for former BDTCs; current residents cannot newly acquire this nationality.
The 1990s in Hong Kong marked a transitional period and the last decade of colonial British rule in Hong Kong.
Britons never made up more than a small portion of the population in Hong Kong, despite Hong Kong having been under British rule for more than 150 years. However, they did leave their mark on Hong Kong's institutions, culture and architecture. The British population in Hong Kong today consists mainly of career expatriates working in banking, education, real estate, law and consultancy, as well as many British-born ethnic Chinese, former Chinese émigrés to the UK and Hong Kongers who successfully applied for full British citizenship before the transfer of sovereignty in 1997.
A Hong Kong returnee is a resident of Hong Kong who emigrated to another country, lived for an extended period of time in his or her adopted home, and then subsequently moved back to Hong Kong.
Chinese nationality law details the conditions by which a person holds nationality of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The primary law governing these requirements is the Nationality Law of the People's Republic of China, which came into force on September 10, 1980.
The Hong Kong identity card is an official identity document issued by the Immigration Department of Hong Kong. According to the Registration of Persons Ordinance, all residents of age 11 or above who are living in Hong Kong for longer than 180 days must, within 30 days of either reaching the age of 11 or arriving in Hong Kong, register for an HKID. HKIDs contain amongst others the name of the bearer in English, and if applicable in Chinese. The HKID does not expire for the duration of residency in Hong Kong.
New immigrants in Hong Kong generally refers to migrants from mainland China (Mainlanders). Despite its literal meaning, the term is rarely used to describe newly arrived immigrants from regions other than Mainland China. Since the transfer of sovereignty over Hong Kong to The People's Republic of China, increasing numbers of migrants from mainland China have been coming to the territory.
Emigration from Hong Kong refers to the migration of Hong Kong residents away from Hong Kong. Reasons for migration range from livelihood hardships, such as the high cost of living and educational pressures, to economic opportunities elsewhere, such as expanded opportunities in mainland China following the Reform and Opening-Up, to various political events, such as the Japanese invasion of Hong Kong during the Second World War, the 1967 unrest, uncertainties leading up to the 1997 handover, and the 2019–2020 unrest. The largest community of Hong Kongers living outside of Hong Kong is in Mainland China, followed by the US, Canada and the UK.
Hong Kongers in the United Kingdom are people from Hong Kong who are residing in the United Kingdom or British nationals of Hong Kong origin or descent.
Hongkongers, Hong Kongers, Hong Kongese, Hongkongese, Hong Kong citizens and Hong Kong people are demonyms that refer to a resident of Hong Kong, although they may also refer to others who were born and/or raised in the territory.
Sze Yap Cantonese represents the second largest Han group in Hong Kong after the group of people (Punti) originating from the Guangzhou-Sam Yap region. The Sze Yap Cantonese comes from a region in Guangdong in China called Sze Yap, now called Ng Yap, which consists of the counties of Taishan, Kaiping, Xinhui, Enping, Heshan and Jiangmen. The Sze Yap Cantonese group have contributed much to what makes Hong Kong a success. Hong Kong people of Sze Yap origin represented about 18.3% of Hong Kong's total population in 1961, and 17.4% in 1971; today this population still increases as more immigrants from the Taishanese-speaking areas of Guangdong in mainland China continue to immigrate to Hong Kong.
Hong Kong Americans, include Americans who are also Hong Kong residents who identify themselves as Hong Kongers, Americans of Hong Kong ancestry, and also Americans who have Hong Kong parents.
Canada and Hong Kong share a legal and political history as parts of the former British Empire, and Canada continues to maintain strong relations with Hong Kong as a special administrative region within China. The Canadian government strongly supports Hong Kong's autonomy under Chinese sovereignty in accordance with the "one country, two systems" principle as provided for in the Sino-British Joint Declaration and the Hong Kong Basic Law, which serves as Hong Kong's organic law.
The Chinese Canadian community in the Greater Toronto Area was first established around 1877, with an initial population of two laundry owners. While the Chinese Canadian population was initially small in size, it dramatically grew beginning in the late 1960s due to changes in immigration law and political issues in Hong Kong. Additional immigration from Southeast Asia in the aftermath of the Vietnam War and related conflicts and a late 20th century wave of Hong Kong immigration led to the further development of Chinese ethnic enclaves in the Greater Toronto Area. The Chinese established many large shopping centres in suburban areas catering to their ethnic group. There are 679,725 Chinese in the Greater Toronto Area as of the 2021 census, second only to New York City for largest Chinese community in North America.
Chinese Canadians are a sizable part of the population in Greater Vancouver, especially in the Chinese communities in the city of Vancouver and the adjoining suburban city of Richmond. The legacy of Chinese immigration is prevalent throughout the Vancouver area.
In Hong Kong, localism is a political movement centred on the preservation of the city's autonomy and local culture. The Hong Kong localist movement encompasses a variety of groups with different goals, but all of them oppose the perceived growing encroachment of the Chinese central government on the city's management of its own political, economic, and social affairs. While the movement's milder elements advocate for greater autonomy while remaining as part of China, the more radical elements call for a return to British rule or full independence as a sovereign state. Some also advocate for a more aggressive and militant stance against the mainland government in defending local interests. For that reason, they are labelled as "radicals" and "separatists" by the Chinese government. Issues of concern to the localist camp include land use and development, cultural and heritage conservation, parallel trading, and the increasing number of mainland immigrants and mainland tourists. Although grouped together with liberals, they have a distinct view as they advocate for Hongkongers' right to self-determination. In the aftermath of the 2019–2020 Hong Kong protests, localists were largely absorbed into the pro-democracy camp.
Hongkongers in the Netherlands are people in the Netherlands originated from Hong Kong or having at least once such parent.
Hongkongers in Britain is a Hongkonger expatriate association based in the United Kingdom that was established to unite the people of Hong Kong in the UK, and build an alliance with the international Hongkongers community. It was founded by a group of pro-democracy Hongkongers and activists including former British consulate officer Simon Cheng.
Canadians of Asian descent by area of origin | ||
|---|---|---|
| Central Asia |  | |
| East Asia | ||
| Southeast Asia | ||
| South Asia | ||
| West Asia | ||
