Racism and Social Inequality:
Work and Employment of
South Asian Ethnic Minority in
Hong Kong
Hok Bun KU & Kam Wah CHAN
Department of Applied Social Sciences
The Hong Kong Polytechnic University
Introduction
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According to the 2001 official
population census, ethnic
minorities constituted 5.1
per cent of the Hong Kong
population with a total of
343,950. Among them, the
population of South and
Southeast Asians, including
Pakistanis, Indians, Nepalese,
Filipinos, Indonesians and
Thais, was 249,516 (Census
and Statistics Department,
2002).
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Discrimination against South Asian people is largely
unarticulated and undocumented in Hong Kong.
Making people invisible is one way of marginalizing and
socially excluding them.
In 2002 we started a pilot study about the life situation
of Pakistanis in Hong Kong and then in 2004 funded by
the CERG Grant we continued another bigger project
titled “Ethnicity and Social Exclusion – A Study on the
Life Situation of South Asian Ethnic Minority in Hong
Kong”
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It aims to understand the situation of South Asian ethnic
minority groups through their hidden voices and to see
what social forces contribute to the social exclusion of
ethnic minority groups, as well as to understand how
their racial and ethnic identities make their position
vulnerable in areas such as education, employment,
housing, health and social services.
We also hope to make the finding reach to the policy
makers and helps them reformulate the law to outlaw
racial discrimination and design services more favorable
to the ethnic minority.
The paper focuses on the employment issues concerning
South Asian ethnic minority groups in Hong Kong, namely
the Filipinos, Indians, Nepalese and Pakistanis.
Race/Ethnicity and Social
Exclusion in Hong Kong
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In recent years, social exclusion has been one of the
important themes in policy debates in Western
societies
It has also replaced the ‘underclass’ in discussions
about the poor in post-industrial society.
‘Social exclusion’ means much more than poverty
because many exclusions and inequalities are
embedded in everyday social interactions, social
practices and social discourse.
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It involves not just the lack of material resources but
also a multi-dimensional process in which various
forms of exclusion are combined: participation in
decision making and the political process, access to
employment and material resources, and integration
into common cultural processes.
There is a close relation between ‘ethnicity’ and
‘social exclusion’.
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Numerous surveys by academics, the press, and other
NGOs provide incontrovertible evidence that ‘racist
attitudes lie very deep’ and racial discrimination is a
serious problem in Hong Kong
We do hope via this paper, South Asian ethnic
minorities’ voices can be heard by the government and
the public
Employment Situation of South Asian
Ethnic Minorities in Hong Kong
Table 6: Employment Status
ETHNIC ORIGIN
EMPLOYMENT
Employer
STATUS
Self-employed
Full-time employed
Filipino
Indian
Nepalese
Pakistani
Total
0
0
0
1
1
(0.0)
(0.0)
(0.0)
(2.0)
(0.5)
1
3
1
4
9
(2.0)
(6.0)
(2.0)
(8.0)
(4.5)
29
28
37
25
119
(58.0)
(56.0)
(74.0)
(50.0)
(59.5)
Part-time employed
Unemployed
Housewife /
Homemaker
Retired
Total
9
8
4
4
25
(18.0)
(16.0)
(8.0)
(8.0)
(12.5)
4
5
8
9
26
(8.0)
(10.0)
(16.0)
(18.0)
(13.0)
7
5
0
2
14
(14.0)
(10.0)
(0.0)
(4.0)
(7.0)
0
1
0
5
6
(0.0)
(2.0)
(0.0)
(10.0)
(3.0)
50
50
50
50
200
(100.0)
(100.0)
(100.0)
(100.0)
(100.0)
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Racial Labor Market
Segmentation
Table 7: Occupation and Ethnic Origin
ETHNIC ORIGIN
Filipino
Indian
Nepales
e
Pakistani
Total
5
2
3
2
12
(10.0)
(4.3)
(6.3)
(4.3)
(6.3)
2
2
3
1
8
(4.0)
(4.3)
(6.3)
(2.2)
(4.2)
2
6
3
5
16
(4.0)
(13.0)
(6.3)
(10.9)
(8.4)
3
10
1
10
24
OCCUPATION
Managers and
Administrators
Professionals
Associate Professionals
Clerks
(6.0)
(21.7)
(2.1)
(21.7)
(12.6)
33
9
5
9
56
(66.0)
(19.6)
(10.4)
(19.6)
(29.5)
0
1
1
4
6
operators and assemblers
(0.0)
(2.2)
(2.1)
(8.7)
(3.2)
Elementary Occupations
5
16
32
15
68
(10.0)
(34.8)
(66.7)
(32.6)
(35.8)
50
46
48
46
190
(100.0)
(100.0)
(100.0)
Service workers and
shop sales workers
Plant and machine
Total
(100.0) (100.0)
Table 8: Working hours per week
Percent
Frequency
35 hours or less
26
18.1
36 – 44
30
20.8
45 – 49
16
11.1
50 – 54
27
18.8
55 – 59
10
6.9
60 – 64
16
11.1
65 – 69
6
4.2
70 – 74
5
3.5
75 – 79
1
0.7
80 – 84
5
3.5
95 – 99
1
0.7
100 hours or more
1
0.7
144
100.0
Total
Table 9: Average monthly income
Percent
Cumulative
Percentage
Frequency
3,999 or below
8
5.2
5.2
4,000 – 5,999
22
14.4
19.6
6,000 – 7,999
41
26.8
46.4
8,000 – 9,999
22
14.4
60.8
10,000 – 14,999
31
20.3
81.1
15,000 – 19,999
14
9.2
90.2
20,000 – 24,999
6
3.9
94.1
25,000 – 29,999
2
1.3
95.4
30,000 – 34,999
2
1.3
96.7
35,000 – 39,999
3
2.0
98.7
40,000 or above
2
1.3
100.0
153
100.0
Total
Table 10 Means of getting current job
Frequency
Receive help from family members, relatives and
friends
Percent
136
71.6
37
19.5
Look for advertisements in streets and shops
9
4.7
Receive
frommay
social
workers
Note:help
The respondent
write more
than one career chances. Total Number of Respondent = 190
8
4.2
Through the Labour Department
4
2.1
Through private job referral agency
7
3.7
Through ethnic minority organization
1
0.5
Others
3
1.6
Read newspapers/magazines/internet
advertisements
Table 11. Difficulties in searching for a job in Hong Kong
Percent
Frequency
Don’t know Cantonese/Mandarin
144
75.0
Rejected because I am not Chinese
71
37.0
The job advertisements are mostly written in
Chinese
67
34.9
My qualification is not recognized in Hong Kong
48
25.0
Low educational qualifications
41
21.4
Nobody helps in introducing jobs
40
20.8
Cultural and/or religious differences
38
19.8
Lack of skills
37
19.3
Fees of job referral agency too high
19
9.9
Don’t know English
15
7.8
Age
4
2.1
Immigration policy
1
0.5
Other forms of discrimination
1
0.5
Others
4
2.1
Table 12: Time spent to find the current job
Percent
Frequency
Less than a month
32
23.0
1 to 2 months
47
33.8
3 to 6 months
47
33.8
7 to 12 months
10
7.2
3
2.2
139
100.0
More than 12 months
Total
Table 13. Problems at workplace in Hong Kong
Frequenc
y
Percen
t
Difficult to communicate with supervisors or bosses
53
37.1
Difficult to communicate with colleagues
50
35.0
Cannot receive salary on time
44
30.8
Bullied (laughed at, made fun of, humiliated, insulted) by
supervisors/colleagues
30
21.0
Conflicts involving cultural and/or religious practices
22
15.4
Unreasonably fired because I am ethnic minority
18
12.6
Unequal treatment
2
1.4
Heavy workload
1
0.7
Others
3
2.1
Color Still Matters
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Racial Bias and
Discrimination in job
searching and at Workplace
Unequal treatment at the
workplace
Unrecognized educational
qualifications
South Asian People’s Narratives
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“Even in the newspaper recruitment ad, the
requirement is not Chinese. It is an English company.
Still, if you phone them for an interview, and they
come to know that you’re a Pakistani, your nationality,
they will just not call you. They won’t bother. They
won’t even bother to give you some time. They’ll just
say, ‘Okay, we’ll call you or something like that.’ And
then just finish! At this point they don’t even ask you
if you know Cantonese or not…Concerning Hong
Kong environment and the culture, they still think
that Chinese will be more adapted to the kind of
society.”
“Sometimes I look for jobs in Recruit. When I called
them, they asked about my qualifications. After that,
they asked me, ‘Who’re you? Are you a Chinese?’ I
answered that my nationality is Pakistani. Then, they
said, ‘Sorry, you can’t.’”
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“I think this is a show – the language barrier – we can
call it a show. It is played in the hands of the
government, non-government organizations and other
firms. Whenever a South Asian who can’t read or write
Chinese and goes to any firms to apply for jobs,
straightly the first question is, “Do you know how to
read and write Chinese?” “Sorry.” This is the show that
everybody is using on everybody. I’ve seen many
advertisements that state ‘good English, better job
opportunities.’ Where are the job opportunities? … Any
person who speaks English, you use the Chinese show.
And you give the job to the one whom you want. To
whom you want to give it, you give it!”
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Religion matters too…the kindergarten was affiliated
with a church. The person frankly told me, ‘We’re
afraid that you may teach your religion to our
children.’ I said, ‘Why will I do so?’ [Exclaimed sadly.]
Though I had kindergarten teaching experience, it’s
in his mind that maybe I would teach them my
religion. I see a lot of Christians preaching on streets.
Some even came to our doorsteps and offered us
books and things. We’ve never had these things.
They’re doing that, fine, no problem. But why did he
think I’d do the same? This is a barrier.
Conclusion
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A sense of exclusion is common for our respondents.
racism operates subtly and constitutes inequality in work and
employment among South Asian people in Hong Kong.
Their life experiences in Hong Kong are shaped by discrimination,
racism and differential or preferential treatment.
Racial labour market segmentation is the obvious pattern in Hong
Kong.
While language and credential are two of the main problems the
ethnic minorities faced in job search or at work, racial discrimination
is another significant factor.
Racial discrimination in the labour market was overwhelming, and it
led to unequal treatments suffered by the ethnic minorities.
Comparing to their local Chinese counterpart, the ethnic minorities
received unequal/lower pay, less promotion opportunity, more
workload, less job safety, higher chances of being laid off, less
working benefits and are at times rejected because of cultural and/or
religious practices.