The ignored Hongkongers who do not have BNO passport
The clock is ticking fast for John Leung, a 29-year-old programmer who prefers to use a pseudonym as using his real name may threaten safety of his parents back home.
If he cannot secure another visa to extend his stay within 730 days, he will risk deportation even though he was, in some sense, born as a British national in Hong Kong.
Unlike most Hongkongers granted pathway to settlement with British National (Overseas) visas, John does not have many options.
He can either work for an approved employer for five years, seek asylum or find his true love in the country and apply for a spouse visa, only because his parents did not get a passport for him before the 1997 handover deadline.
The BNO visa scheme was created in January 2021 in response to the continuous crackdown on pro-democracy protesters by Chinese authorities. It was recently expanded to allow adult children of BNO holders born after 1997 to apply independently.
Over 140,000 people have arrived in the UK through this route, according to Home Office figures.
“This is really a mess the UK government left behind at the time when Margaret Thatcher signed the Joint Declaration in Beijing,” John says, “There’re confusions and legal difficulties on nationality ever since.”
Although not eligible to apply for the visa, John still decided to leave his birthplace when he saw an opportunity under the Youth Mobility Scheme.
This summer, he had farewell lunch with colleagues who were shocked by his sudden resignation at Hong Kong International Airport, waved goodbye to them and stepped onto his flight to London Heathrow.
A dying city
The newcomer does not like Hong Kong much to begin with. “The government treats its people like components of a machine, the living cost is too high and the city is too overcrowded.
“I think society has grown toxic as well when a lot of people blindly follow recent trends and become fans of popular idol groups only because friends around them do the same thing.”
Locals aside, John got sickened by the shift in political climate.
He felt apathetic towards China a decade ago, a golden era when the Asian city saw massive economic growth thanks to wealthy mainland tourists while enjoying western-style freedoms guaranteed by the 'One Country, Two System’ principle. “Keep your head down and you can live prosperously”, John described.
All of that came to a halt following political suppression in the wake of citywide demonstrations and the implementation of National Security Law, which has accelerated an exodus of professional talents heading to Singapore, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom.
Although John was not arrested, he feared his participation in peaceful rallies and political beliefs may put him in danger when everyone around him could see his social media posts supporting the protests and report him to his employer, or even national security police.
“It’s a breaking point for me. I couldn’t stay any longer.”
‘Deadlock’
The first few months are challenging to John, who does not have close relatives in Britain to fall back on. Most of the time he has to solve problems himself in a country he is not familiar with.
He has already moved between Airbnbs in London, Birmingham and Merseyside since arrival.
With no fixed address, John, who has about HK$300,000 (£31,446) in savings, faces a vicious cycle of unemployment as companies refuse his job application as he lacks a stable, long-term residence.
The situation has become more dire as his remote contract with his ex-employer NEC, a Japanese multinational IT company, ended in November.
“I wish I had a flat in Hong Kong to sell,” John points out a common tactic families emigrating from the former colony where the average house price is higher than that of London.
“I wouldn’t have to worry about this deadlock so much, given I would have enough money to buy a house somewhere in the suburbs and an easier start, with a few millions of Hong Kong dollars still in my pocket.”
His coding skills can be attractive to UK tech companies, though. BBC reported the UK is crying for more software developers like him as over two million vacancies are now up for grabs in the industry.
“I’ve been thinking about switching to a worker visa, but it has stricter rules on who I can work for and I’d be basically locked into working for that company,” John said. “BNO visa has no such issue. It’s just hassle-free.”
Common values
Caroline, John’s landlord in Merseyside, found him to be “helpful” during his short stay in her house, but she could not host the Hongkonger any longer as her family will be returning for Christmas.
She did tell John to get in touch with community support groups dedicated to helping BNO visa holders, such as Hong Kong Watch and Hongkongers in Britain, despite not entirely being their targeted demographic.
John, however, still has some concerns about their usefulness. He believes some of the people may not truly want to be residing in the country in the long run.
“At this moment, I think over half of the BNO holders will obtain citizenship and then return to Hong Kong. They only want safety backed by the UK government.”
Benedict Roger, the Chief Executive of Hong Kong Watch, said in November: “The UK government has rightly expanded the BNO visa to cover young people who stood up for the values we believe in: freedom, rule of law, and mutual respect.”
While John agreed the amendment is a correct step on the right track, he remains doubtful on whether Hongkongers really align with the standards Mr. Roger listed.
He says: “You can easily find discriminative posts on popular online forums and hear locals using racial slurs to call white people and Indians on Hong Kong streets.
“Decades of media influence and culture passed on through generations in a city predominantly of Han Chinese are to be blamed.”
TVB, Hong Kong’s largest TV broadcaster, received criticisms from foreign media outlets twice for airing blackface scenes in a popular soap drama. Local newspapers, meanwhile, only praised the performance of actors.
“Sure a lot of people with BNO believe freedom and the rule of law are crucial to democracy, but how many of them prioritise them over profits and money?” John questioned.
“I think for now they just want to experience life of the good old days when the UK ruled over the city.”
No solution in the short term
Helping Hongkongers has always been a bipartisan consensus in Westminster but the topic never reaches top of the agenda.
The BNO policy amendment was only confirmed a year after former immigration minister Damian Green called for a “lifeline” for Hong Kong youngsters.
In August, former Home Secretary Priti Patel said the UK “has a historic and moral commitment the people of Hong Kong” as she promised the expansion of BNO visa
But she failed to include a clear timeline, until an attack in October by Chinese diplomats on protesters outside the consulate in Manchester sped up the government’s action.
“I don’t expect either Tories or Labour to offer more support for us when the cost of living crisis and war in Ukraine occupy most of the debating time,” John concludes after spending weeks watching PMQs.
“Hopefully, maybe in less than two years, the government will realise how compromised they were in the 80s and fix the nationality predicament.”
(1 GBP = 9.54 HKD)
