Hok Bun KU & Kam Wah CHANDepartment of Applied Social Science

sThe Hong Kong Polytechnic Universit

y

Racism and Social Inequality: Work and Employment of South Asian Ethnic Minority in Hong Kong

Introduction 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).

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”

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 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.

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’.

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

Filipino Indian Nepalese Pakistani Total

EMPLOYMENT Employer 0 0 0 1 1

STATUS (0.0) (0.0) (0.0) (2.0) (0.5)

Self-employed 1 3 1 4 9

(2.0) (6.0) (2.0) (8.0) (4.5)

Full-time employed 29 28 37 25 119

(58.0) (56.0) (74.0) (50.0) (59.5)

Part-time employed 9 8 4 4 25

(18.0) (16.0) (8.0) (8.0) (12.5)

Unemployed 4 5 8 9 26

(8.0) (10.0) (16.0) (18.0) (13.0)

Housewife / 7 5 0 2 14

Homemaker (14.0) (10.0) (0.0) (4.0) (7.0)

Retired 0 1 0 5 6

(0.0) (2.0) (0.0) (10.0) (3.0)

Total 50 50 50 50 200

(100.0) (100.0) (100.0) (100.0) (100.0)

Racial Labor Market Segmentation

Table 7: Occupation and Ethnic Origin

ETHNIC ORIGIN 

Filipino Indian Nepalese

Pakistani Total 

OCCUPATION  

Managers and Administrators

5 2 3 2 12

(10.0) (4.3) (6.3) (4.3) (6.3)

Professionals 2 2 3 1 8

(4.0) (4.3) (6.3) (2.2) (4.2)

Associate Professionals 2 6 3 5 16

(4.0) (13.0) (6.3) (10.9) (8.4)

Clerks 3 10 1 10 24

(6.0) (21.7) (2.1) (21.7) (12.6)

Service workers and 33 9 5 9 56

shop sales workers (66.0) (19.6) (10.4) (19.6) (29.5)

Plant and machine 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)

Total 50 46 48 46 190

(100.0) (100.0) (100.0) (100.0) (100.0)

Table 8: Working hours per week

FrequencyPercent

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

Total 144 100.0

Table 9: Average monthly income

FrequencyPercent Cumulative

Percentage

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

Total 153 100.0

Table 10 Means of getting current job

FrequencyPercent

Receive help from family members, relatives and friends

136 71.6

Read newspapers/magazines/internet advertisements

37 19.5

Look for advertisements in streets and shops 9 4.7

Receive help from social workers 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

Note: The respondent may write more than one career chances. Total Number of Respondent = 190

Table 11. Difficulties in searching for a job in Hong Kong

FrequencyPercent

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

FrequencyPercent

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

More than 12 months 3 2.2

Total 139 100.0

Table 13. Problems at workplace in Hong Kong

Frequency

Percent

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 Racial Bias and

Discrimination in job searching and at Workplace

Unequal treatment at the workplace

Unrecognized educational qualifications

South Asian People’s Narratives

“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.’”

“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!”

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

A sense of exclusion is common for our respondents. racism operates subtly and constitutes inequality in work and emp

loyment 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.