Scholars Say More Empathy For Refugees Since Unrest

A survey from the Education University suggests there's greater empathy for asylum-seekers and refugees in Hong Kong – a development researchers have linked to last year's social unrest.

A poll commissioned by the university's Department of Asian and Policy Studies surveyed 1,002 local residents in April this year about attitudes towards asylum-seekers and refugees, and the human rights situation in the SAR.

Principal investigator Dr Isabella Ng said her team noticed a "drastic change" in how people see asylum-seekers and refugees.

In 2016 and 2018 -- the two previous times the department has surveyed people on these issues -- around 69 percent of respondents said they held a neutral attitude towards asylum-seekers and refugees. This increased to 74 percent in 2020.

The percentage who held a negative view of these groups also dropped, from around 26 percent in the two previous surveys to 16 percent in 2020.

Ng said this had also been backed up by what respondents believe should be done to help these groups.

"So we see that most respondents consider granting right-to-work is one of the solutions," she said. "Another thing we see is granting right of abode to asylum-seeking and refugee children – there's a 10 percent increase since the last time we did the survey."

But Ng said this change in attitude wasn't reflected in a greater awareness of the issues pertaining to these groups.

"We saw this as a very interesting result," she said. "What we figure is that this has a lot to do probably with the social movement -- the anti-extradition bill movement – since June last year when we see a lot of problems between the government, police and Hong Kong citizens."

"A lot of these people probably project this sort of situation – like if I were an asylum-seeker, what would happen to me?"

She said this helps to explain why people felt empathetic, rather than sympathetic to the plight of these groups.

"So this is more an emotional feeling towards the group, rather than rationally understanding the lack of policy support of protection for the group," Ng said.

The survey also asked respondents for their views on Hong Kong's human rights situation, with 65 percent saying they were dissatisfied with the local government's human rights policies and seeing an immediate need for improvement. Ng said this could also be linked to the recent social tumult.

She suggested the government initiate dialogue with different stakeholders in society, to heal divisions and mistrust. And she said she believes education will be key.

"We believe that civic education should be one of the remedies to help the community to have more tolerance, and to be more open and free, and [create a] mutually acceptable, respectable society – if that's what we want to move forward to," she said.