Brits living in Hong Kong say they are put off returning home due largely to a wave of racial intolerance seen after the historic vote on June 23
RACHEL.BLUNDY@SCMP.COM
UPDATED : Saturday, 09 July, 2016, 12:54pm
Zahid Din is one of many Britons who are extending their stay in Hong Kong after Brexit. Photo: K. Y. Cheng
Zahid Din is a born and bred Londoner — but he is not sure he will ever live there again.
The 38-year-old consultant, who has been in Hong Kong since March 2012, said he was concerned by the recent wave of intolerance that appeared to have swept the UK, which culminated in the historic Brexit vote last month.
The son of an Indian father and Pakistani mother, he no longer feels confident he will be fully accepted back home, even in the multicultural metropolis of London.
He said he also felt anxious about future job security and economic stability in a post-Brexit UK, which already appears to be suffering as the country take steps to leave the European Union.
“I do not think I can live in a country where we are not tolerant,” he said. “I am very pro-Europe. It gives you the opportunity to work abroad. But we have shut the door on it. Brexit is essentially the UK saying ‘we are closed for business’. The Leave campaign rode the wave of fear — a bit like what Donald Trump is doing in the United States.”
The landmark referendum on June 23, which saw 52 per cent of Brits voting to leave the European Union, resulted in the pound’s value dropping to its lowest level since 1985.
It prompted the resignation of Prime Minister David Cameron, who sombrely announced the UK required “fresh leadership”. It also sparked a fivefold increase in the number of reported hate crimes within just one week, according to the country’s National Police Chiefs’ Council.
The post-Brexit fallout has left some of the 34,000 Brits in Hong Kong (according to the 2011 census) questioning whether they want to re-locate back to their homes one day.
Din, who lives in in Mid-Levels with his 31-year-old wife, an HR executive for a bank, said he now plans to extend his stay in the city for at least another two years. He said he would consider emigrating to Canada, Australia or even Singapore rather than returning to the UK, despite once being certain that he would settle in London.
“When I left the UK, I thought it was in a decent position,” he said. “But at the same time, when I moved to Hong Kong and was travelling back, I could see this tension rising there. The UK and London are places I love. But I do not want to raise a family there. My parents tell me they are seeing a rise in racism. My mother wears a headscarf and she is fearful of going out without my dad now.
“And it is not just Muslims being targeted, it is the Polish too — people with blonde hair and blue eyes.
“When I was growing up, we lived in predominately white areas and ... we just immersed ourselves. My mother always said you should live by the laws of the country.”
Din said he has a more multicultural group of friends in Hong Kong than he ever had in England, adding that although he knows there is still racism here, it is not something he ever experiences or encounters directly. He also feels very safe in the city, which attracts many expats due to its relatively low crime rate.
“There is probably racism here, but I cannot understand the language anyway,” he said. “I have no problem with my wife going out with her friends until 1am. Our quality of life is good. The expat culture is great.”
Since the historic vote, millions of Britons have signed online petitions calling for a second referendum. Cameron subsequently announced it would be up to his successor whether to invoke Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty, which would officially trigger the UK’s withdrawal from the EU, a process it is required to complete within two years. All of Cameron’s potential Conservative Party leader replacements have pledged to honour the referendum results.
Meanwhile, leading members of the Leave campaign, namely Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson, have been accused of abandoning ship, after the former resigned as leader of the UK Independence Party, and the latter ruled himself out as the next Conservative Party leader.
In Hong Kong, the British Consulate was quick to reassure Hongkongers that the UK’s relationship with the city would remain “strong” despite Brexit.
Acting Consul General Esther Blythe said there would be no immediate impact on the right of British passport holders to travel within the EU, or on the trade of UK goods and services.
But it seems Brits living in Hong Kong are more concerned about the stark divisions in their home country than the national and international economic repercussions of Brexit.
Andrew Spires, a 34-year-old graphic designer who lives with his family in Tung Chung. Photo: SCMP PicturesAndrew Spires, a 34-year-old graphic designer who lives with his Hong Kong-born wife and nine-month-old daughter in Tung Chung, said the apparent surge in xenophobia after the vote had left him reluctant to move back to England.
Formerly from Oxted, Surrey, he said he and his wife had originally planned to live in Hong Kong for seven years until he was granted permanent residency, before re-locating to Canterbury in England.
But now the couple, who were visiting family in England as voters went to the polls, are weighing up their options.
“On the days leading up to the vote, my wife and I were seriously debating moving back to England as we have a young daughter and she doesn’t get to play with her cousins,” Spires said. “We miss all our friends and family massively. And there is very little grass in Hong Kong. But the day the vote was announced, my Chinese wife said she could feel a palpable sense of aggression towards her, like people were judging her for being in the country. We both said we no longer wanted to live in a country that is happy to segregate itself from the rest of the continent in such a blatant way.”
Spires, who moved to Hong Kong from Islington, London, 18 months ago, said he had spoken to English friends who had witnessed fights in the street over the Brexit result.
“[My wife and I] feel the country is divided by ‘in’ and ‘out’ voters,” he said. “Ultimately, do we want to take our daughter back to a country that is introverted, xenophobic, short sighted and narrow-minded? The answer at the moment is a definite no.”
Marketing manager Michelle Lee and her six-year-old son Mali. Photo: SCMP PicturesMichelle Lee, a British born Chinese marketing executive for a fashion start-up, feels similarly troubled by the racism she perceived during the referendum. The 29-year-old mother-of-one moved to Hong Kong with her six-year-old son Mali from Birmingham just over a year ago. She said she was surprised that UK voters had been swayed by what she believes was essentially a nationalist propaganda campaign.
“It’s utterly unbelievable,” she said. “Those who campaigned for ‘Leave’ have dusted their hands of what they caused and turned their back on the result of their deluded campaigning. It has exposed the ignorant, xenophobic individuals that now feel validated in today’s society, which is not the kind of society I want my child to grow up in. Hong Kong, by contrast, is a very diverse city where we are lucky to socialise with open-minded families.”
40-year-old consultant Rob Green. Photo: SCMP PicturesAnd Rob Green, a 40-year-old co-director of a consulting, research and recruitment company, said the xenophobic diatribe during the referendum had stirred up negative attitudes amongst Brits, leaving him convinced that Hong Kong is the best place for his family for now.
“Hong Kong is a safe city; we can build a great life here, my kids can learn in brilliant schools and the proximity of China and south east Asia and all that those regions offer gives us a superb quality of life,” he said.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/education-community/article/1987247/meet-british-expats-living-hong-kong-who-are-no
