View source for Hong Kong returnee

{{EngvarB|date=April 2016}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2016}}
{{Demographics and culture of Hong Kong}}

A '''Hong Kong returnee''' is a [[residents of Hong Kong|resident of Hong Kong]] who [[emigration|emigrated]] to another country, lived for an extended period of time in his or her adopted home, and then subsequently moved back to Hong Kong.

==Population==
According to the Hong Kong Transition Project of [[Hong Kong Baptist University]], in 2002, Hong Kong returnees constituted 3% of the Hong Kong population.<ref>[http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~hktp/5years/5years.pdf Article "The First Five Years"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120207104337/http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~hktp/5years/5years.pdf |date=7 February 2012 }} at [http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~hktp/ The Hong Kong Transition Project] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121029083230/http://www.hkbu.edu.hk/~hktp/ |date=29 October 2012 }}. Note: "Table 10 Cultural Identity".</ref> This number was arrived at by survey and a participant was categorised as a "returnee" by self-identification. As such, it excluded those [[Hong Kongers]] surveyed who had foreign citizenship, but did not self-identify as "returnees".

==Emigration==
Most returnees left Hong Kong during the [[1980s in Hong Kong|1980s]] and the [[1990s in Hong Kong|1990s]] leading up to the [[handover of Hong Kong]] back to China. According to [[Matthew Cheung]], [[Secretary for Labour and Welfare]], approximately 600,000 people emigrated before and around 1997.<ref>[http://www5.881903.com/apps/newsBoss/html/news/20100724/2010072410320194900.htm] {{dead link|date=March 2013}}</ref> The destination of choice was usually a Western country, the most popular being Canada, Australia, and the United States.

There are typically two types of emigrants, those who planned on returning to Hong Kong after they obtained foreign citizenship and those who planned on staying in their adopted homes permanently and fully adapting to life there. The former are sometimes better described as ''sojourners'' rather than emigrants. However, often these two types of Hong Kong emigrants act against what they had planned, where some of those who had planned on permanent stays actually returned to Hong Kong, some planning on temporary stays actually made the decision to stay permanently in their adopted homelands.

==Remigration==
It is estimated that 30% of those Hong Kongers who moved away in the 1980s have returned to Hong Kong.<ref>Kee, P.K. and Ronald Skeldon. 1994. The migration and settlement of Hong Kong
Chinese in Australia. In ''Reluctant exiles? Migration from Hong Kong and the new overseas Chinese.'' Edited by Ronald Skeldon. New York: ME. Sharpe and Hong Kong University Press.</ref> Those that have moved back to Hong Kong have returned for various reasons – for economic reasons, or simply because they enjoy living in Hong Kong more than they do elsewhere. Specifically, many wealthy Hong Kongers who emigrated to Canada found that they could not adjust to the economic culture in Canada. The higher taxes, [[red tape]], and the language contributed to the barrier of entry for businesses in Canada. Comparatively speaking, doing business in Hong Kong was much easier.

The movement of people is not a permanent remigration as returnees could go back to their adopted country at any stage, especially if they gained its citizenship. Plans to return to their adopted homeland could be influenced by political or personal reasons.<ref>[http://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/bitstream/2123/1209/10/10chapter9.pdf Chapter 9 'Return movements: back in Hong Kong']</ref>

==Social consequences==
===Cultural identity===
Issues of identity have sometimes arisen for returnees, especially amongst those returnees that left Hong Kong when they were children, because of the change in national identity of Hong Kong the city itself due to Hong Kong returning to Chinese rule, and because of the life experiences gained living in their previously adopted homes outside of Hong Kong.

==="Astronauts"===
Many of those who returned to Hong Kong were husbands who left their entire families in their adopted homes, while they worked in Hong Kong. These husbands were dubbed ''Taai Hung Yahn'' ({{zh|t=太空人|cy=taai hùng yàhn}}), or "astronauts" because they spend their lives flying back and forth between Hong Kong and the adopted homes of their families.

''Taai Hung Yahn'' is also a play on words. Taking a more literal meaning of the Chinese characters for "astronaut", ''Taai Hung Yahn'' ({{lang|zh-Hant-HK|太空人}}) can translate loosely to "man without a wife".

==See also==
{{Portal|Hong Kong}}
* [[Hongkongers]]
* [[Yacht people]]
* [[Migration in China]]
* [[Overseas Chinese]]
* [[China–United Kingdom relations]]
* [[Sino-British Joint Declaration]]
* [[Third culture kid]]
* [[Emigration from Hong Kong]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20061112000115/http://www.cctr.ust.hk/conference/papers/Sussman,NanM_paper.pdf Out and Back: The Movement of Hong Kongers 1984–2004 and the Psychological Consequences for Identity] by [http://www.baruch.cuny.edu/psychology/people/NSussman.htm Nan M. Sussman].
* [http://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/more.php?id=406_0_3_0 Hong Kong Residents Rush for Foreign Citizenship] at [http://migration.ucdavis.edu/mn/index.php Migration News].
* [http://www.learner.org/powerofplace/more25.html David Ley on the return of wealthy Chinese migrants from Vancouver to Hong Kong and Taiwan.]
* [https://www.doi.org/10.1111/j.0020-2754.2004.00122.x Transnational spaces and everyday lives] by [https://web.archive.org/web/20060117051334/http://www.geog.ubc.ca/people/index.php?action=2&cat=faculty&memberID=200007 David Ley]
* [https://www.doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-0374.2005.00110.x Back to Hong Kong: return migration or transnational sojourn?] By David Ley and Audrey Kobayashi

{{Hong Kongers}}

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[[Category:Culture of Hong Kong]]
[[Category:Society of Hong Kong]]
[[Category:Human migration]]