After the exodus caused by the riots, more expats are now choosing to leave Hong Kong due to the frustration over the city's Coronavirus restrictions and lack of a clear reopening plan. Hong Kong has embraced a strategy that emphasises social distancing, limiting travel and shutting most non-residents out, except when coming from China and Macao. Expats and even locals arriving in the city have to contend with one of the world's longest quarantines, paying to isolate in a hotel room for up to three weeks.
These measures are influencing expats to move to other countries in the Southeast Asian hub, like Singapore, where travellers from Germany and from some other European ones are allowed to enter. Moreover, they can do a quarantine of 14 days at home. Singapore is also getting economic benefits, as some companies in Hong Kong have been considering moving their operations out of the city in order to escape curfew insecurity. Facebook and Netflix already consider Singapore as their regional home base, for instance.
Security law
Another reason for expats' exodus from Hong Kong to Singapore is the search for job opportunities and the fear of over surveillance. Not only expats, as well big companies are leaving the country, like the New York Times that moved its digital news operation for Asia out of Hong Kong, as well as the investing advice website, Motley Fool, and TikTok.
According to a study by the American Chamber of Commerce in Hong Kong, 42% of survey respondents were considering or planning to leave the city, with discomfort over the security law being the chief concern. Basically, since last year the law bans any activity Beijing deems to constitute (sedition, secession and subversion) and allows Chinese state security to operate in the territory.
Covid-19 cases
Hong Kong Covid-19 scenario this year is not bad; the city last recorded a local Covid infection on August 17 and has for weeks only reported about a handful of cases per day on average. The strict covid restrictions can lead many expats to question if they want to remain stagnant in Hong Kong when the rest of the world is restarting to move.
On the other hand, while the city recently marked more than 21 days without local infections, Singapore's recent uptick in coronavirus cases. The city-state has registered 334 new daily cases on average since the beginning of September.
Travellers and expats in Hong Kong
Before the pandemic, Hongkongers were among the people who travel the most in the world. According to the Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department, residents made 94.7 million departures in 2019. In order to see its numbers, in the year prior, they spent an estimated $26.5 billion, making it the world's 11th largest tourism market in terms of spending, based on United Nations figures. However, since the pandemic began, residents have been indefinitely “trapped” due to a mix of travel bans and one of the world's longest quarantines. So, while thankful to be safe, some expats feel jealous, frustrated and angry as they watch other parts of the world reopen.
Hong Kong has both negative critics for its allegedly strict restrictions over commuting abroad and positive ones about how the city is dealing with the covid and control of new cases. In the meantime, the city aims to inoculate 70% of its population and by doing so, there is a great possibility Hong Kong will reopen for travellers and expats.
