ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relationship between Hong Kong’s immigration regime, i.e., its policies, embodied norms, and practices related to the regulation of immigration and permanent residency in Hong Kong, and the discursive perception of Chinese mainlanders who reside in the Special Administrative Region (SAR). In terms of absolute numbers, roughly a third of the people living in Hong Kong today were born in mainland China. Student migration from the mainland to Hong Kong is another controversial issue which has been debated in recent years. Mainlander immigration to Hong Kong has been continuous and, over time, quite substantial since the handover, in spite of the fact that the central leadership in Beijing and the SAR government agreed to implement strict regulatory measures to control the influx of mainlanders, which was seen as problematic for Hong Kong’s economic and social stability.
