Guest post by Joe Hoft
As the US struggles with illegal immigration and the related challenges, it is helpful to see how other countries like Hong Kong handle immigration.
Hong Kong, with a population of 7 million, handles around 277 million visitors annually. It sits next door to Guangzhou, which is the world’s largest city (when including Shenzhen), with a population of nearly 50 million. Like the US, Hong Kong has found tunnels dug under its border with China, but unlike the US, Hong Kong has a fence to protect itself from unwanted visitors.
The fence and strong border security resulted in less than 1000 Mainland China illegal immigrants intercepted and arrested at the border in 2013.
Pregnant illegal immigrants are not allowed into Hong Kong and girls who enter Hong Kong and lie about being pregnant in order to have their children born in Hong Kong are thrown in jail.
Hong Kong has immigration policies in place to attract talent and capital. Overseas professionals who possess special skills, knowledge or experience, or who are in a position to make substantial contributions to the economy, are allowed to apply to work in Hong Kong. It also has e-channel counters which allow legal residents to pass safely and quickly in and out of Hong Kong.
When a massive flow of around 200,000 Vietnamese refugees, or ‘boat people’ entered Hong Kong in the late 1970’s, Hong Kong implemented generous immigration policies that allowed these immigrants to take up to 3 months to find a country of permanent residency. In order to house these people, Hong Kong opened purpose-built holding facilities, called ‘closed’ or ‘transit’ camps. Some of these camps are still visible today. (The Hong Kong government is still in the process of recovering from the United Nations the $250 million tab for handling these migrants.)
The difference between the US and Hong Kong is that Hong Kong has a fence and the US doesn’t. This results in tens of thousands of unwanted illegal immigrants flooding into the United States annually. US policies that allow illegal immigrants to remain in America make no sense. Illegals are set free and given benefits rather than incarcerated or sent back to their country of origin.
