Where would residents move to?

 

Our findings showed that the top destinations were in Japan (15%), Taiwan (15%), and the United States (12%). Other leading destinations are the United Kingdom (10%), Australia (7%) and Canada (6%), which have a history of migration from Hong Kong as Commonwealth countries.

 

Do these responses reflect immigration interest? Here’s a quick look at some other numbers:

 

The Hong Kong – Taipei air route is the 8th busiest in the world, carrying nearly 6.5 million passengers.

 

Taiwan is Hong Kong’s top immigration destination by search volume (with 7500 monthly searches for “移民台灣“).

 

Australia and Canada immigration monthly searches come second with 4600 searches.

 

Interest in Japan and the US are not reflected in actual search volume for immigration. This may be due to the fact that both countries are perceived to be difficult to attain citizenship. However, Japan coming in as the top destination does correlate with the country’s popularity as a travel destination, with 444 weekly direct flights in 2017, according to the Hong Kong Tourism Commission.

 

The fourth “destination” was Hong Kong (10%), suggesting that survey respondents may have intentionally made a statement about remaining in the city.

 

A final observation is that China tied with Singapore (4%) as an immigration destination, coming ahead of countries with large Chinese diasporas such as Thailand (2%), and Malaysia (2%).