SS5400 Applied Sociology

Anchor babies in Hong Kong:

Problem caused, Government policies evaluation

and Recommendation

Name: Chung Ying Lui ConnieStudent no.: 53192074Program: Master of Social Sciences in Applied SociologyDate of submission: November 19, 2013Table of Content Pages

Introduction 3

Background of anchor babies

3

Existing situation and causes

4

Problem leads by anchor babies

6

Evaluation of Government’s response

9

Overseas Samples

11

Recommendation 2

12

Reference 16

3

Introduction

After the handover in 1997, Hong Kong has become part

of China. The relationship between Hong Kong and China

changed, thus the interaction increases. However, since

has been a colony for so long, Hong Kong has been

westernized much. There would certainly be conflicts when

traditional Chinese crushed with western style. The

situation is enhanced by the “Free Walk” travelling

policy in 2003. More and more mainland citizens come to

Hong Kong. They have different kinds of living habits

which treated as traditional Chinese culture. This makes

Hong Kong people unsatisfied with their arrival. One of

the biggest and serious issues is the anchor babies.

Background of anchor babies

“Anchor baby” refers to the children born whose parent

does not have the citizenship of the place. This word

originally comes from America. It described the non-

American illegal immigrant mother gives birth to child.

Those parents just like a ship sailing in the ocean, the

child born in a foreign country acts as dropped anchor in

the overseas, and then the whole family can immigrate to

the United States in the future. “Hong Kong anchor

babies” thus are babies whose parents are not Hong Kong

4

citizens in general. In these years, as so many mainland

mothers give birth to their babies in Hong Kong, anchor

babies have became the pronoun of those Mainland’s Hong

Kong-born babies.

To create such strange identity in Hong Kong is a court

case in 2001: Director of Immigration v. Chong Fung Yuen.

In 2001, little Chong was a three years old boy. His

parents came from Shanwei, Guangdong, which are both non

Hong Kong citizens. They came to Hong Kong to have a

temporary visit in 1998. During the visit, Chong’s mother

gave birth to him and little Chong therefore stayed in

Hong Kong. However, according to Hong Kong Immigration

Ordinance at that time, little Chong could not be treated

as Hong Kong citizen that he could not enjoy the right of

abode in the Hong Kong. His grandfather then applied for

the judicial review. Director of Immigration in the Court

of First Instance first claimed that little Chong was a

permanent resident with the right of abode under the

Basic Law on Article 24(2)(1), stated that permanent

residents of Hong Kong include "Chinese citizens born in

Hong Kong before or after the establishment of the Hong

Kong Special Administrative Region". The Director of

Immigration appealed to the Court of Appeal. However,

both Court of First Instance & Court of Appeal affirmed

that Chong was Hong Kong permanent resident and the right

5

of abode in Hong Kong. From that on, anyone who born in

Hong Kong get the Hong Kong identity even parents are not

local people.

Existing situation and causes

Due to the court approval, babies born by mainland

mothers are able to get the Hong Kong identity

automatically. This encouraged more mainland parents to

decide to come to Hong Kong. The table below shows the

numbers and the percentage of anchor babies born by

mainland mothers whose spouses are non Hong Kong

residents. It is clear to see that in 2001, there are

only 620 anchor babies. After 10 years, the number has

raised to nearly 36 thousand, which is more than one

third of the total amount of babies born in Hong Kong in

2011. The total number of anchor babies within 11 years

has over 200 thousand. This is not a small amount. Anchor

baby has become a major Hong Kong social issue.

Why the mainland mothers like to give birth in Hong

Kong? The first and foremost reason is the owning of Hong

Kong citizenship. Coming with the identity is packaged

benefits and welfares. The parents believed that the

education, medical systems are well-developed then that

of China, for example the 9-year free compulsory

education, different kinds of subsidies and so on. They 6

want their children to be better cared and grown under

more freedom. Some families want to evade the restriction

and penalty of “One child policy”, and have the second

baby.

Table 1

Babies born by Mainland mother

Year Non Hong Kong spouse*

% of Non Hong Kong

spouse in terms of

total babies born in

Hong Kong

2001 620 1.3

2002 1,250 2.6

2003 2,070 4.5

2004 4,102 8.6

2005 9,273 16.2

2006 16,044 24.4

2007 18,816 27.0

2008 25,269 32.1

2009 29,766 36.3

2010 32,653 36.9

2011 35,736 37.5

2012 (Jan-Nov) 25,174 29.7

Total 200,773

Source from: Hong Kong Census and Statistics Department

*Include non-permanent Hong Kong citizens (Live in Hong

Kong less than 7 years) and non Hong Kong people

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Problem leads by anchor babies

The 200 thousand anchor babies has the right of abode

in Hong Kong, this certainly cause many uncertain on

social impacts on medical, education, housing and social

aspects.  

1. Medical

In the past few years, with the enormous number of

mainland women giving birth in Hong Kong, medical

resources are strained. The staffs and facilities of

department of Obstetrics and Gynaecology in both public

and private hospitals are in shortage. Not only

transferred staffs from other departments, some hospitals

but also have to enlarge the department to meet the

demand from mainland mothers. Besides, private hospitals

recruited talented and experienced medical staffs from

public hospitals due to the increased numbers of pregnant

mothers. Public hospital therefore faced a serious

manpower running off. In 2010-11, Hospital Authority has

recorded about 10% of doctor running off rate. Pamela

Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital (東東東東東東東東東東東) even have

21% loss of obstetrician. This directly affected the

ability of public hospital to maintain high quality

service. Since about 70% of local Hong Kong mothers would

choose to give birth in public hospitals, they are the 8

most influential group. They are not able to get a bed in

both public and private hospitals, and forced to pay high

fee. More serious is that the mainland mothers escaped

from paying the charge after giving birth to babies.

Hospital Authority has recorded that 54% of debts are

related to the non eligible people, which is non Hong

Kong people.

After Obstetrics and Gynaecology department,

Paediatrics department experience the same resources

pressure as well. Half of the vaccine injected baby’s

parents are from mainland according to the record of

North District Mental and Child Health Centre(MCHC). In

general statistics from MCHC, there are 16,600 under year

1 anchor children in 2011 seeking for service, while

11,600 in 2012 .Though the number has decreased, still is

a huge amount. Hong Kong tax payers have to pay 60

million dollars just for the vaccine injected to the

anchor babies. The medical service of those anchor babies

is really a burden to Hong Kong.

2. Education

After grown up, the anchor babies have to study in Hong

Kong as they have the legal identity. Education is

another area that would be suffered by the flow as well.

In general, due to the location and lower usage afternoon

class, the occupation of the kindergartens is only around

9

70%, which can be rarely full. However, according to the

Hong Kong Profession Teacher’s Union stated in the

following Table 2, the occupation rate of North District

kindergarten has come to 94%, other places where mainly

accept the cross-border kindergarten students like Yuen

Long, Tuen Mun and Tai Po, the rate is close to 90% too.

They estimated that 2014 is the peak year for anchor

babies to study. There is only 60 thousand kindergarten

quota total in Hong Kong, it is enough for 50 thousand

local Hong Kong-parents children. If 1% of the 40

thousand anchor babies are included, that would certainly

out of the balance, especially those in the North

District. Several years later, such situation would

spread to primary and secondary schools.

The chaos created by queuing makes the situation worse.

Afraid of not getting the classes, both mainland and Hong

Kong parents queued overnight to get the application

form. The so called “queuing gang” appeared to make money

and make the atmosphere more tension.

Besides the quota, the increase amount of students

added kindergarten teachers’ workload. Due to the

enlarged population, teachers faced high pressure to

handle more children than before at the same time. Since

most of the anchor babies would live in Shenzhen, but

study in Hong Kong, they have to cross the border early

10

and on their own, kindergartens thus need extra resources

to deal with the make sure of their safety.

Table 2

2012/13 Regional Difference in the usage of

Kindergarten quota

District QuotaNo. of

student

% of

usage

Hong Kong Island 35,832 28,533 80%

Kowloon 66,043 44,477 82%

New Territies 95,678 81,754 85%

North Distrcit 11,549 10,873 94%

Yuen Long 17,045 15,164 89%

Tai Po 6,496 5,675 87%

Tuen Mun 12,637 11,127 88%

Sai Kung, Shatin,

Tsuenwan43,190 35,439 82%

Other islands 4,761 3,476 73%

Source from: Education Department, 2012-13 Enrolment

Statistics

3. Housing

Anchor babies would bring heavy burden to housing

system. Government Census and Statistics Department

has collected the anchor families’ intention on

living in Hong Kong from 2007-2012. The result

showed that over half of them would stay in Hong

Kong, involving tens of thousands of homes. For

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those returning Hong Kong anchor babies, most of

them belong to low-income and low-skilled families.

It is estimated that they will apply public housing

thus drastically increase the demand of public

houses. Added with the original raising numbers of

Hong Kong people on public housing waiting list each

year, time needed for waiting is prolonged.

Evaluation of Government’s response

1. Zero-quota and blocking on cross border for anchor

babies

In order to control the pregnant mainland mothers, Hong

Kong government has carried out a serious of policies. In

Jan 2007, Hospital Authority announced that the price of

baby birthing rose from 20 thousand to 48 thousand. In

April 2011, Hong Kong public hospitals would not accept

the booking from pregnant mainland mothers. In September

of the same year, pregnant mainland mothers had to have

the prenatal examination in private or public hospitals,

and to pay the part of the fee to book the bed, and got

the “Certificate on Confirmed Antenatal and Delivery

Booking”. If the mother was pregnant 28 weeks or more but

without the confirmation, Immigration Department could

refused them to come to Hong Kong.

From 2013, Hong Kong Chef Executive Leung Chun Ying has 12

carried out a strict medical policy that both public and

private hospitals would not accept any booking from

mainland pregnant mothers. Under this circumstance, there

should be no anchor babies born in Hong Kong. Medical

staffs guard in the frontiers like Louhu, Lok Ma Chau

etc.

However, there are reports that some mainland pregnant

mothers still would cross the border in the last minute

and runs to the A&E (accident and emergency wards)

through the airport or in the midnight since there are

fewer medical staffs. In 2011, there were 1656 cases of

crossing border incident. It is impossible to neglect

the mainland pregnant mothers when they are in the

emergency situation.

Moreover, some agencies would think of different

countermeasures for the government policies. There are

cases of “fake marriage” or “fake study” that the mothers

can get the legal permission come to Hong Kong. They then

2. Medical service

Hong Kong Hospital Authority has made some estimation

for the need of medical service for those anchor babies.

According to their estimation, there are 150 thousand of

children born by mainland mothers living in Hong Kong and

Guangdong province. The government would base on the

findings and past service usage to ensure all qualified

13

children can enjoy the public medical service, and adjust

the service provided.

However, the Hong Kong Hospital Authority does not

record the details of mainland families, so they cannot

make the correct estimation on how and what kind of

resources should be used.

3. Education arrangement

In order to relieve the panic of parents, Chief of

Education Department insisted that there are enough

classes for the children. They also consult with the

kindergartens, especially in North District if they can

have more classes to accept the anchor children. To solve

the problem of queuing, the department advised the

kindergarten to upload the application form online that

everyone who need is able to get.

Though, this year’s problem seemed to be solved, the

Education Department lacks the long term planning on how

many extra resources should be put on to the pre-

education sector due to the increased demand from anchor

babies. They only have the details related to whether the

children have the qualification to study in Hong Kong or

not. They do not classify the children into Hong Kong

parents, Single Hong Kong parents or Anchor parents. As a

result, the Education Department may not be able to

evaluate the real condition accurately.

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Overseas Samples

Over the world, only America and Canada would provide

citizenship by birth now. Other Europe countries like

France, Germany, British, the citizenship would be given

out under certain conditions, such as at least one of the

parents is the legal citizen. Let’s see how America and

Canada due with the issue of anchor babies, as if Hong

Kong government can learn from any them.

1. American

As mentioned above, the word “Anchor baby” came from

America. This can be traced back to 1898. Due to United

States v. Wong Kim Ark case, the Supreme Court ruled that

the citizenship provision of the 14th Amendment applied to

a baby born to Chinese immigrant parents. It stated that

the baby can have the birthright citizenship, which means

once born, the baby can get the American identity

automatically. As the same in Hong Kong, those Mainland

mothers occupied much of the resources in America. This

made U.S. people very dissatisfied. After Hong Kong has

executed the Zero-quota policy, even more mainland

mothers would turn their ship to America to give birth to

anchor babies.

Started from 2005, American legislative councillors 15

from Conservation parties almost every year would propose

to abolish the citizenship. Some councillors tried to

amend the Immigration and Nationality Act, that the baby

can get the citizenship unless one of the parents has the

legal citizenship. Though, it is not easy to change the

Constitution, the U.S. government is thinking of set some

"threshold" for the children naturalization. For example,

creating new definition of state and national

citizenship, babies born to two illegal immigrant parents

would be excluded from citizenship entirely, or creating

separate and distinct birth certificates for those

children whose parents cannot prove legal immigration

status. Once the child has the “hukou” (account) after

going back China, it would be treated as giving up the

American identity. Besides, when the anchor babies want

to apply green card for their parents, there are so many

restrictions, like applicants have to provide proof of

tax payment, income, bank statements and other financial

documents.

2. Canada

Beside America, Canada is another country provides the

citizenship automatically to the babies born. However,

the Immigration Department also is planning to modify the

law to block the “birth tourism”. Many mainland mothers

hold the travel visa to give birth in Canada. They face

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the problems of mothers escape from the medical payment,

once the babies born and get the Canada identity.

Finally, these fee are paid by Canadian tax payers. As a

result, to stop the situation from deteriorating, federal

Immigration Minister Jason Kenney is going to raising the

issue of amend the law that only babies born by permanent

Canadian citizens can get the citizenship and rights.

Recommendation

On the issue of Hong Kong identity anchor babies, Hong

Kong government should employ more deterrent policies to

solve the conflict and problems made the anchor babies.

1. Tightening the Individual Visit Scheme

In controlling the mainland pregnant mothers coming Hong

Kong, the Hong Kong Immigration Department can refuse

their entrance by having greater censorship. Hong Kong

government is better to take back the censor right, to

ensure those obviously pregnant women would not get the

entry visa so easily.

Moreover, Hong Kong government should work closely with

the mainland governments, not only Guangdong, but places

far away. There is trend that more mothers are come from

province outside Guangdong. Setting up supervisory system

to reinforce the exchange of intelligence information,

this can strike the illegal agencies that organise the 17

pregnant women to cross-border risky.

2. Improvement on policies

For medical service, it is suggested that the

information of anchor babies’ families should be

collected when the mothers enter the hospital. If they do

the pay the fee, the authority has the right not to issue

the certificate for the babies to get the Hong Kong

identity. Hospital Authority can work with Immigration

Department that to refuse the entry of those in debt

families unless they settle the bill.

For education, there are no concrete measures for the

kindergartens in dealing with the anchor babies issue by

the Education Department. We suggest that the admission

procedure should be modified. Since there is no limit on

the numbers of kindergarten applied, some parents applied

for several kindergartens to make the quota seemed in

shortage. Standard application form can be used to

restrict the amount of kindergarten like one to two that

each child can apply for. This can ease the tension of

parents and eliminate the queuing gangs. Kindergartens

can also have a clear planning on students. On the other

hand, education department can set up a Central

Allocation system similar to that of primary and

secondary schools. This can ensure the Hong Kong parents’

children get the classes in the first priority, and to

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the closest kindergarten.

Existing government administrative policies are

fragmentary and loose. The improvement on the policies in

different aspects can protect the right of the local Hong

Kong parent children and balance the need of the anchor

ones.

3. Divided the civil right and welfare right

Most of the mainland mothers give birth in Hong Kong

mainly because of the citizenship and the jointed welfare

endued by the law. It is difficult to change the Basic

Law about the identity issue. Yet, there is still

something to do to protect the right of local Hong Kong

parent children, the Hong Kong government can learn from

British. In British, the civil right and welfare right

are separated. Using university fee as an example, if you

hold the British identity, you are free from immigration

and finding work during the study. But for the fee,

unless you can show the evidence of paying Council tax,

income tax, or national insurance, otherwise only people

who have lived in England for three consecutive years can

enjoy the local fee. If you are not able to show these

certificates, British people also need to pay the

international fee which is much more experience. Hong

Kong government can make use of the similar method, like

the anchor parents have to display their documents

19

proving that they have paid any tax before the children

can enjoy any benefits in education, medical, housing and

others welfare.

4. Law amendment

The whole conflict started by the Basic Law Article 24

(2)(1). In order to stop the argument, the most direct

way is to amend the Basic Law. However, it is not as

easily as we can think of. Frequent change would shake

the reliability of the law system and the process is

complicated. To avoid this, we can put addition

amendments on top of the Basic Law, like classified the

meaning, the right and the responsibility of the anchor

babies. This can respect the Basic Law and solve the

anchor baby problem at the same time.

5. Planning

Unquestionably, the above suggestions are in passive way

as just merely reject the coming of anchor babies. It is

believed that we can view them in a more active attitude.

Hong Kong has the lowest birth rate in Hong Kong. Those

anchor babies can be the new blood if they stay in Hong

Kong. The government should directly contact with the

mainland parents to understand their intention. If they

are willing to settle in Hong Kong, we can treat them as

Hong Kong citizen with the rights and expect their return

in the future. Once the government gets hold of the

20

statistics, she can better plan the resources on

education, medical, housing and etc on those new mainland

families in a proper way.

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