FINDINGS
HOUSEHOLDS Ethnicity
Figure 1 shows the breakdown of ethnicity among the families. The largest ethnicity was Nepalese (47.5%), followed by Pakistani (22.3%), Indian (15.3%), Filipino (9%) and others (6%) which included African, Bangladesh, Mixed, Indonesian and Sri Lankan ethnicities.
District
Figure 2 shows the breakdown of districts within the larger Yau Tsim Mong district. The largest number of households were in the Jordan district (37.9%), followed by Yau Ma Tei (24.3%) and Mongkok (10.6%), Tsim Sha Tsui (8%), To Kwa Wan (7.6%), Hung Hom (5.6%) and others (6%) which includes Whampoa, Yau Tsim Mong, Ma Tau Kok, Nam Chung and Tai Kok Tsui.
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Household Size
Figure 3 shows the breakdown of families by number of people. There was a broad range of household sizes; from 10 being the largest to one being the smallest, with the average household consisting of 3.75 people. The household size does not include domestic helpers.
*Others include 1, 7, 8, 10
When correlating family size with ethnicity, Figure 1 illustrates that 4 family members is most common in the Filipino, Indian and Nepalese communities, whereas Pakistani families tend to be larger with an average of 5 or6 members in each household.
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Family Size Filipino Indian Nepalese Pakistani Others* Grand Total 1 1 2 2 1 6 2 3 5 8 9 2 27 3 4 9 42 9 2 66 4 11 23 59 11 8 112 5 2 5 19 16 2 44 6 6 2 9 15 3 35 7 1 4 3 0 8 8 1 1 0 2 10 1 0 1 Grand Total 27 46 143 67 18 301
Figure 4: Table to Show Family Size by Ethnicity
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Number of Children
Figure 5 shows the breakdown of families by number of children. Out of the 301 families surveyed, there were 29 families with no children, and 272 families with children. The average number of children per family is 1.98.
Additionally, Figure 5 indicates the differing family size by ethnicity. In Filipino, Indian and Nepalese families, having 2 children is the norm. In Pakistani households, they usually have 2 or 3 children, but there was a significantly larger number of families with 4 children compared to other ethnicities.
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Number of Children per Household Filipino Indian Nepalese Pakistani Others* Grand Total 0 1 6 12 8 2 29 1 6 9 42 11 3 71 2 11 23 59 16 5 114 3 7 7 21 16 3 54 4 2 1 8 13 5 29 5 3 0 3 6 1 0 1 Grand Total 27 46 143 67 18 301
Figure 5: Number of Children Per Household by Ethnicity
*Others includes African, Bangladeshi, Filipino, Indonesian, Mix ethnicity, Sri Lankan
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Status of Children
Figure 6 shows the number of children in each age/ education bracket. The majority of children are either below 5 years old or in Primary school. Roughly a third of the children are in secondary school or are adults living at home.
WORK Full-time Workers
Figure 7 shows the percentage of people who work full-time; out of a total of 709 adults among the 301 households, 39.8% work full-time.
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Household Income
Figure 8 shows the total household income of the families. Almost one third (29.5%) families earn $15,001 to 20,000 per month. Over a third earns less than this; 20.8% of families earn $10,001 to 15,000 per month and 14.8% of families earn $0 - 10,000. 18.1% of families earn $20,001 - $25000, and just over 5% earn more than $30,001.
Poverty
The following table shows the poverty line as used by the Hong Kong Government and available at C&SD: Poverty Situation (censtatd.gov.hk).
Referencing the poverty line table above, any household of 4 people with monthly earnings below HK$20,800 is considered to be living in poverty. Based on our data, the average household size is 3.75 persons. If this is rounded up to 4, we can assume that:
1. 65.1 % of families are living in poverty, with income ranging from HKD 0 to HK$20,000.
2. 38.9 % of families earn between (HKD 20,000 - 35,000+) and therefore are generally living above the poverty line of HK$20,800.
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Finding Employment
Figure 9 shows the degree of difficulty which the interviewee felt regarding employment where 5 was ‘very difficult’ and 1 was ‘very easy’. Over 50% of those surveyed found that it was not easy, difficult or very difficult to find a job. In contrast, 23.3% found it easy and 19.9% found it very easy.
Barriers to Finding Employment
Figure 10 summarises the major barriers cited by individuals in finding a job. Participants were allowed to choose more than one option, or input their own reasons.
The greatest barrier is language (n=214, 50.5%), followed by education level or lack of related experience (n=94, 22.2%), and ethnicity or discrimination (n=45,10.6%). It is worth mentioning again that the language barrier was significantly higher than other barriers. Other reasons included health related limitations and unstable job opportunities.
To supplement these finds, further qualitive-based questioning was conducted amongst ethnic minority job seekers. The results indicated that language barriers limited individuals from applying to several jobs. Education qualifications was an additional problem, as some participants reported that their qualifications were not recognised by employers (for example, qualified nurses or teachers from other jurisdictions). Some participants also felt that they did not get the job because they “do not look like locals” and felt discriminated against based on their ethnicity.
It is important to note that the 34 individuals that said that there were no difficulties to obtaining a job primarily referring to jobs in elementary occupations such as cleaning, dishwashing, and waiting tables. In these cases, they were mostly referred to by their friends or relatives already working in the same field.
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Improves
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and
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providing opportunities
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HOUSING Type of Housing
Figure 11 shows the type of housing that people are living in. Almost 90% of people live in private rental housing which to a large extent refers to subdivided housing. From our frontline observations, we estimate that the majority of private rental housing was subdivided into either flats or rooms. 8.6% of the participants live in public rental housing, while others (2.7%) include industrial buildings and living in shared flats.
Main Issues with Current Housing
Figure 12 shows the main housing issues raised by families. Responders were able to choose multiple issues, with 404 issues being submitted in total. The housing issues are categorised as follows:
1. Rent is too high (N=180, 44.5%).
2. Accommodation size is too small (N=143, 35.4%).
3. Home Environment (N=77, 19%) is not good. Issues include lack of cleanliness, presence of crime, lack of security in buildings, structural problems of old buildings, excrement on staircases, leaking pipes and unsanitary staircases.
4. Others (N=4, 0.9%). issues include no privacy, not able to afford the deposit.
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Public Housing
Figure 13 shows that just over half of respondents have applied for public housing, while almost half are yet to apply or had not applied at the time of conducting the survey. The total number of respondents for this question was 275, as we excluded the families (n=26) who are currently living in public rental housing.
Waiting Time for Public Housing
Figure 14 shows the waiting time for public housing. The majority of families have been waiting for public housing for 2-4 years (N=77, 55.8%), followed by 5-7 years (N=34, 24.6%), then 7 years or more (N=14, 10.1%). 13 families (9.4%) have been waiting for less than 1 year. An important note is that the majority of those who have waited 5-7 years are yet to receive any updates from the housing authority.
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EDUCATION
Issues with Children's Education
Figure 15 shows families’ issues with their children’s education. Respondents were able to choose more than one issue. We have excluded responses in which their children were not in school, or the family has no child (N=66). The findings are listed below:
1. Struggling with Chinese proficiency (N=212, 66.3%).
2. Access to tutoring for key subjects such as mathematics and English (N=59, 18.4%).
3. Children with special educational needs (N=27, 19.6%).
4. Lack of an inclusive environment at school (N=11, 3.4%).
5. Others (N=11, 3.4 %). Issues including online classes due to COVID-19 restrictions and financial problems related to purchasing learning materials for their children.
Ways to Enhance Your Children’s Education
Figure 16 shows what families believe will enhance their children’s education. This was an open question, and we received a total of 182 responses. These are categorised in the table below.
Figure 16: What can be Enhanced to Improve Your Children’s Education?
Broad Category Number of Families
Individual types of support
Chinese Proficiency 103 There is currently insufficient Chinese language support –this could be addressed by:
● Providing extra Chinese support at school daily
● Adding Chinese classes for children after school, either at school or locally in the district
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● Providing free Chinese tuition for children, with Chinese and ethnic minority students together
● Additionally, specific Putonghua assistance was requested
8 More support and empathy, therapy and counselling Tutoring
SEN
7 Parent teacher meetings, make classes more engaging, face to face learning (Zoom)
Inclusion 34
● More inclusion towards ethnic minorities by schools, teachers and Chinese students
● Integrate ethnic minority students with Chinese students
● Teachers should show more support towards children and develop empathy for ethnic minority children
● Teachers should learn how to teach ethnic minorities Chinese, for example, be more engaging
● Provide classes for ethnic minorities on how to read and write Chinese
● Government, by district, should help find schools for ethnic minorities and let them know their options
Other
Financial difficulties
22
● Schools should teach parents how to restrict device time for children
● Schools should provide school buses
● Parents struggled to pay a number of educationrelated expenses, including bus fees and tutorials, and would like financial assistance
16
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for key subjects
8 Extra classes for Maths and English
Covid related
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MEDICAL SERVICES
Issues in Seeking Medical Services
Figure 17 shows the issues when seeking medical services. Responders were able to provide more than one response. In total there were 415 responses; 25.3% (n= 84) said there were no issues and 74.7% (N=331) cited the following issues:
1. Waiting time (N=152, 45.9%).
2. Language barriers (N=115, 34.7%)
3. Financial reasons (N= 47, 14.2%) which include:
a. Cost of medication at public hospitals for special conditions.
b. Cost of accessing timely treatment and medication in the private health sector.
4. Others (N=17, 5.1%). Reasons include:
a. Unable to book an appointment
b. Racial discrimination
c. History of mistreatment
Qualitative research highlighted that waiting time and medical fees are too high for certain conditions, such as cancer treatment or surgeries. Families prefer going to their ancestral country for treatment because of lower costs, and ease of communicating in the same language.
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NEIGHBOURHOOD Safety
Figure 18 shows how safe respondents feel in their neighbourhood. This was on a rating scale with 5 denoting very safe and 1 denoting very unsafe. Over almost two thirds of the respondents said they felt safe or very safe in their neighbourhood. A further quarter felt neither safe nor unsafe, and the remaining 10% felt unsafe or very unsafe. The qualitative research, highlighted specific concerns regarding a lack of building security, especially for those living in old buildings, where respondents said they often hear someone sitting outside their door drinking and smoking, as well as witnessing drunk people fighting.
Cleanliness
Figure 19 shows respondents' rating on how clean their neighbourhood is. This was on a rating scale with 5 denoting very clean to 1 denoting very dirty. Over one third of the respondents cited neither dirty or clean. A further quarter cited clean and the remaining 20% cited very clean.
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Crime and Drugs
Over three quarters of respondents share the perception that crime is not a problem in their neighbourhood, with less than a quarter saying that crime is an issue, as illustrated in Figure 20, below.
From our qualitative research, some respondents mentioned that drug abuse and organised crime were problems in their neighbourhood, particularly those living on Temple Street and Shanghai Street.
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OTHER ISSUES
Households were asked if there were other issues they wished to raise. These were varied and are summarised as follows:
2 families have contacted the project social worker privately about domestic violence and abuse.
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Broad Category Number of Respondents Specific issues Mental health/ learning difficulties 6 Depression, Children with Dyslexia, Suicide Covid related 3 Can’t leave Hong Kong and visit family abroad due to COVID-19 Other 3 Food is expensive
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