Mainland Mothers in Hong Kong

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Stop granting the right of abode to the Mainland babies! “Mainland mothers flock to Hong Kong to have babies”, “Control number of Mainland births in Hong Kong”, “Mainland mums-to-be to be banned from Hong Kong public hospitals”, it is not a surprise for us to see these headings on newspaper this year. The one which caught my eyes most is “Mainland Chinese Pregnant Women Jumped Queue and Caused Hong Kong Mother’s Miscarriage”. It is really a shocking and miserable news. I think many of you would share the same feeling with me that a Hong Kong citizen cannot enjoy the privileges that she is entitled to have. Based on the Article 24 in Basic Law, any Chinese citizens born in Hong Kong before or after the establishment of the HKSAR will be given the permanent Hong Kong residency (Basic Law 18). This law attracts thousands of Mainland mothers to give birth to their babies in Hong Kong so as to gain the right of abode for their children. Recently, the concern over the influx of Mainland mothers is increasingly gaining Hongkongers’ attention. People are even more conscious of the issue even after Leung Chun-ying, the newly-elected Chief Executive publicly announced in April that starting from 2013, there will be “zero quota” for Mainland mothers to bear their babies in Hong Kong’s hospitals including the public or the private ones (SCMP, Decision on mainland mums due 'within 3 months 13 September, 2012). The seriousness of the problem can be obviously shown by the statistics provided by the government. In 2011, among the 95,418 babies born in Hong Kong, 43982 of them are born by Mainland mothers, which is 43.9% of the total. Compared with statistics in 2003, there are only 10,128 babies born by Mainland mothers out of 46,965 total numbers of live births (The Steering Committee on Population Policy Progress Report 2012 25).It is shown that the number of Mainland babies born

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