Southeast and South Asians are Hong Kong's poorest of the poor
Hong Kong's Asian minorities are the poorest of the poor, with needs that are often different from the rest of the population, ethnic minority rights advocate Fermi Wong Wai-fun said.

Hong Kong's Asian minorities are the poorest of the poor, with needs that are often different from the rest of the population, ethnic minority rights advocate Fermi Wong Wai-fun said.
Speaking yesterday at the year's final "Redefining Hong Kong" discussion, sponsored by the South China Morning Post, Wong said the needs of the South and Southeast Asian communities should not be left until last merely because those groups are relatively small.
"It's easy to overlook them. They seem to live in a parallel world with the rest of Hong Kong, but invisible to the general public," Wong said. Compared with other vulnerable groups such as new immigrants, the elderly and women, ethnic minorities are the poorest, she said, both in terms of income and opportunities.
"This is a matter of justice," she said. "And when it comes to justice, numbers should not count."
With no South Asian or Southeast Asian lawmakers or elected officials, their needs are often not considered during policymaking, she said. "Most people from ethnic minorities are very humble and they dare not ask for help, let alone demand anything from the government."
Because some groups, such as Pakistanis, have higher birth rates than the city's Chinese, the risk of intergenerational poverty is high, Wong said, with parents having to support more children. "We are especially worried about the next generation - whether they will become a social burden or social capital," she said.