Episode 12: Hong Kongers in the UK: Identity and Belonging

In the aftershock of the large-scale social movements in Hong Kong in 2019, over 100,000 Hong Kong migrants came to the UK since 2021. This episode, hosted by UCL Research Assistant Joseph Lam (@Jo_Lam_), sheds light on the lived experience of these migrants, asking what a Hong Konger identity means to them, and what communities can do to help them integrate. Zara Asif (@Zara_Asif) is a research assistant and PhD student at the ESRC Centre for Society and Mental Health at King’s College London. Zara led the Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) Directory for Refugees and Migrants in Greater London. Learn more about the MHPSS directory here: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/mhpss-directory. Roy is a recent migrant in the UK from Hong Kong. Roy is a pseudonym; his voice has been altered to preserve anonymity. Hongkongers in Britain (HKB) is the first Hongkonger-led Civil Society Organisation established in July 2020, since UK's Introduction of the BN(O) Visa Scheme. HKB is an expat/diaspora & community-building group, with objectives to provide assistance, advice and support for, and consolidate the Hongkonger community in the UK, enabling them to settle, integrate, and contribute towards the UK society. Mark Liang and the Mental Health Team at HKB published the “Survey Report of Mental Health Amongst Hong Kong Arrivals in the UK” in May 2022. Mark is currently a medical student at UC Irvine. His research was conducted as part of an MPhil in Health, Medicine, and Society at the University of Cambridge. Visit HKB’s website to find out more about the Mental Health Survey Report: https://www.hongkongers.org.uk/mental-survey. HKB also has a mental health team under its UK-wide community project "Mission PERM", that provides emotion support and wellbeing advisory service, and hosts monthly psychoeducational events. You can follow HKB on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Telegram @HongkongersUK The BBC produced a short documentary on the experience of recent Hong Kong migrants in the UK. It captures similar topics that are discussed in this podcast episode. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQzY69IBKY8