I know Trump won’t do this but Biden really needs to put some sort of refugee/visa plank for HKers in his platform
This is what Britain has announced: it will extend the Immigration rights of BN(O) passport holders (a residual form of British nationality granted to many HK'ers pre handover without, until now, the right to Immigrate to the UK; similar to Taiwan's NWOHR) including a path to full British Citizenship. There are some 2.9 Million people with BN(O) status in Hong Kong, who are eligible for the Passport, and this is not counting many immediate Family Members (esp. post 1997 born Children) with the right to join them.
While China is quite content with the Joshua Wong's and similar problematic types emigrating, they strongly opposed this, because such a wide expansion of Immigration rights will mean a massive brain drain to the UK, especially when combined with the abolition of HK's special economic status as confirmed by President Trump today. The Structure of how/when BN(O) status was awarded, means that it's holders are more likely than not to be middle aged with higher education and professional experience (due to pre-1997 connection), and upper/middle class with english fluency (due to the exclusion of newer mainland Immigrants). In short this will be a massive boost for the UK economy, especially the City of London. And interestingly this seems to be winning the support of both the most ardent Brexiteers and Remainers. The stage for the decline of Hong Kong is now completely set.
I thought BNO does not allow you to work in the UK. Also my impression of what is being proposed is that the BNO allowance of visit visa free to the UK to go from 6 months to 12 months which makes this change mostly symbolic.
BN(O) passport holders can visit the UK for up to 6 months & can't work/apply for citizenship under the current rules, yes, but Raab's announcement from yesterday was that the 6-month limit would be removed & BN(O) passport holders will be allowed to come to the UK & to apply to work & study for extendable periods of 12 months.
