Negative Sentiment Toward Recent Migrants in a Post-Colonial City: A Case Study in Hong Kong

By examining negative sentiment toward recent migrants among local residents in Hong Kong, this study fills a research gap in understanding group relations between migrants and local residents in post-colonial societies. We suggest that negative sentiments toward recent migrants among local residents in Hong Kong are the result of the society's post-colonial development, which has fostered a local identity and defined a group boundary between residents born in Hong Kong and migrants from the mainland. Linking post-colonial literature with literature on group boundaries, group threats, and scapegoating, we developed four hypotheses to explain the negative sentiments of local residents toward Chinese migrants. Using findings from data collected in 2014, we show that having close friends from mainland China, having higher income, and level of job satisfaction are all related to the level of negative sentiment toward mainland migrants in Hong Kong. Implications of the findings are discussed.