Chapter 44 Who knows what it's like to be "reversed immigrants"?

I don’t know when Hong Kong people have developed a habit, giving people the feeling that they are very two-faced. Among the “two-faces”, there is a sense of luxury and chic.For example, when they go to work during the day, they wear suits and leather shoes and are dedicated to their duties; when they get off work at night, they immediately change into casual clothes, with a relaxed expression on their faces, and when it comes to holidays, Easter, and Christmas, the whole family, young and old, disappears in a blink of an eye and flies away quietly. When I arrived in Hawaii and Bali, I enjoyed the free air and pleasant beaches and sunshine during leisure.

Of course, the "Hong Kong-style life" of Hong Kong people can only be stretched when they have conditions. Without conditions, or the world is unpredictable, once life enters the word "back", what kind of face will Hong Kong people have? , how to deal with loss and adversity? Hong Kong returned to China in 1997. In fact, to be precise, the time should be counted from 1995. At that time, Hong Kong people heard that the mainland would take back Hong Kong soon. How "powerful" and "ruthless" the Communist Party in the mainland was. "?Once they take over Hong Kong, they may soon "liquidate" the rich and mess up Hong Kong's economy.Therefore, many people are afraid and worried that their future will end, so a wave of "immigration" is surging.

The middle class was the most active in this "immigration". They sold their cars and houses, and fled to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom with millions of Hong Kong dollars in their pockets.However, when these people go abroad, the situation is not as good as originally imagined. The basic living conditions: they can't find permanent jobs, and they have nothing to do. In addition, they are regarded as "second-class citizens" in terms of status, and they are discriminated against.As a result, many husbands started to regret after being idle at home. At the same time, they looked back at their "hometown" and found that the Communist Party took over Hong Kong, and the world of Hong Kong has not collapsed since then. Hong Kong's economy once fell into a trough, but that was also a catastrophe for the global economy, and no one could recover.At this critical moment, the central government did not let go of the millions of Hong Kong citizens. On the contrary, it tried every means to support Hong Kong. This made Hong Kong's economy slowly recover, and finally ushered in a strong development. Life has regained hope and light.

Back then, according to relevant statistics, the number of Hong Kong migrants overseas was about 400,000, but after a few years, more than half of them returned.These people have changed from "immigrants" to "reversed immigrants". There is often a gap in their careers, and their income is generally not as good as before. Of course, their faces seem to be shorter than others—— I came to Hong Kong very early and wanted to do a series of TV feature films. The title of the film is "Hong Kong's "Dumping Immigrants"".At the very beginning, I heard a company boss tell me a joke, saying that he has a subordinate who is very capable, "But before the immigration, he was my boss, and he was always bossy and arrogant at that time; but after the 'reverse immigration', When I returned to Hong Kong and returned to the company, I already mentioned it, and he became my subordinate. In this way, the relationship between the two has undergone a huge change. We used to be friends, but now, no matter when he bows to me, I said to him, "Oh, don't be like this all the time, it makes me feel embarrassed. But it seems that this person will never go back to the past, and he can't change his sudden low self-esteem. The servant phase of..."

I began to pay attention to "backward immigrants", and I really wanted to find some "returners" to hear their stories.My friends said, "Oh, there are too many people like this, and they are all around me", but once I asked them to introduce me, everyone immediately fell into trouble again.Why?Hong Kong people want to save face, and "backward immigration" is not a glorious thing. People don't want to mention it, and they don't want to expose themselves on TV and "show their ugly face" in public. I understand the difficulties of Hong Kong people. Many immigrants, before they left Hong Kong, sold the big houses in the central area and returned from "immigrants". Tomorrow, the whole person seems to have no dignity.

In December 2006, I moved God with my sincerity, and finally searched for him thousands of times in my dream. Suddenly, I met a man who was not afraid of seeing me as a reporter or being on TV. This man was named Yu. I asked him by phone if he would accept CCTV Is it inconvenient to visit?He said: "There is no 'inconvenience'. I went out and wandered around. I suffered a lot and lost a lot of opportunities, but I also learned a lot. I got to know myself, Hong Kong and China again. " We met for an interview at the introducer's office. As soon as we met, of course I was most concerned about what he did in Hong Kong before "immigration"? What to do after the "reverse immigration"?Is there any difference between the two comparisons?

The "inverted immigrant" saw that I really wanted to know his real name, so he handed over a business card, and then told me that he worked in a bank before "immigration", "a Japanese bank, foreign capital, and a middle-level manager"; then " After the “immigration” incident, he said that his occupation was “not necessarily” and “what kind of occupation is ‘not necessarily’?” Mr. Yu said, “Isn’t it obvious that ‘not necessarily’ can be done? Just do whatever you can.” I was on the spot Being amused by him, my heart blossomed for his humor. Taking advantage of his not minding, I went straight to the topic: "How much was your salary for a year before you left? Can you still earn that much after you come back?"

Mr. Yu didn't evade: "Of course not. Before I left, my wife and I had an annual salary of more than one million yuan a year. After we came back, we didn't even have 1/3 of it." "So if you knew this earlier, why did you leave in the first place?" "I didn't 'know this before', and the subsequent results were not expected by anyone. You ask me why I left? If I say it and you believe it, I will tell you: I didn't actually do it because of anything at that time' Afraid', just following the trend, many colleagues are leaving Hong Kong to immigrate, advised me to give it a try, I handed in the materials, who knows that just three months later, the Canadian Immigration Service approved it, even I It was a surprise."

I believe what Mr. Yu said is basically true. In fact, before the handover in 1997, there were many immigrants in Hong Kong. At that time, many people did not do it because of "fear", but just followed the tide. They sometimes summed up the "immigration" back then The original motivation, everyone analyzes that they are "herd mentality", this kind of psychology exists in a large area of ​​Hong Kong, and I can still see traces of it in many things that have been rioted to this day.But why "backward immigrants" returned to Hong Kong, "Many people can't earn their original wages"?I really don't understand this.

Mr. Yu said: "There is no such thing as 'incomprehensible'. Simply put, there is no place, and I am too old." "Did you inquire about this situation before the 'reversal of immigration'? If you knew, how could you have the courage to return to Hong Kong?" "I can't do it if I don't come back. Take me as an example. When I arrived in Canada, I thought it was fun and novel in the first month; in the second month, I saw friends and continued to rest; but in the third month, this kind of 'good life' It’s over when it arrives, why? A big living person, who was used to being busy in Hong Kong in the past, suddenly stops and does nothing, people will go crazy, and there is also economic pressure.”

Mr. Yu's "story" started to get into the details, and I didn't dare to interrupt him easily, for fear that he would suddenly lose the mood to tell me when he got to the point where he was sad—— "In order not to let my days of overseas immigration go to waste every day, I started looking for a job after three months. But where is the job in Canada so easy to find? In other people's society, various jobs are already saturated, and there are vacant job opportunities. There are not many, and Canada, I really can’t think of it, how does that place, like our Eastern society, care about relationships and connections? Employers often don’t look at my qualifications at all, and it doesn’t matter how good my English is. When I meet people, they just say : 'I'm sorry, you don't have local work experience, we can't hire you.' Look, isn't this a clear discrimination against immigrants? If you don't give me a chance, how can I accumulate some 'local work experience'? " So when Mr. Yu was in the "immigration prison" (4 years, he had to live in Canada for a total of 1095 days), he worked as a "salesperson" in a supermarket, and worked hard to get a security license to work as a "security guard".Many other people are Hong Kong immigrants like him. He said: "More people go to restaurants to do odd jobs, washing dishes and washing dishes for others. Most of them will always do part time (hourly labor) .” "It's too boring. I'm always unemployed, and I don't have a fixed income. Where is the future? I can't see it." For this reason, Mr. Yu decided to go back home. "But isn't it a bit ugly to go back to Hong Kong's 'face'?" I quietly put up a step. "Yes, but there is no other way. When people have nothing to eat, how can they still care about 'face'? Besides, people don't live for 'face'?!" After returning to Hong Kong, Mr. Yu was introduced by a friend. At first, he still wanted to return to the original bank to resume his old business. Can I hire you to do something?” He said that this was the “superficial reason” and the real reason was that there was no seat, “otherwise, why would I prefer to be ‘low-cost’, and none of those banks wanted me?” "Can you imagine what my first job was when I returned to Hong Kong?" I shook my head ("揾工" means looking for a job). Mr. Yu laughed at himself: "Pest killer." "Pest killer?" Mr. Yu said: "Yes, 'insect killer'. It is the job of the cleaning company. I can't be a 'white-collar' in the bank. Instead, I wear a white coat and go to hotels and hotels every day to kill rats, cockroaches, Kill the ants." "Really? I didn't expect that." I finally spoke. Mr. Yu laughed: "You didn't expect it? My family and parents couldn't understand it. Everyone said: 'Hey, you, did you make a mistake?!'" In the past in Hong Kong, Mr. Yu not only received a monthly salary of tens of thousands of yuan as a senior white-collar worker in the bank, but the company also gave him an additional privilege, a gold card, which allowed him to invite customers to dinner and spend entertainment at any time. All expenses are free to "sign the bill" (of course you have to see the return); however, a few years later, it was because of "immigrants" that they "returned" to Hong Kong, let alone the past "scenery" has long been a thing of the past. "He didn't dare to be picky about his work. Mr. Yu's situation is not an isolated phenomenon among many Hong Kong "backward immigrants". I especially want to say here that I don’t give up on myself. They have a word of “stand up” in their hearts—if they can be “white-collar workers” they will wear suits; if they can’t be “white-collar workers”, we will wear “water boots”— In the midst of loss and adversity for Hong Kong people, the most precious thing is a sentence: "Start all over again." Mr. Yu works as a "pest killer" and can only earn more than 10,000 yuan a month, which is a sharp drop of 2/3 from the original income. The average occupancy rate of many hotels and hotels in Hong Kong and Guangzhou is only 5%. People can’t afford the insecticide fee, and the company will lay off employees. The pitiful salary was cut off by 1/3, and Mr. Yu had no choice but to change jobs again. By the end of 2006 when I interviewed him, he had already transferred to a pharmaceutical factory, where he started "operation management". ". In Hong Kong, in less than three years, I saw many waiters in restaurants, big and small, five-foot men who could speak fluent English. Serving food for eaters, doing "runners"; I have seen many salespersons in the store. They are quick-witted and not low-level, but they are not complaining, and they continue to serve all kinds of picky customers. . "In a competitive society, people have to say what they have reached. Whichever job can earn money, they should do what they do first. It is a transition, and their future prospects will change depending on their own efforts." At the end of the interview, Mr. Yu said the last few words to me, and he felt relaxed after speaking.