Hong Kong Expats, Where’s Your Next Destination?

Hong Kong Expats, Where’s Your Next Destination?

International and Arab News

These days, the first thing you’re asked in Hong Kong (when you do see people) is, “So, what’re you guys thinking?” That question is underpinned by the certainty that, given the city’s increasingly illogical, fear-inducing and chaotic Covid policies that have left the population on edge, surely you must be contemplating an escape — temporary or permanent.

As the exodus of both expatriates and locals accelerates — nearly 1% of the entire population left in February — and droves more are expected to depart, the responses have become increasingly diverse. Singapore, often thrown out as the obvious next choice, isn’t the only exit plan. Now, they range from Dubai, Portugal, Barcelona, southern Italy and Thailand, to moving closer to home — Australia, the UK, Canada or the US.

For many, it may just be a hiatus if Hong Kong sorts itself out or, at least, allows children back into school without the persistent threat of a poorly managed pandemic response and family separation. But that is a big if: more than two years into the pandemic and the territory is still building box-like quarantine facilities with squat toilets.

For now, everyday life has become all but impossible and it is