Boomtown China

By KevinIMitton

Shenzhen-Hong Kong cross-boundary pupils

A handful of the hundreds of pupils that cross the Shenzhen-Hong Kong boundary every school day. The border crossing here is Shenzhen Bay (Wan Kou an)

According to the Wikipedia entry:
Shenzhen-Hong Kong cross-boundary students are students who are born and study in Hong Kong but live in mainland China. In a daily student migration, every school day they arrive in and exit from Hong Kong mainly through 5 land boundary control points: Lo Wu, Sha Tau Kok, Lok Ma Chau, Man Kam To, and Shenzhen Bay. Mainly they study in Yuen Long, Tuen Mun, Tai Po and most in North district.

Since the 2001 Chong Fung Yuen "Right of abode" case, babies born in Hong Kong to mainland women are entitled the right of abode in Hong Kong. Favoured with the 2003 Individual Visit Scheme, a large number of mainland pregnant women came to Hong Kong to give birth for their children's right of residence. Accordingly, the number of cross-boundary students, who are also the doubly non-permanent resident children, surged since 2006.

Meanwhile, with the low-birth rate in Hong Kong, a portion of primary and secondary schools were forced to close down, especially those in rural areas. To maintain their operation, some schools welcome these children to study in their school to increase the admission rate. This further increases the number of cross-boundary students.

Recent years ago, schools in mainland do not accept application of children who do not have Hukou (Hukou is an official permit to live in Shenzhen) in mainland but only Hong Kong citizenship. Children born in Hong Kong and live in mainland can either study in international school in mainland or schools in Hong Kong. Despite the new policy rejecting "Double-not" pregnant women, the number of cross-boundary students will keep increasing until 2017/18.

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