To Stay or To Leave? A Critical Question for Good Governance
The Youth I.D.E.A.S. announced its latest report on
“To Stay or To Leave? A Critical Question for Good Governance”
The Youth I.D.E.A.S. (established by HKFYG Youth Research Centre) has released its study on “To Stay or To Leave? A Critical Question for Good Governance”.
A survey on 525 Hong Kong youth aged 18-34 showed that 150 respondents would consider emigrating overseas. This accounted for 29% (28.6%) of the total. Of them, the three most mentioned social reasons were the enactment of the National Security Law in Hong Kong（50.7%）, the disappointing performance of the SAR Government（49.3%）, and the serious rift of the city（31.3%）.
344 respondents, however, did not have a plan of emigrating overseas. This accounted for 66% (65.5%) of the total. Of them, the three most mentioned social reasons were life in the city was convenient（45.1%）, stable law and order situation in Hong Kong（29.4%）, and there were development opportunities（17.7%）.
44% (43.6%) of the total respondents said they did not have a hope in Hong Kong’s future. Another 76% (76.0%) did not think that they trusted the Government. Nevertheless, 84%（83.8%）said that they wanted to make contribution to Hong Kong, and 76% (76.2%) believed that youth could bring change through participation.
Some young people in the parallel individual case interview of this study said that the Government had failed to ascertain the needs of and the problems encountered by the youth from a comprehensive approach. Some found that the Government had lost intention to listen to public opinions, as well as to explain policies to the public. They took a view that the Government should provide the youth with formal platform to reflect and express opinions.
The study recommended the SAR Government to launch a territory-wide movement to collect youth’s wishes for Hong Kong for the coming 10 years, set up a high-level centralized mechanism in handling public opinions to make the Government more responsive to public voices, as well as grasp every opportunity to reach young people for more communication, so as to narrow the distance between them.
End