The term Shuangfei children was invented by the Hong Kong media. It refers to children delivered in Hong Kong by non-local parents, mostly Chinese mainland women. Hong Kong's medical and educational resources face mounting pressure as more mainlanders give birth there.
The Census and Statistics Department of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) revealed that the number of three-year-old Shuangfei children has soared from?709 in 2003 to 29,800 in 2012, increasing 41-fold in nine years. According to China News Service, about 95,000 babies were born in Hong Kong in 2011, and approximately 37,000 of them were Shuangfei babies.
According to surveys conducted by the Census and Statistics Department over the past five years, 20 percent of mainland mothers plan to send their children back to study in Hong Kong. The number of Shuangfei children who will study in Hong Kong's kindergartens is estimated at between 1,700 and 6,000 by September 2012, totally about HK$100 million in tuition revenue.
The large number of Shuangfei children has brought tremendous pressure on Hong Kong's educational system, especially in the Hong Kong-Shenzhen boundary area where kindergartens and schools lacked about 3,000 spots for applicants each year. As tax payers, local Hong Kong citizens complain that they have no precedence over mainlanders to enjoy local resources from the government.
On April 16, 2012, Hong Kong's Health Chief York Chow said the region may bar mainland mothers from giving birth in public hospitals next year to battle the overcrowding in local maternity wards. Public hospital obstetric services are expected to be reserved for Hong Kong permanent residents and Hong Kong citizens in 2013, he said.
Chow's comments came after Leung Chun-ying, the newly-elected Chief Executive of the HKSAR, said that private hospitals should bar mainland mothers and that their newborns will no longer be able to claim permanent residence in the city. |
“雙非”兒童是香港媒體發(fā)明一個詞匯,指在香港出生的、父母雙方均非港民的孩子,母親大多為中國大陸婦女。由于越來越多的大陸人來港產(chǎn)子,香港的醫(yī)療和教育資源面臨越來越大的壓力。
2012年,據(jù)香港特區(qū)政府統(tǒng)計處的數(shù)字顯示,3歲左右的“雙非”兒童人數(shù)已由2003年的709急升至2.98萬,9年間激增41倍。另據(jù)中新社報道,去年全香港有約9.5萬名嬰兒出生,其中雙非嬰占約3.7萬名。
據(jù)香港統(tǒng)計處在過去5年內(nèi)的意向調(diào)查顯示,20%到港產(chǎn)子的內(nèi)地孕婦打算送子女來港讀書。按此推算,2012年9月赴港讀幼兒園的“雙非”兒童人數(shù)估計在1700至6000之間,涉及學(xué)費(fèi)資助最多約1億港元。
數(shù)以萬計的“雙非”兒童回流香港上學(xué),給香港教育體系帶來沉重壓力,其中連接深圳和香港邊境的北區(qū)更為嚴(yán)重,大批學(xué)童每天跨境就學(xué),導(dǎo)致幼兒園和小學(xué)新學(xué)年共缺少大約3000個名額。香港本地人抱怨自己是納稅人,卻沒能優(yōu)先享受到當(dāng)?shù)卣馁Y源。
香港衛(wèi)生局長周一岳4月16日表示,香港明年或禁止大陸孕婦在公共醫(yī)院生產(chǎn),以緩解當(dāng)?shù)禺a(chǎn)房待產(chǎn)者過多的狀況。2013年,所有公共醫(yī)院的產(chǎn)科服務(wù)可能會預(yù)留給本地孕婦。
此前,香港特別行政區(qū)候任行政長官梁振英也表示,香港私立醫(yī)院應(yīng)不再接受大陸孕婦,而她們的嬰兒將不再能獲得該市的永久居住權(quán)。
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