Hong Kong is a comprehensive and free cosmopolitan city that is full of opportunity and competition. We welcome people with talent who can contribute to a brighter future for Hong Kong.

But in fact, it is people lacking in skills who make up a majority of the new immigrants.

They come to Hong Kong for its convenience, opportunities, and better living condition, since Hong Kong has established a social welfare system which is superior to that of the Chinese mainland. However, most of them cannot integrate into the mainstream society and are engaged in low-end industries. Instead of making contribution, they are draining public resources produced by Hong Kongers.

We Hong Kong people are creative and hard-working. We have created miracles in this narrow land area, making it an international commercial metropolis. We are well-trained. We stand in line waiting for the bus. We talk in a low voice in public areas. We believe in self-reliance and integrity.

But those new immigrants bring us many social problems.

Take the mainland brides. In my neighborhood, there is a woman from the mainland who married a local man a year and a half ago. She is looked down upon by her husband's family. The husband has no stable job while the wife is not qualified to apply for social security. They have decided to have one or two more children, so they can apply for children's social security and a larger public housing allowance.

I am not biased against them, but I really can't see their value to Hong Kong society. They are a burden on public resources, and letting them in is detrimental to social harmony.

The civilized and orderly Hong Kong society is also affected by visitors from mainland. High house prices are partially due to mainland real estate speculators.

We are not denying that the mainland is a stimulus to the economic development of Hong Kong, and the problem of immigration is in some ways unavoidable. But we would like to see a higher class of immigrants.

The author is a Hong Kong resident and a registered member of the Hong Kong Nativism Power Forum, a platform for Hong Kong natives to express their opposition on new immigrants. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn

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