Page 51 - IJPS-9-1

International Journal of
Population Studies Transportation assimilation in Hong Kong

Table 4. (Continued)
Model 4 Model 5
Place of work FE×Year FE Yes Yes
R-squared 0.0774 0.0774
Observations 169,766 169,766
Note: Fe: Fixed effect; +p<0.1, *p<0.05, **p<0.01, ***p<0.001 (two-tailed tests).

Figure 2. The association between duration of residence in Hong Kong Figure 4. The association between duration of residence in Hong Kong
and minibus usage by age at migration among Chinese who immigrated and minibus usage by personal income percentile
to Hong Kong in or after 1997
locals as competitors for low-skilled jobs since the colonial
period. In addition, South Asians, on average, maybe more
economically disadvantaged than other ethnic groups,
which may decrease the probability of choosing the more
expensive transportation option, that is, the minibus
(Law & Lee, 2013; Tonsing, 2013). Moreover, research has
also revealed South Asian immigrants’ lower language
acquirement in Hong Kong, which might deter them from
choosing the more culturally-loaded transportation mode
(Shum et al., 2011). Differently, Chinese arriving before
1997 were significantly faster in picking up minibus than
the newly arrived Chinese, which might be explained by
the different sociopolitical contexts in Hong Kong before
and after the Handover. The social sentiments toward
mainland immigrants were more empathized and tolerated
Figure 3. The association between duration of residence in Hong Kong before the Handover, during which massive numbers of
and minibus usage by age at migration by ethnic group mainlanders arrived as refugees and received help from
their relatives in Hong Kong. However, as daily resources
South-east Asian and white immigrants quickly lost their became more scarce with the presence of mainlanders after
initial advantages and were significantly slower than other the Handover, increasing negative sentiments toward the
groups to pick up minibus. We postulate that South-east recently arrived mainlander might have negatively affected
Asian immigrants might have experienced discrimination their social integration (Fong & Guo, 2018).
in Hong Kong in the long run, which lowered their The second category would include one’s Cantonese
pace for integration (Loper, 2001; Sim, 2003; Tang et al., ability. We are in line with previous findings that being
2004). Similar discrimination toward South Asians may able to speak the local language is all positively associated
also explain their significantly lower likelihood of taking with one’s higher likelihood of adopting the locals’
the minibus. South Asians had long been viewed by the transportation mode.

Volume 9 Issue 1 (2023) 45 https://doi.org/10.36922/ijps.0386