历届英国政府的移民政策：香港人永远不会是英国公民

 北京的大屠杀和随之而来的中国各地的清洗唤起了许多人的深深恐惧，而英国人正是依靠这些人维持着香港的运转，直到1997年。

公务员、警察、商人和学者；任何与殖民统治结构有关的人都可能面临报复，如果一个正义和复仇的中国夺回主权。

事实是，他们中的许多人无处可去。

他们的一些祖先在革命后逃离了国际大都市上海，他们的许多父母为了躲避内战，跋山涉水离开了中国。

更多的人为了逃离毛主席的社会主义试验而越过边境，伴随着午夜的敲门声、当地窃听者的网络、言论自由和宗教的灭绝--所有秘密警察国家的装备。

香港曾经是一个天堂。

现在，许多人认为它是一个陷阱。

 

The massacre in Beijing and the ensuing purge across China awoke deep fear in many people on whom the British depended to keep Hong Kong running until 1997. Civil servants, policemen, business people and academics; anyone associated with the colonial ruling structure might face retribution if a righteous and vengeful China took back sovereignty. The fact was that many of them had nowhere to go. Some of their ancestors had fled cosmopolitan Shanghai after the revolution, many of their parents had trekked and sailed out of China to escape the civil war. Many more had crossed the border fleeing Chairman Mao’s experiment with socialism, accompanied as it was by the midnight knock on the door, a web of local eavesdroppers, the extinction of free speech and religion – all the accoutrements of a secret police state. Hong Kong had been a haven. Now many saw it as a trap.

 

他们恐惧的根源同样在于历届英国政府的移民政策。

即使是最爱国的英国行政人员也承认，这并不是一个让英国获得桂冠的领域。

这个故事漫长而复杂，但就其本质而言，它归结为以下几点。

 

The origins of their fear lay equally with the immigration policies of successive British governments. Even the most patriotic British administrators conceded that this was not a field on which the United Kingdom had crowned itself with laurels. The story was long and complicated, but in its stark essentials it came down to this:

在大英帝国时期，其臣民在君主的领地内来去无阻。

在帝国时代结束时，1948年的《英国国籍法》确立了联合王国和殖民地公民的地位，这包括香港人。

然而，从20世纪60年代初开始，随着殖民地的独立，英国政府开始限制移民，主要是通过1962年的《英联邦移民法》，这标志着政策的转折点，取消了香港公民在英国定居的权利。

 

Under the British Empire, its subjects had come and gone unfettered within the sovereign’s realms. At the waning of the imperial age, the British Nationality Act of 1948 established the status of Citizen of the United Kingdom and Colonies, which included the people of Hong Kong. From the early 1960s, however, the British government began to restrict immigration as its colonies gained independence, chiefly through the Commonwealth Immigration Act of 1962, which marked a turning point in policy and removed the right of Hong Kong citizens to settle in the United Kingdom.

 

1971年的《移民法》进一步限制了父母或祖父母在英国出生的人在英国的居留权。

10年后，1983年生效的《英国国籍法》的通过，使香港人成为英国附属领土公民，没有自动在英国居住的权利。

与中国的联合声明加强了这种区别，无论如何，中国的统治者将所有在香港的中国人视为他们的同胞。

 

The Immigration Act of 1971 further limited the right of abode in Britain to those with a parent or grandparent born there. The passing, ten years later, of the British Nationality Act, which came into force in 1983. made Hong Kong people British Dependent Territories Citizens with no automatic right to live in the United Kingdom. The distinction was reinforced by the Joint Declaration with China, whose rulers, in any case, saw all Chinese people in Hong Kong as their compatriots.

 

1985年，英国政府为殖民地居民设立了独特的英国国民（海外）公民类别，他们持有的护照只有权在香港居住；正如我们所看到的，这一类别本应在1997年随着英国的统治而消亡。

这是一条纤细的线，可以把对家庭、事业或一生的储蓄和财产的希望挂在上面。

作为移民控制的坚定支持者，撒切尔夫人对她拒绝为香港人提供例外的做法毫无悔意，无论她如何声称钦佩香港人的勤奋、节俭和家庭价值观。

1989年6月，这使得持有英国护照或有权获得英国护照的340万香港人失去了一个安全的避难所。

 

In 1985, the British government created the unique category of British National (Overseas) citizens for residents of the colony, holding passports which entitled them to live only in Hong Kong; this category, as we have seen, was supposed to die out with British rule in 1997. It was a slender thread on which to hang hopes for a family, a career or a lifetime of savings and property. A strong proponent of immigration controls, Mrs Thatcher was unrepentant about her refusal to allow an exception for the people of Hong Kong, however much she professed to admire their diligence, frugality and family values. In June 1989, that left 3.4 million people in Hong Kong, who were holding British passports or were entitled to them, without a safe haven.