[XI_YAN]

furthermore it creates even greater racial hatred because work is done inefficiently or incompetantly. In the USA affirmative action came to end when this was realised. The only fair system is one where people are judged on their merits regardless of age, sex or race.

[Grungerock]

Originally Posted by jayinhongkong

I interviewed for a job today. Interview went well until the interviewer asked me what country I was from. She knew I was Hong Kong-born with British nationality, but the interview promptly ended when I told her I was Indian. She was supposed to send me an e-mail. I never received it. I can't prove it, but I'm pretty sure I didn't get the job because I'm Indian.

That's discrimination.

If she knows where are you from, which I presume you stated in your resume, why is she asking this question again?
Unless there is a good reason ie. whether need to get employment visa...otherwise, it does not serve any good purpose in interview.

Will it help if you say your are HK born indian?

[Grungerock]

Originally Posted by links

discrimination is everywhere, for the case in hk it does appear in many ways.

to land a job in hk, it really depends alot on your luck. but if the hiring manager is expats then your chance is higher.

if the hiring manager is a local then most of the time local candidate is the priority, even the job skills, language skills may not better than the expats candidates. The main reason is the managers here doesnt want to hire someone who has potential to threaten their position, second is they prefer to work day to day with local people because of same culture.

one trend in local is people like to "tag" other....Chinese are "mainlanders", white men are "kwai lou", the blacks are "black men".....bla bla bla.....and the pride of local is very high, many are still living in the glorious 80s and believe that they are the best, with high intelligence and quick thinking. And they believe the rest are slower and not as flexible than them, this post a kind a problem to make a team work.


The structure of the society here has some problems, so lead to the "discrimination".

To land a job in hk is very depending on your luck nowdays, although the local government always said they want to attract more foreign talents, but with their current policy i didnt see any significant movement aligning with that goal. I think after years of wonders and close door operation, the local workforce are quite inferior to compete with the global talents.....

Singapore seems to be more open for expats in the region, with fair work permit policy(except for malaysians application) and better culture to accept the foreign culture in the company......

sorry if my opinion is makes anyone uncomfortable.

Look at this way, HK still lives in the pre-1997 British rule when morever NOW technically they now belong to China!

For the hiring case, I absolutely agree..!

[Alby]

Originally Posted by jayinhongkong

I interviewed for a job today. Interview went well until the interviewer asked me what country I was from. She knew I was Hong Kong-born with British nationality, but the interview promptly ended when I told her I was Indian. She was supposed to send me an e-mail. I never received it. I can't prove it, but I'm pretty sure I didn't get the job because I'm Indian.

jayinhongkong - unfortunately this is more common than not. Unison HK and RTHK with efforts from the YMCA have been working on further opening the eyes and broadening the minds of ALL people in Hong Kong -
http://www.rthk.org.hk/rthk/tv/eos2007/20070502.html

[Boneco]

Ok...as i was googling around in the internet i came across an interesting article about Job discrimination, although it's not about Language discrimination it can be related to everything we've been talking about since the beginning of the thread! I was so astounded with the news that i decided to check the same article veracity in some other online newspapers...according to the mentioned article, people now are being judged by their height when applying for a job position in China. It's not enough to judge a person by their sex, ethnicity and language, but now we also have height discrimination. I wonder what will be the next thing brought up by Society to exclude people...eye colour? hair colour?
"As noted above, Chinese law does not expressly bar height discrimination, but a case brought by Jiang Tao came close. In December 2001, Jiang read an advertisement for a staff position of the Chengdu Branch of the People's Bank of China. Among the other qualifications listed, the ad required that male applicants be over 168 centimeters in height (about five feet, six inches), and that female applicants be over 155 centimeters (about five feet, one inch)."...The original article:
http://writ.news.findlaw.com/dorf/20040526.html

[jayinhongkong]

Originally Posted by Grungerock

That's discrimination.

If she knows where are you from, which I presume you stated in your resume, why is she asking this question again?
Unless there is a good reason ie. whether need to get employment visa...otherwise, it does not serve any good purpose in interview.

Will it help if you say your are HK born indian?

My nationality is technically British, but I was born in HK. She couldn't make out where I was from by my name. The interview ended right when I told her I was Indian. She never e-mailed me as promised. She had no real reason to ask me what my ethnicity was. Apparently being HK-born Indian didn't help.

[Grungerock]

She is racist that is for sure.

You don't judge the work based on people's ethicity but based on how they perform.

[PDLM]

Eh? If you are HK-born then you are "from" Hong Kong as far as I am concerned. Have you ever even lived in India? If not I don't see how "India" is a valid answer to the question you were asked.

[jayinhongkong]

I knew she meant my ethnicity when she asked it. I agree, according to the Western definition of origin, I'm from Hong Kong. I've never lived in India. She knew I was born here, because I told her that when she asked me how long I'd been in Hong Kong. but when she asked "Where are you from?" at the end of the interview, it was my ethnicity she wanted.

Ah well, I wouldn't want to work for a company with discriminatory hiring practices anyway. Their loss.

[PDLM]

I think you should name and shame...