Soc Indic Res

DOI 10.1007/s11205-014-0615-9

Effects of Perceived Discrimination on the Quality of Life

Among New Mainland Chinese Immigrants to Hong
Kong: A Longitudinal Study

Isabella F. S. Ng · Siu-yau Lee · Winky K. F. Wong · Kee-Lee Chou

Accepted: 27 March 2014

© Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2014

Abstract This study examines the effects of perceived discrimination on quality of life
(QOL). We used a random sample of 380 Chinese immigrants from a 1-year longitudinal
secondary dataset and conducted bivariate and multivariate multiple regressions to
examine the associations of QOL with perceived discrimination, sense of control, opti-
mism, perceived social support, pre-migration planning, collective efficacy and perceived
neighborhood disorder. Our results showed that perceived discrimination was significantly
associated with QOL, even after a year spent in Hong Kong. Collective efficacy, perceived
social support and preparation for immigration are also important factors contributing the
QOL among new immigrants in Hong Kong. The findings suggest that interventions to
reduce discrimination should be designed and implemented in order to improve the QOL
among new immigrants in Hong Kong.

Keywords Quality of life · Perceived discrimination · Mainland Chinese immigrants ·

Hong Kong

1 Introduction

Migration is a complex and stressful process. When immigrants move to a new country,
they have to settle into a new environment and try to adjust to meet the challenges of the
host country. One of the important topics in migration is discrimination and perceived
discrimination against immigrants in host countries, in particular their effects on health
(Chou 2012; Gee and Ponce 2010; Hunte and Williams 2009). However, little attention has
been paid to perceived discrimination and its effects on quality of life (QOL). Even studies
in which the impact of perceived discrimination on QOL is examined generally focus only
on health-related dimensions (Gee and Ponce 2010; Spencer et al. 2010; Pearson and

I. F. S. Ng (&) · S. Lee · W. K. F. Wong · K.-L. Chou

Department of Asian and Policy Studies, The Hong Kong Institute of Education, 10 Lo Ping Road,
Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong, SAR
e-mail: ifsng@ied.edu.hk

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Geronimus 2011) without looking at the effect on other aspects of QOL, such as social
relationships and environmental factors. Besides, most of these studies are cross-sectional,
which prevents any attempt to assert a temporal order between perceived discrimination
and QOL (Wong et al. 2012; Pearson and Geronimus 2011). There are also a few studies in
which the effect of perceived discrimination on QOL in Asian countries is evaluated (Chan
et al. 2010; Cheung et al. 2005; Wong et al. 2012; Wang et al. 2010a, b). This study is
intended to fill the gap in the current literature regarding the association between perceived
discrimination and QOL with longitudinal data pertaining to Hong Kong. Using a repre-
sentative sample of 380 newly arrived Mainland Chinese immigrants, this study examines
the impact of perceived discrimination on QOL during their first year of settlement in the
host society.

1.1 Newly Arrived Immigrants in Hong Kong and Their Problems

The handover of Hong Kong in 1997 officially made Hong Kong part of Mainland China.
The implementation of the “one country, two systems” policy, however, did not change the
status and the application procedure for Mainland Chinese who wish to live in Hong Kong.
Those who do must apply for a visa in one of three following ways. Since 2005, they have
been able to apply for the Capital Investment Entrant Scheme (CIES), the Admission
Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals (ASMTP), or the Quality Migrant Scheme
(QMAS), all of which are intended to attract talent and capital into Hong Kong. Between
2005 and 2010, 36,924 immigrants from the mainland settled in Hong Kong through these
various schemes (Hong Kong Immigration Department 2008, 2010). Spouses and depen-
dent children of permanent Hong Kong residents can apply for the One-Way Permit
(OWP). Currently, there is a daily limit of 150 OWPs. From 1990 to 2010, 899,431 new
arrivals, approximately 12.7 % of the total 7.10 million Hong Kong population in 2010,
arrived in Hong Kong. In this study, we focus on those who migrated to Hong Kong
through the OWP scheme because they constitute the majority of immigrants from the
mainland to Hong Kong.
However, this group of new arrivals has never been received warmly by the local
populace. There has been outright discrimination against the new immigrants in the
everyday discourse of the local media, on YouTube, and in songs written by the Hong
Kong Chinese calling the Mainland Chinese “locusts” (Chu 2012; Liu 2012). Recent
studies on immigration have recognized that the hostile or discriminatory attitudes among
members of the host society may deter the integration of immigrants (Chou 2012; Gee and
Ponce 2010; Massey and Sanchez 2010). Given this overt display of strong antipathy
towards the Mainland Chinese, it is important to study how these new immigrants survive
under such discriminatory attitudes or, at least, whether this attitude in their host country
affects their QOL. This study is significant as this group of immigrants, with annual OWP
arrivals of 55,000, coupled with the more than 10,000 registered cross-boundary marriages,
is expected to continue to be a major source of population growth for Hong Kong. Their
QOL, an important aspect of integration, is a major concern for policy makers and the host
society in general.

1.2 Quality of Life and Perceived Discrimination

Despite the lack of consensus on the concept of “quality of life” (QOL), studies on QOL
tend to agree that it is “multi-dimensional” (Bayram et al. 2007; Benish-Weisman and

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Shye 2010; Van Servellen et al. 2002) and the World Health Organization (1995) also
conceptualizes QOL as a construct with multiple dimensions. Based on this definition, the
World Health Organization Quality of Life (WHOQOL-BREF) instrument was developed
and it comprises 26 items which measure the following broad domains: physical health,
psychological health, social relationships, and environment. Reviews of past and present
studies have shown that immigrants’ QOL is related to a wide range of socio-demographic
characteristics and psychological resource related variables. Specifically, socio-demo-
graphic characteristics include gender (Zhang et al. 2009a, b; Bayram et al. 2007), marital
status (Bayram et al. 2007; Zhang et al. 2009a, b), age (Bayram et al. 2007; Pantzer et al.
2006), education (Zhang et al. 2009a, b), social and economic status (Pantzer et al. 2006;
Van Servellen et al. 2002) while psychological resources related variables are sense of
control (O’Connell and Skevington 2005; Kostka and Jachimowicz 2010; Hsiung et al.
2010), optimism (O’Connell and Skevington 2005; Uskul and Greenglass 2005; Kostka
and Jachimowicz 2010), and perceived social support (Pantzer et al. 2006; Lim et al. 2008).
Apart from these two groups of variables, there are other factors, such as the degree of
preparation for migration (Wang et al. 2010a, b), the neighborhood living environment,
collective efficacy (Ford and Beveridge 2004), and perceived neighborhood disorder, the
last of which has been identified by researchers as one of factors affecting QOL among the
general population (Ross and Jang 2000; Woldoff 2002; Golub et al. 2003; Wong et al.
2012).
Although extensive studies have been conducted in the Western countries like United
States to examine the relations between perceived discrimination and health-related QOL
(Gee and Ponce 2010; Spencer et al. 2010; Hunte and Williams 2009), most of these
studies are based on cross-sectional data sets (Wong et al. 2012) and, therefore, the
temporal relationship between perceived discrimination and QOL is still open to question.
Other studies have looked at immigrants’ QOL (Bayram et al. 2007; Benish-Weisman and
Shye 2010), but few have focused specifically on the effect of perceived discrimination on
immigrants’ QOL. Studies in Hong Kong mainly focus on immigrants’ adaptation and
family (So 2003; Chan 2013; Wong 2007, 2008; The Hong Kong Council of Social Service
2009), and their employment situation (Lee 2004). Despite the evident importance of
adopting QOL in gauging the progress of immigrants’ adjustment, there seems to be a lack
of concern with their QOL, even though studies on the QOL of other groups general
population, older adults, and the poor, have been conducted widely in Hong Kong (Cheung
et al. 2005; Lee 2005; Wong 2005, 2011; Cheung and Leung 2010; Mo and Mak 2010).
The study aims to fill in the void of the current research by studying longitudinally the
effect of perceived discrimination on Mainland Chinese migrants’ QOL. It is based on the
pool of Western studies and the study by Chou (2012) on the association between per-
ceived discrimination and depressive symptoms and Wong et al. (2012) paper on the
correlates of the QOL of new Mainland Chinese immigrants.

2 Methodology

2.1 Sampling and Participants

The study recruited adult immigrants who (1) were aged 18 or above, (2) had migrated
from China on an OWP for the purpose of family reunification and plan to reside per-
manently in Hong Kong, and (3) have resided in Hong Kong for between 3 and 6 months.
We used a systematic random sampling method and started the recruitment of samples in

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November 2006. Since all new immigrants need to apply for their Hong Kong Identity
Card at the Registration of Persons—Kowloon Immigration Office within 30 days of their
arrival in Hong Kong, our research project interviewers approached each potential
respondent at the immigration office and invited them to participate in this survey. During
the month of November 2006, we successfully recruited 613 potential respondents, but
only 569 were eligible because some were too young (under the age of 18). Of these 569
eligible respondents, 501 agreed to participate in the study.
Because one of the inclusion criteria is that all respondents must have resided in Hong
Kong for at least 3 months, and they tend to apply for their Hong Kong Identity Card in the
first week following their arrival, we contacted these potential respondents 4 months later
to conduct face-to-face interviews. Between March and April 2007 (T1), we successfully
interviewed 449 of these 569 eligible respondents, yielding a response rate of 78.9 %. The
one-year follow up interview was conducted between February and May 2008 (T2); 380
respondents were successfully interviewed, yielding a dropout rate of 15.4 %.

2.2 Instruments

2.2.1 Quality of Life

The dependent variable of this study is QOL, which was measured by the abbreviated
version of the Hong Kong Chinese (not Cantonese one) version of the WHOQOL-BREF
Scale. This scale has been validated in Hong Kong (Leung et al. 2005) and has been widely
used in the Chinese population (Zhang et al. 2009a, b; Wang et al. 2010a, b; Chan et al.
2006, 2009). It is a self-report scale comprising 28 items; apart from the two general items,
the other 26 items in the scale are grouped into four main domains: Psychological Health
(eight items), Environment (eight items), Physical Health (seven items), and Social
Relationships (three items). Participants were asked to rate themselves on a 5-point Likert
scale, ranging from 1 = very dissatisfied, never, not at all; to 5 = very satisfied, always,
extremely, or completely. The possible raw scores for each domain are in the range of 7–35
for Physical Health, 3–15 for Social Relationships, and 8–40 for both Psychological Health
and Environment domains. Higher scores indicate better QOL. The Cronbach’s α of these
28 items for the WHOQOL-BREF Scale was 0.89 and 0.60, 0.75, 0.71, and 0.75 for the
Physical Health, Psychological Health, Social Relationships, and Environment domain,
respectively.

2.2.2 Perceived Discrimination

The measurement of perceived discrimination was based on the seven items from the
Social, Attitudinal, Familial, and Environmental Acculturation Stress Scale (Fuertes and
Westbrook 1996). For example, two of the items are “I feel uncomfortable when others
make jokes about me because I am a new immigrant” and “Because of my immigrant
background, I feel that others exclude me from participating in their activities”. This
scale has been used previously in Hong Kong (Chou 2012). Participants were asked to
rate their experiences on a 6-point Likert scale ranging from 0 = not applicable, 1 = not
stressful, to 5 = extremely stressful. The scale score was calculated as the unweighted
sum of these seven items, higher scores indicate higher levels of perceived discrimina-
tion. The Cronbach’s α of this perceived discrimination scale in the present sample was
0.80.

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2.2.3 Psychosocial Resources

The measurement of sense of control was based on the eight-item personal control scale
developed by Mirowsky and Ross (1990). This instrument has high validity and test–retest
reliability (Mirowsky and Ross 1990) and has been used widely in studies of the Chinese
population (Chou and Chi 2001; Chou 2009b). This scale is aimed at assessing respon-
dents’ perceived control and lack of control over good and bad outcomes. All eight items
when rated positive indicate a tendency to agree with internal statements and to disagree
with external ones (negative scores indicate the opposite). Respondents were asked to what
extent they agreed or disagreed with these eight items on a 4-point scale, ranging from
1 = strongly agree to 4 = strongly disagree.
We measured the disposition to optimism with the six-item revised Life Orientation
Test (LOT-R) (Scheier et al. 1994; Scheier and Carver 1985). This Chinese version of
LOT-R has been validated and is very widely used as an instrument to assess the dispo-
sitional optimism in psychological research (Lai and Yue 2000; Lai et al. 1998). This scale
consists of six items, three phrased positively and three negatively. Respondents were
asked to indicate the extent to which they agreed or disagreed with these six items on a 5-
point scale ranging from 1 = strongly agree to 5 = strongly disagree. The total scores were
calculated by totaling all items so higher scores indicate a more optimistic outlook on life.
The Cronbach’s α of this optimism scale in the present sample was 0.58.
A 12-item Chinese version of the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support
(MSPSS) developed by Zimet et al. (1988) was used to measure perceived social support.
This Chinese version of MSPSS (MSPSS-C) has been validated in Hong Kong and
obtained internal consistency reliability of 0.89 (Chou 2000), in which items of significant
others and friends were merged into one single factor. In other words, the MSPSS-C
assesses perceptions of social support from friends (eight items) and family (four items).
MSPSS-C has been widely used in Chinese populations (Chan et al. 2010; Chiu et al. 2010;
Wong et al. 2012). The Cronbach’s α of this MSPSS-C scale in the present sample is 0.91.

2.2.4 Preparation for Migration

The measurement of preparation for migration was based on seven questions which have
been used in previous studies (Ryan et al. 2006) and also specifically in the Chinese
immigrant population (Chou 2009a; Wong et al. 2012). These seven items evaluate how
well prepared immigrants were before migrating to Hong Kong, for example asking
whether they had pre-arranged employment in Hong Kong, whether they had obtained
family agreement on their decision, and whether they had considered the length of their
stay. The extent of their preparation for migration was calculated as the sum of positive
answers to the seven questions and higher scores thus indicate better preparedness to
migrate to Hong Kong.

2.2.5 Neighborhood Collective Efficacy

The measurement of neighborhood collective efficacy was based on the 10-item Collective
Efficacy Scale developed by Sampson et al. (1997). This scale is one of the most widely
used assessment tools in neighborhood research and has been used among the Chinese
immigrant population (Wu et al. 2010; Wong et al. 2012; Chou 2012). The scale is aimed
to measure respondents’ perceptions of informal social control and social cohesion in their

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neighborhood. Respondents were asked to respond to two kinds of statement. The first
concerned how much their neighbors could likely be counted on to respond to problems
(1 = very unlikely, 5 = very likely) and the other concerned the extent to which they
agreed with descriptions of the neighborhood (1 = strongly disagree, 5 = strongly agree).
The score on this scale was calculated as the unweighted sum of the 10 items with higher
scores indicating more social control, and a higher level of social cohesion and trust. The
Cronbach’s α of this collective efficacy scale in the present sample is 0.63.

2.2.6 Perceived Neighborhood Disorder

The measurement of perceived neighborhood disorder was based on the 14-item scale
which was developed by Ross and Mirowsky (1999). This scale has high reliability and
external validity (Ross and Mirowsky 1999) and has been used among the Chinese
immigrant population (Wong et al. 2012). This scale measures respondents’ perceptions of
both physical and social disorder within their neighborhood. Respondents were asked to
rate on a 4-point scale (1 = strongly disagree to 4 = strongly agree) the degree to which
each statement described their experience and perception of conditions in their neigh-
borhood. Higher scores indicate greater perceived neighborhood disorder. The Cronbach’s
α of this PND scale in the present sample is 0.58.

2.2.7 Socio-demographic and Economic Variables

Questions on immigrants’ socio-demographic and economic characteristics were included

in the study and these variables were controlled for in all data analyses in order to examine
their correlation with QOL. The demographic variables included immigrants’ gender
(0 = male, 1 = female), marital status (1 = single, 2 = married, 3 = divorced/separated/
widowed), age, level of formal education (1 = no formal education, 2 = elementary
school, 3 = junior high school, 4 = senior high school, 5 = college or above), employment
status (0 = unemployed or economically inactive, 1 = employed), and whether their family
was receiving social welfare in Hong Kong, that is, Comprehensive Social Security
Assistance (CSSA)(0 = no, 1 = yes). Lastly, although this study did measure household
income, over 30 % of participants did not respond to this question, therefore, household
income was not included in this study. A quadratic specification of age of immigrants was
also included in the equation specifications; however, it was not significantly associated
with the dependent variables; and therefore it was dropped in regression models.

2.3 Data Processing and Statistical Analysis

Prior to data analysis, procedures of data screening were conducted in assessing the
accuracy of input, missing values and checking the assumptions of regression analyses.
Only a few missing values (less than 3 %) were found in variables we analyzed (except
household income mentioned above) and missing values of items omitted in the ques-
tionnaires were replaced by mean scores. Then, assumptions of normality of the dependent
variables and multi-collinearity of independent variables for regression analyses were
examined. With the exception of age, all the tolerance values were ≥0.10 and the VIF
value was well below the commonly used cut-off of 10. The normality of the dependent
variables was further checked using a plot of histogram of standardized residuals, and plot
of standardized residuals against the predictor’s values. The histogram of standardized

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residuals was reasonably bell-shaped and symmetric about the mean zero and each residual
is plotted against its expected value under normality without serious departures. Therefore,
we could claim that the multi-collinearity among independent variables is at acceptable
level and the normality assumptions of the dependent variables are not violated.
Descriptive statistics of the frequencies, means, and standard deviation of all the
variables in this study were performed first. Then we conducted bivariate Pearson corre-
lations between QOL at T2 and all the independent variables at T1. Next, we performed a
multivariate multiple regression in which QOL at T2 was used as dependent variable, and
respondents’ gender, marital status, age, education level, employment status, social welfare
status, perceived discrimination, sense of control, optimism, perceived social support,
preparation for migration, collective efficacy, perceived neighborhood disorder, and QOL
at the baseline assessment were entered as independent variables. The data management
and regression models were performed and computed with SPSS version 18.0 for Windows
on PC.

3 Results

3.1 Characteristics of Study Sample

Table 1 shows the profile of the study sample. The 380 new immigrants who participated in
the current study were remarkably unevenly distributed. The vast majority (84.5 %) were
women, almost ninety percent (89.2 %) were married, and about three-quarters (75.5 %)
fell into the age group 21–40 with a mean age of 34.4 and a standard deviation of 9.3. The
majority (63.3 %) were not working, meaning only 36.7 % were currently employed full-
time or part-time. Slight over three quarters of them (76.8 %) had completed their high
school education, forty percent (40.5 %) had completed junior high school, and more than
one-third (36.1 %) had completed senior high school. About fourteen percent (13.9 %) of
their families were receiving CSSA.

3.2 Bivariate Pearson Correlation

Bivariate analysis was performed in order to identify the Pearson correlation between
immigrants’ QOL at T2 with all independent variables at T1 and the Pearson correlations
are shown in Table 2. As shown in Table 2, the overall QOL was significantly correlated
with perceived discrimination, optimism, perceived social support, and collective efficacy,
as well as immigrants’ age, education level, and social welfare status (CSSA). Perceived
discrimination was negatively associated with three components of QOL, namely, physical
health, psychological health, and environment, while age, collective efficacy, optimism,
and perceived social support were associated consistently with all four components of
QOL.

3.3 Multiple Regression Analyses

Then, a multiple regression model was performed with all independent variables at T1 to
determine the factors associated with immigrants’ QOL at T2. Apart from investigating the
factors associated with immigrants’ overall QOL, we also examined the association
between the four domains of QOL and all independent variables. We found that a set of

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Table 1 Descriptive statistics of key variables (n = 380)

Percentage (frequency) Mean (SD)

Perceived discrimination 7.6 (6.5)

Quality of life at T1 99.3 (13.2)
Physical health domain 27.9 (3.4)
Psychological health domain 28.9 (4.8)
Social relationships domain 10.8 (1.7)
Environment domain 25.0 (4.9)
Quality of life at T2 99.7 (11.4)
Physical health domain 27.9 (2.8)
Psychological health domain 28.5 (4.0)
Social relationships domain 10.5 (1.6)
Environment domain 26.1 (4.3)
Socio-economic characteristics
Gender
Male 15.5 % (59)
Female 84.5 % (321)
Marital status
Single 7.4 % (28)
Married 89.2 % (339)
Widowed/separated/divorced 3.4 % (13)
Age (range 18–73) 34.4 (9.3)
18–20 3.7 % (14)
21–30 35.0 % (133)
31–40 40.5 % (154)
41–50 15 % (57)
51–60 2.6 % (10)
61 or above 3.2 % (12)
Education
No formal education 2.1 % (8)
Elementary school 12.1 % (46)
Junior high school 40.5 % (154)
Senior high school 36.3 % (138)
College or above 8.9 % (34)
Employed 36.8 % (140)
Receiving social welfare 13.9 % (53)
Psychosocial resources
Sense of control 20.8 (1.6)
Optimism 19.5 (3.1)
Perceived social support 56.6 (17.5)
Migration and community
Preparation for migration 3.4 (8.1)
Collective efficacy 33.5 (3.7)
Perceived neighborhood disorder 33.1 (2.4)

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Table 2 Bivariate Pearson correlation coefficients for the relationship between the independent variables at
T1 and quality of life at T2 (n = 380)
Total Physical Psychological Social Environment
QOL health health relationships

Perceived discrimination −0.30** −0.26** −0.28** −0.08 −0.28**

Total QOL at T1 0.55** 0.41** 0.50** 0.32** 0.48**
Physical health 0.40** 0.38** 0.35** 0.23** 0.31**
Psychological health 0.49** 0.36** 0.49** 0.29** 0.42**
Social relationships 0.32** 0.24** 0.29** 0.33** 0.24**
Environment 0.48** 0.31** 0.42** 0.24** 0.49**
Socio-economic characteristics
Gender 0.09 0.06 0.05 0.10* 0.09
Marital status −0.06 −0.01 −0.12* −0.04 −0.02
Age −0.17** −0.12* −0.14** −0.13* −0.17**
Age2 −0.16** −0.11* −0.12* −0.13* −0.16**
Education 0.16** 0.09 0.18** 0.08 0.17**
Employment −0.03 −0.02 0.01 0.03 −0.08
Receiving social welfare −0.14** −0.13* −0.13* −0.15** −0.08
Psychosocial resources
Sense of control −0.02 −0.07 −0.01 0.13* −0.04
Optimism 0.30** 0.18** 0.29** 0.14** 0.29**
Perceived social support 0.35** 0.29** 0.32** 0.28** 0.31**
Migration and community
Preparation for migration 0.01 −0.04 0.02 0.06 0.02
Collective efficacy 0.27** 0.23** 0.23** 0.27** 0.20**
Perceived neighborhood disorder −0.50 −0.03 −0.05 0.00 −0.05

* p \ 0.05
** p \ 0.01

three psychological resources variables, three migration and community variables, and six
socio-economic variables have explained 37.7 % of the variance in overall QOL, 25.1 % in
physical health, 31.9 % in psychological health, 22.1 % in social relationships and 33 % of
the variance in environmental models.
As shown in Table 3, perceived discrimination was found to be negatively associated
with overall QOL, as were physical health and environmental components after adjusting
for three psychological resources variables, three migration and community variables, and
six socio-economic variables. Not surprisingly, the corresponding QOL scores at T1 were
also significantly related to all corresponding QOL scores at T2.
Table 3 also indicates that collective efficacy was consistently and positively associated
with overall QOL and all four of its components, while perceived social support was
significantly related to overall QOL and its two components, namely physical health and
social relationships. Preparation for immigration was also significantly and positively
associated with overall QOL as were social relationships and environment domains.
Among the psychosocial resource variables, sense of control and optimism were found to
be associated with social relationships and environment domain, respectively. Lastly,
regarding socio-economic variables, age was negatively associated with overall QOL and

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Table 3 Standardized regression Coefficients and t values for the relationship between independent
variables at T1 and quality of life at T2, after controlling for the quality of life at T1 (n = 380)
Total Physical Psychological Social Environment
QOL health health relationships

Perceived discrimination −0.09* −0.13** −0.09 0.03 −0.10*

(−1.98) (−2.70) (−1.89) (0.5290) (−2.15)
Total QOL at T1 0.39**
(7.05)
Physical health 0.29**
(5.58)
Psychological health 0.35**
(6.29)
Social relationships 0.21**
(3.81)
Environment 0.35**
(6.58)
Socio-economic characteristics
Gender 0.06 0.05 0.05 0.09 0.04
(1.34) (0.92) (1.10) (1.67) (0.81)
Marital status 0.04 0.07 −0.01 −0.02 0.07
(0.88) (1.48) (−0.15) (−0.23) (1.40)
Age −0.10* −0.06 −0.09 −0.07 −0.11*
(−2.07) (−1.14) (−1.72) (−1.36) (−2.13)
Education 0.08 0.02 0.11* 0.05 0.11*
(1.81) (0.46) (2.39) (1.03) (2.32)
Employment 0.02 0.01 0.03 0.04 0.01
(0.46) (0.16) (0.59) (0.86) (−0.01)
Receiving social welfare −0.04 −0.08 −0.05 −0.07 0.02
(−1.00) (−1.60) (−1.09) (−1.43) (0.39)
Psychosocial resources
Sense of control −0.03 −0.07 −0.03 0.13** −0.05
(−0.60) (−1.51) (−0.64) (2.63) (−1.20)
Optimism 0.06 0.01 0.08 0.00 0.12*
(1.24) (0.13) (1.54) (0.03) (2.38)
Perceived social support 0.10* 0.16** 0.09 0.12* 0.09
(2.06) (3.18) (1.80) (2.12) (1.77)
Migration and community
Preparation for migration 0.08* 0.01 0.07 0.10* 0.10*
(1.96) (0.30) (1.64) (2.15) (2.34)
Collective efficacy 0.16** 0.14** 0.12** 0.23** 0.12**
(3.73) (2.90) (2.66) (4.76) (2.69)
Perceived neighborhood disorder −0.02 −0.01 −0.04 0.03 −0.03
(−0.54) (−0.21) (−0.79) (0.66) (−0.66)
Summary of R2 values 0.38 0.25 0.32 0.22 0.33
Sample size 380 380 380 380 380

Italic values signify t value

* p \ 0.05
** p \ 0.01

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environment domain, whereas education was positively related to psychological health and
environment domains.

4 Discussion

It has been well-documented that Mainland Chinese immigrants are often discriminated
against by local Hong Kong residents (Wong 2008; Lee 2004; Chou 2012) and that this
discrimination adversely affects every aspect of their QOL during their acculturation
process. However, the association between perceived discrimination and QOL has not been
tested using longitudinal data. To address this research gap, we used a representative
sample of 380 new immigrants to Hong Kong from Mainland China and aimed to examine
the association of perceived discrimination with QOL after a wide range of psychological
and social factors have been adjusted for.
The results of multiple linear regression analyses indicated negative associations of
perceived discrimination with overall QOL, as well as physical health and environment
domains after 1 year of settlement. These associations remained significant even after
controlling the respondents’ socio-demographic, socio-economic variables, psychological
and social factors, as well as QOL at T1. These results are consistent with previous
research showing that perceived discrimination was associated with QOL among Asian
American (Gee and Ponce 2010) and Latino adults (Becerra et al. 2013) in the United
States, as well as rural-to-urban migrants in China (Wang et al. 2010a, b; Zhang et al.
2009a, b).
Surprisingly, perceived discrimination was found to have no impact on immigrants’
psychological health domain. The result is not in line with the psychological theories
developed in the USA, which state that experience of discrimination may lead to greater
risks of psychological maladjustment, such as depressive distress, anxiety, or even higher
rates of psychiatric disorders (Krieger 1999; Mays and Cochran 2001). However, our
results are consistent with a longitudinal study examining the association between per-
ceived discrimination and psychological health among 779 black Americans (Brown et al.
2000). Brown et al. (2000) found significant association between discrimination and
psychological health in two cross-sectional analyses, but did not find evidence of the
association in the longitudinal data collected a year later. Our findings suggest that
immigrants may have found ways to deal with the discrimination encountered in order to
reduce its impact on their psychological well-being. Future studies must be undertaken to
identify how immigrants could reduce the influence of perceived discrimination on QOL.
Although the research on new immigrants is extensive, no study has been conducted to
examine the determinants of QOL in a longitudinal framework in Hong Kong; perhaps one
of the more important findings of this study is that perceived discrimination adversely
affects immigrants’ QOL, even after a year of residence in Hong Kong. This finding
highlights the importance of using longitudinal data to investigate the link between dis-
crimination and QOL. If the factors that affect QOL, which have been identified through
this work, and the recommendation made in this study are attended to, the QOL of this
high-risk vulnerable group will likely be improved in the long term.
Table 2 showed that there was significant association between perceived discrimination
and psychological health domain of QOL in bivariate analysis, but this association dis-
appeared in multiple regression analyses shown in Table 3. We conducted post hoc
analyses to identify the mediator in the link between perceived discrimination and psy-
chological health domain of QOL. Before the introduction of the mediating variable,

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namely collective efficacy, a significant association between perceived discrimination and

immigrants’ psychological health of QOL was found (β = −0.10, p ≤ 0.05). However, after
adding the collective efficacy into the model, the association between them disappeared
(β = −0.09, p ≥ 0.05). In other words, the impact of perceived discrimination on psy-
chological health of QOL was completely mediated through collective efficacy. This
finding suggested that if immigrants’ collective efficacy could be enhanced, their psy-
chological health domain of their QOL may also be improved regardless of the severity of
perceived discrimination. If this meditational relationship does exist, interventions that
focus on improving collective efficacy rather than perceived discrimination may be a more
effective way to improve the psychological health of this vulnerable group.
Similarly, but even more interestingly, no association was found between perceived
discrimination and the social relationships domain even in bivariate data analyses. One
possible explanation is that new immigrants may seek and receive support from those who
were also migrated from the Mainland recently or their friends who were residing in the
Mainland. It is because new immigrants face discrimination usually from the locals who
were born in Hong Kong and the social relationship items of QOL were not restricted to
Hong Kong locals. Our result is in line with a previous qualitative study examining the
discrimination and QOL among the floating population in Shanghai, in which the authors
found that participants in their study had experienced prejudicial treatment, but were
reluctant, or refused outright, to seek help, choosing instead to keep experiences of stigma
and discrimination private (Wang et al. 2010a, b).
Because perceived discrimination was found to have no impact on immigrants’ psy-
chological health and social relationships domains, we used multiple regression analyses to
explore the potential moderators that might influence the relationship between perceived
discrimination and these two domains. As can be seen in Table 3, collective efficacy was
significantly associated with psychological health domain of QOL while sense of control,
perceived social support, preparation for migration and collective efficacy were related to
social relationship domain of QOL. Post-hoc analyses were conducted to examine whether
collective efficacy moderated the impact of perceived discrimination on psychological
health domain of QOL and sense of control, perceived social support, preparation for
migration or collective efficacy was the moderator in the link between perceived dis-
crimination and social relationship domain of QOL. Results indicated that no moderation
effect was found.
While perceived discrimination affects immigrants’ QOL adversely, collective efficacy
was found to contribute to every domain of their QOL. This finding is consistent with Ford
and Beveridge (2004) who advocate that collective efficacy could enhance not only
neighbors’ capacity to resist the incursion of factors perceived as threatening, but also their
capacity to attract those perceived as potentially able to enhance their QOL. Although the
construct of collective efficacy was originally applied to the control and reduction of
violence (Sampson et al. 1997), we believe these constructs, social cohesion and informal
social control, have implications for QOL. First, social cohesion is a marker of positive
interactions among neighbors and might have direct implications for individuals’ QOL.
Second, participating in acts of informal social control could foster voluntary participation
in community activities and create solidarity and social integration among members in the
community (Vega et al. 2011), which is particularly important for immigrants. Although
the research on immigrants is extensive, no studies have used longitudinal data to inves-
tigate the influence of collective efficacy on immigrant’s QOL. The present study set out to
fill this research gap.

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Apart from the associations of perceived discrimination and collective efficacy with
QOL, we also found a positive association between preparation for migration and QOL.
Having a detailed plan prior to migration is important as previous research shows that poor
pre-migration planning can lead to psychological distress or depressive symptoms (Chou
2009a). In a study of 1,006 rural-to-urban migrants in Beijing, Wang et al. (2010a, b) found
that pre-migration planning was positively associated with effective coping skills, which in
turn help to improve QOL. Perceived social support is also associated with overall QOL,
physical health and social relationship domains of QOL. The association between social
support and physical health has been well-established in literature (REFs) while it is not
surprisingly that the perceived social support is associated with social relationship domains
of QOL as they belong to the same psychological construct.
However, unlike previous studies, such as Hsiung et al. (2010), Kostka and Jac-
himowicz (2010), and O’Connell and Skevington (2005), of the four QOL domains, sense
of control was found to be associated with the social relationships domain of QOL only,
not to overall QOL or the other three domains. This may be because social relationships
can be more easily affected by sense of control than the other aspects, like the physical
health and environment aspects of QOL. Similarly, optimism is only associated with the
environment aspect of QOL, which is inconsistent with previous findings that optimism is
positively related to life satisfaction in Western countries (Kostka and Jachimowicz 2010;
O’Connell and Skevington 2005; Uskul and Greenglass 2005). We argue that these dis-
crepancies may be due to cultural differences because cultural difference is found between
dispositional optimism in Western and Asian countries (Lee and Seligman 1997; Chang
1996; Heine and Lehman 1995; Chang et al. 2001; Fan and Shi 2010; Lai and Yue 2000;
You et al. 2009). Finally, perceived neighborhood disorder is not significantly associated
with immigrants’ QOL. We argue that the discrepancy in findings between previous studies
and the current study can be explained by the living environment of the sample population.
Previous literature that showed a negative relationship between perceived neighborhood
disorder and QOL were predominantly based on samples living in Western countries. In
most Western countries, people live in single-family houses or low-rise apartment blocks,
which are very different to the high density and high-rise apartment buildings in Hong
Kong (Forrest et al. 2002; Mitchell 1971). In Hong Kong, over 90 % of people live in
multi-storey high-rise residential buildings (Lo et al. 2000), and the majority of these high-
rise apartment buildings are gated with secure entry, which provides residents with a
greater sense of security. Furthermore, Hong Kong is one of the safest regions in the world
with strong social order and a low crime rate (Lee 2007). People in Hong Kong thus
generally have a lower sense of perceived neighborhood disorder, which explains why it
exerts no influence on QOL.
Although previous studies have reported the associations of immigrants’ gender (Zhang
et al. 2009a, b; Bayram et al. 2007), marital status (Bayram et al. 2007; Zhang et al. 2009a,
b), age (Bayram et al. 2007; Pantzer et al. 2006), education (Zhang et al. 2009a, b), and
social and economic status (Pantzer et al. 2006; Van Servellen et al. 2002) with QOL, with
the exception of age, these associations were not observed in this study. A possible
explanation for these discrepancies may be the sample issue. The majority of the
respondents in this study (84.5 %) were female; the association between gender and QOL
was thus not apparent. Interestingly, it is assumed that married respondents should have
higher QOL, especially in the social relationships domain for, as previous studies have
shown, being married is often associated with larger social networks and more social
relationships because one gains additional social network linkages from one’s spouse
(Cornman et al. 2001; Liebler and Sandefur 2002; Turner et al. 1993). However, 10.8 % of

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the respondents were single, and therefore no significant association between marital status
and QOL was found.
Educational attainment and social welfare were found to correlate with QOL in
bivariate analyses, but these associations disappeared in multiple regression analysis due to
crowding out effects. From an economic perspective, it is assumed that those of a lower
economic status are in a more disadvantaged position and are at greater risk of having a
lower level of QOL. In other words, education can contribute to increasing an individual’s
earning capacity and eventually help to enhance his or her QOL. However, immigrants’
qualifications obtained in China are not recognized in Hong Kong and, therefore, they are
less competitive in the job market in Hong Kong (HKISS 1997; Chou and Chow 2009).
Even if they are able to find employment, it is common for many immigrants to engage in
low-paid jobs in restaurants and face pay discrimination (Ho and Cheung 2011; Wong
2006; Zhang and Wu 2011; Chou and Chow 2009). As a result, some apply for CSSA.
Interestingly, our findings did not show an association between QOL and either social
welfare status or employment status. This could only be explained by the confounding fact
that only 13.9 % of the immigrants in our sample had family members receiving social
welfare in Hong Kong.

4.1 Implications

The challenge of improving QOL for new Chinese immigrants requires a comprehensive
review of all the factors. There is no doubt that improving immigrants’ QOL is a complex
and extremely difficult task. This study has identified the determinants of QOL among
Chinese immigrants in Hong Kong that are of critical importance. Its findings provide
evidence for policymakers and service providers to tailor-make a more effective social
policy that can better meet the demands and specific deficit areas of a particular population.
The results of the present study show that perceived discrimination, collective efficacy,
perceived social support, as well as preparation for immigration, are the key factors that
affect the QOL of this marginalized population.
The present study further implies that interventions aimed at successfully reducing the
level of discrimination, as perceived by the respondents, may contribute significantly to
improving overall QOL. Findings of the present study highlighted the importance of
changing the stereotypes and prejudice toward immigrants, for instance, through education
programs or even laws enforcing equality. In addition, we suggest that social services or
programs for new immigrants should be directed to promote more positive interactions
between immigrants and local residents. Service providers working with immigrants
should create more opportunities for mutual communications that allow not only oppor-
tunities of social networking, but also to improve collective neighborhood relationship.
Besides, affordable professional counseling and support from social groups organized by
NGOs with backing from the government could improve the QOL of new immigrants by
addressing these psychosocial factors.

4.2 Limitations

While the present study sheds light on the correlates of QOL among Chinese immigrants in
Hong Kong, it is important to acknowledge the methodological limitations that restrict
generalization of its results. First, this study is based on a year of longitudinal data and
improving immigrants’ QOL involves a long-term process. Therefore, multiple waves of

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data collection over a longer period of time, at least five to 10 years, are needed in order to
fully understand the impact of perceived discrimination on QOL. Second, despite efforts to
ensure the representativeness of the sample, participants were predominantly married
(89.2 %) and female (84.5 %). Although this reflected the gender and marital distribution
of the immigrant population, it means that the result of this study cannot be generalized to
male or single immigrants from Mainland China. According to previous studies, marital
status is associated with immigrants’ QOL (Zhang et al. 2009a, b; Bayram et al. 2007), and
the QOL of male immigrants has been found to be higher than that of females (Bayram
et al. 2007). Further study on male and single immigrants must therefore be conducted in
the future so that these issues can be addressed. Third, although this study involved a wide
range of variables that had been previously found to be associated with QOL, there are
other potentially important factors that were not included in this study. For example, the
present study did not address coping skills, immigrants’ health status, or expectation-reality
discrepancy. Last but not least, one of the limitations was related to the low internal
consistency of some scales in the present study, such as, the Chinese Revised Life Ori-
entation Test, Perceived Neighborhood Disorder Scale and the Collective Efficacy Scale.

4.3 Conclusion

Despite these limitations, the findings of this study provide useful information on the
determinants of QOL among immigrants in Hong Kong. In order to improve the level of
QOL, it is essential to understand the factors that promote and impede the enhancement
and maintenance of a better QOL. In short, the findings of this study show that perceived
discrimination is the most significant factor impeding immigrants’ QOL, whereas per-
ceived social support, preparation for migration, and collective efficacy are significant
factors that enhance immigrants’ levels of QOL. In other words, in order to improve
immigrants’ QOL and ultimately promote their social integration into society, policy
makers should explore policy or effective programs to not only reduce discrimination, but
also strengthen perceived social support, preparation for migration, and collective efficacy.

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