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Figure 5. Number of marriages registered in Hong Kong with bridegrooms / brides from the
mainland of China

Source: Census and Statistics Department.

4.3 Costs of Divorce

The growing number of divorced women living in PRH units implies
a rising number of children growing up in broken families in PRH estates.
This is not conducive to upward social mobility but sets the stage for
the production of a new underclass that perpetuates intergenerational
inequality and low social mobility. Children raised in divorced PRH
households may lack good role models. While individual cases would vary,
this is a plausible scenario. Children in broken families grow up with their
mothers, possibly on welfare. They seldom see their fathers because some
may have remarried and live in another PRH unit with a bride across the
border. Siblings in broken families are sometimes separated with custody
assigned to different parents so that both parents can be eligible to apply
for PRH.

The literature on the socioeconomic impacts of divorce primarily
focuses on two levels: the impact on the children of the divorcees and the
impact on the divorced couples themselves. A meta-analysis involving
92 studies conducted by Amato and Keith (1991) found that compared to
children whose parents are married, children of divorced parents were
more likely to exhibit worsened measures of well-being such as school
achievement, conduct, psychological and social adjustments, self-concept,
and parents to child relations.

Divorcees themselves are subjected to economic hardship and
social isolation, Biblarz and Gottainer (2000) concluded that divorced
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