The 17-year-old cited the fact that his school teaches in English, one of the two languages he speaks at home, along with Punjabi. Most public schools in Hong Kong teach in Chinese, with little support for students who grow up speaking English at home, much less Hindi, Urdu or Nepalese.

“The teachers are also experienced and they know how to handle minority students,” Mr. Singh added.

Still, he regrets not having the chance to improve his Chinese and integrate more fully into Hong Kong society. “I like learning Chinese,” he said. “It’s quite useful, and in Hong Kong, it can be quite embarrassing if you can’t converse in it.”

“In the long run, I still feel that the government shouldn’t separate both local Chinese and ethnic minorities. They should all be under one school system,” he said. “But at the same time, adequate support should be given to those who need it.”

Mr. Singh, who will graduate this summer, is considering universities in Hong Kong and abroad. “Even if I go overseas to further my studies, I will still come back,” he said. “My family is here. I have lived here for all my life and I belong here. Even though, at times, we face discrimination, which is something we can’t avoid, most locals are still nice to us.”

Hong Kong, a former British colony, has struggled with how to deal with its ethnic minorities, among whom some people have roots in the city that reach back a century. After the handover to Chinese sovereignty in 1997, those seeking Hong Kong passports had to abide by China’s Nationality Law, in which race or ethnicity was taken into account when determining who is a Chinese national. While some Hong Kong-born minorities were approved for passports, others were not. High-profile rejections led to legal challenges and front-page headlines. One applicant, born in Hong Kong and raised by adoptive Hong Kong parents, was initially rejected because her birth mother was not ethnically Chinese.