南宋時期，香港出現了第一批躲避金、元戰禍的移民，其中來自江西者，包括文天祥家族後裔，實為早期的客家人。清朝原對中國大陸沿海居民進行遷界以隔絕臺灣，香港人口為之一空。清朝平定臺灣後，乃廣招移民實邊，遂有粵東客家人此後陸續大量入墾香港，成為 香港原居民的重要組成。清朝割讓香港後，基督教巴色會傳教士前來發展客家教會，由香港而上溯大陸客家地區，加以太平天國起義後的社會變動造成廣東地區土客族群關係緊張，客家人的客家認同意識於是在客家仕紳的提倡下萌發而成形。賴際熙、羅香林先後以香港為據點，在香港客家崇正總會的支持下展開客家研究，使香港成為客家研究的發源地。1970年代，香港崇正總會為團結全球客家鄉親，開展中華民國之國民外交，發起世界客屬懇親大會， 自此捲動全球客家運動。香港的客家研究，則要分兩類來評述，一為香港有關客家的研究；另一為關於香港客家人的研究。前者早期有香港崇正總會的資助和鼓勵，以羅香林總其成，近年則由勞格文（John Lagerwey）領導進行中國各地客家的田野調查；香港客家人的研究，冷戰時期只是作為中國研究的替代品，雖缺乏客家意識，卻也留下豐富的香港當地客家的人類學研究成果。今日香港客家人則在臺灣客家研究和香港本土運動的激盪下，以其真實面貌與身分成為當代客家研究的新興主題。

During the Southern Song dynasty, the first immigrants appeared in Hong Kong to avoid the Jin and the Yuan dynasties' aggressions. The immigrants from Jiangxi, including Wen Tian -xiang's descendants, in fact, were original Hakka. The Qing dynasty relocated the coastal residents of mainland China to isolate Taiwan and empty Hong Kong's population. After settling down Taiwan, the Qing dynasty recruited a wide range of immigrants to mainland China's coastal region, and then the Hakka people in eastern Guangdong gradually moved to Hong Kong and became a part of important indigenous settlers of Hong Kong. After the Qing dynasty ceded Hong Kong, the Christian Basel Mission came to Hong Kong to develop the Hakka Church, which can be traced back to the mainland Hakka region. The social changes caused by the Taiping Rebellion resulted in tensions between Hakka ethnic groups and the local in the Guangdong area. Then the Hakka self-identity was advocated and formed by Hakka gentry. Lai Tsi-hsi and Lo Hsiang-lin successfully built Hong Kong to be a base to carry out Hakka studies with the support of the Hong Kong Tsong Tsin Association, making Hong Kong the birthplace of Hakka studies. Since the 1970s, the Hong Kong Tsong Tsin Association launched the World Hakka Conference to unite Hakka people in the world to support the people-to-people diplomacy of the Republic of China, which gave rise to the global Hakka movement. Hakka studies in Hong Kong can be reviewed in two categories, one for Hakka studies in Hong Kong and the other for Hakka people in Hong Kong. The former, which can be represented by Lo Hsiang-lin's achievement, was financed and encouraged by the Hong Kong Tsong Tsin Association in the early years, and a lot of Hakka field surveys in various regions of China were led by John Lagerwey in recent years. The study of the Hakka people in Hong Kong was only conducted as a substitutive object of China studies during the cold-war period. Despite lacking Hakka consciousness, the latter still left rich anthropological research results of Hong Kong local Hakka. Today, with the inspiration by Taiwan Hakka studies and the Hong Kong localization movement, Hong Kong Hakka people with their appearance and identity have been the emerging theme of contemporary Hakka studies.