Return migration and Hong Kong's diverse circuits of mobility

Abstract

The objective of this research is to extend a geographic understanding of the diversity of contemporary migration through a case-study of return migration to Hong Kong. We explore how political economic and socio-cultural factors associated with globalization and transnationalization have place-specific implications for return migration. To better understand such interdependencies, we shift attention away from return migration as an isolated individual-level event and argue for a consideration of circuits of mobility and how migrants manage the lengths of these circuits. Such a longitudinal approach hypothesizes that there is systematic variation in the length of each circuits or spells of time spent living outside Hong Kong, and that discernible factors can be associated with such variation. We surveyed 1011 adult Hong Kong permanent residents to derive an estimate of the stock of residents who have returned to Hong Kong having been out of the SAR and to explore the diversity of mobility circuits. We found that 11.8% of our respondents had lived outside Hong Kong and that they left and returned to the SAR for diverse but inter-connected political economic and socio-cultural reasons. The results suggest that mobility circuits unfold in strategic ways over borders, as individuals and families negotiate contrasting national and local regimes of migration. We conclude by raising implications for theory and policy and call for the development of a mobility information system for Hong Kong.