Trapped in the current of mobilities: China-Hong Kong cross-border families

Abstract

The complexities of Mainland Chinese pregnant women travelling to Hong Kong to give birth illustrate the power of the border, and the infrastructural elements that circumscribe border crossing experiences. Their stories demonstrate how infrastructures may emerge in relation to each other and in response to human activities to shape mobilities and immobilities. This article informs the interweaving of mobilities and immobilities of how initial moves are motivated by emerging opportunities, how initial facilitation may turn into constraints, and how this may result in an infrastructural trap that inhibits mobilities.