Trajectories, strategies, practices of second-generation Hong Kong transnational families (RGC/FDS/2019-2021)/
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Principal Investigator: Dr. NGAN Lok Sun, Lucille
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This research seeks to explore the migration trajectories of second-generation Hong Kong transnational families in relation to their motives, strategies, practices, challenges and outcomes. After securing foreign passports and attaining overseas tertiary education, many younger immigrants who emigrated to western shores before the 1997 hand-over of Hong Kong to China have resettled in Hong Kong and are forming their own families. Having transitioned to parenthood, findings from our previous FDS study (UGC/FDS14/H09/14) indicate that they are planning to leave Hong Kong yet again, with their children. While migrants’ circulatory movements and their family ties have been increasingly addressed through a transnational perspective, there has been limited focus on the migratory trajectories of subsequent generations, as a group. The lack of focus on them is partly because they had not come of age until recently but more so it can be attributed to the common assumption that their return to Hong Kong is the completion of the migratory journey. The significance of our study lies in revealing the scarcely known trajectories of second-generation Hong Kong transnational families in process – as they happen. We will explore notions of home and belongingness and also the range of factors within the spheres of employment, family life and children’s education that are affecting their migratory trajectories. Furthermore, we will examine local and transnational strategies that are utilised to pursue family projects and how gender relations are played out in the migration process.
