Investigating the differential mobility experiences of Chinese cross-border students

Abstract

Recent migration studies have adopted the lens of mobility to examine the stratifying effects of border policies, but few investigate the differential mobility of migrant families and children. This paper aims to contribute to the migration literature by considering the interplay between border policies, family configurations, and differential mobility. We apply the lens of differential mobility to the experiences of Chinese cross-border pupils – young child migrants with Hong Kong permanent residency who reside in Shenzhen, China, and cross the border to attend school. We begin by describing shifts in Hong Kong’s border and immigration policies since 1997, which have created a typology of families differentiated by mixed status, citizenship rights, and mobility. We then turn to four case studies of students with unequal border-crossing experiences to elucidate how border control constrains or promotes family mobility and perpetuates inequalities.

近年的移民研究多采用“流动”视角分析边境政策的分层效应，但关于移民家庭和儿童的流动差异的讨论仍然不多。本研究采用“流动差异”视角探讨跨境学童的上学经历；分析其中的边境政策、家庭结构和流动差异之间的关系，以填补移民研究的欠缺。跨境学童是指拥有香港永久居民身份、居住在深圳，并每天到香港上学的儿童。研究首先描述一九九七年后香港特区政府的移民和边境政策的转变，使不同居民身份的跨境家庭享有不同的公民权利，同时衍生出多样化的跨境流动性。研究以四个学童的跨境上学经验为例，分析边境控制如何促进或削弱家庭的流动性，从而强化了他们之间的不平等。

Keywords:

• Differential mobility
• border policy
• immigration control
• mixed status
• citizenship
• migrant families
• migrant children

Acknowledgements

The research of this paper, entitled ‘Educational Experiences, Family Relationships, and Sense of Belonging: Cross-Border Primary School Children Commuters’, was supported by the Hong Kong SAR Government Public Policy Research (PPR) Funding Scheme (RGC/CPU) [Ref no. HKIEd8003-PPR-11]. We are grateful to Amy Chak and the two anonymous reviewers for their thoughtful comments on earlier versions of this article.

Notes

1. In our analysis, we call this form of cross-border familial tie ‘unconventional families’, as we want to avoid moral overtones.

2. This revised policy was revoked in December 2013, as the Court of Final Appeal ruled that the seven-year residency requirement unconstitutional.

3. We do not claim to exhaust all types of cross-border family. This typology emphasizes differential mobility, and the range of citizenship status aims to provide a framework to capture the multiple inequalities experienced by cross-border families.