Hong Kong Movers and Stayers

An intimate account of what migration means to Hong Kong families

Half a million Hong Kong residents fled their homeland during the thirteen years before Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 - and nearly half of those returned within several years of leaving. This book takes a look at the forces behind Hong Kong families' successful and failed efforts at migration and settlement.

Half a million Hong Kong residents fled their homeland during the thirteen years before Hong Kong's reversion to China in 1997. Nearly half of those returned within the next several years. Filled with detailed, first-hand stories of nine Hong Kong families over nearly two decades, Hong Kong Movers and Stayers is a multifaceted yet intimate look at the forces behind Hong Kong families' successful, and failed, efforts at migration and settlement. 

Defining migration as a process, not a single act of leaving, Hong Kong Movers and Stayers provides an antidote to ethnocentric and simplistic theories by uncovering migration stories as they relate to social structures and social capital. The authors meld survey analysis, personal biography, and sociology and compare multiple families in order to give voice to the interplay of gender, age, and diverse family roles as motivating factors in migration.