To retire but not to return: voluntary immobility in cross-border ageing among older Mainland Chinese migrants in Hong Kong

Authorship: Weixuan Chen, Danyang Lei, Wanying Liang, Izzy Yi Jian, Kar Him Mo* (*=corresponding author)

Publication Date: April 2026

Abstract: Cross-border ageing has been actively promoted in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, yet relatively few older Hong Kong residents relocate to Guangdong in later life. This paper examines why many older Mainland Chinese migrants living in Hong Kong’s public rental housing choose to remain rather than return. Drawing on 32 semi-structured interviews across three estate types, it uses place embeddedness to analyse forms of dependence that are not resolved by welfare portability alone. Three interrelated forms of embeddedness are identified. First, participants linked staying in Hong Kong to secure access to trusted healthcare and the housing stability provided by public rental housing. Secondly, neighbourhood routines, weak ties and community-based support were treated as place-bound resources that could not easily be recreated elsewhere. Thirdly, return to the Mainland was often understood not as a homecoming but as another uprooting, shaped by earlier migration histories and later-life family arrangements. Cross-border ageing cannot be understood through cost and portability alone. This study contributes to migration studies by demonstrating that voluntary immobility persists under conditions of cross-system mobility and that institutional trust and neighbourhood support remain non-portable in later life.

Publication Journal: Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies