The Quest for Lifestyle: Reverse Family Migration among Hong Kong Returnee Parents

Abstract

Existing analyses of lifestyle in migration studies have focused on individual, rather than family, aspirations, while studies of Chinese transnational migration have focused on instrumentalism, rather than the quality-of-life factors, driving family migration. Moreover, these two fields of study have tended to center on the privileges of relatively affluent migrants, largely overlooking important familial and economic dimensions for middle- and upper-middle-class migrants. Drawing on 38 in-depth interviews with returnee parents from Hong Kong who have migrated back to their previous places of residence in the West or have plans to do so, this article addresses these gaps by examining reverse family migration considerations. We identify the aspiration for a better quality of life for the family, rather than for the self, as the dominant driver of migration. We find that returnee parents’ main frames of reference for considering how and where to live were shaped by interactions between their children's education, economic factors, transnational mobility, and imaginary and emotional aspects of migration. Our analysis shows the value of engaging with lifestyle in efforts to understand reverse migration among Chinese families. More broadly, this article contributes to better understanding of migration motivation by drawing attention to family-centered lifestyle aspirations and the coexistence of privilege and precarity among relatively affluent middling migrants, areas that have been insufficiently explored in research on Chinese transnational migration and lifestyle migration.

Introduction

Circular migration is now widely recognized in the transnational migration literature as a distinctive feature of Hong Kong migrant families who have privileged mobility (e.g., Ley 2010; Salaff, Shik, and Greve 2008; Sussman 2010). An estimated 500,000 holders of passports from Canada, Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom reside in Hong Kong. Some of these immigrants who emigrated to one of these destination countries during the 1980s − 1990s were children of Hong Kong immigrants at the time they left, and they have since returned to the city (Mui 2021). This younger generation of “returnees” who acquired foreign citizenship and overseas education as part of their families’ class reproduction strategy typically went back to Hong Kong after graduation from university (Salaff, Shik, and Greve 2008; Waters 2006, 2015). While reunion of fragmented transnational families separated across the Pacific was a factor driving these migrants to return, it was preceded by the lure of economic opportunities in Hong Kong (Tse and Waters 2013; Waters 2006).

In recent years, there has been increased media coverage of a younger generation of returnees in Hong Kong embarking on journeys back to their previous places of residence in the West, in a process otherwise known as “reverse migration” in media reports (e.g., Cheng 2018; Westbrook 2021; Young 2019). The term “reverse” is used here to differentiate the movement of returnees going back to the West from emigrants returning from the host society back to Hong Kong. This new form of mobility is, in fact, a “circular” movement involving repeated migration between post-industrialized societies. These emerging media reports and the research presented here suggest that with parenthood now a priority, a younger generation of returnees are departing Hong Kong in their mid-careers for their young children's education and family life and that some are considering long-term settlement back in the West, where they and/or their spouses previously resided (Westbrook 2021). Yet research on the reverse migration processes of a younger generation of returnees has been scant (c.f., Ngan and Chan 2022). This article examines the migration motivations of returnee parents from Hong Kong who were educated in the English-speaking West and are relocating with their children from Hong Kong back to the host countries.

The current pattern of reverse migration suggests departures from the findings of earlier studies. While previous studies suggested that returnees planned to go back to the West at retirement or just before their children entered university (Kobayashi and Preston 2007; Ley 2010; Sussman 2010), the returnees are now leaving in their mid-age with young children, who apparently have different values or are motivated by factors that were not identified before. We gleaned the insight from a few Chinese transnational migration studies (Tse and Waters 2013; Zhou 1998), that briefly referenced lifestyle as a theme in the narratives of immigrant youths from Hong Kong. In fact, changes in their attitudes toward quality of life during their youth abroad have much relevance to their migration trajectories in later life (Ngan and Chan 2022). Yet, little is known about the role of lifestyle in the migration decisions of a younger generation of returnees during the parenthood phase of their lives.

Existing Chinese transnational migration studies have underscored the importance of the family as a unit in pursuing economic privileges and social status via migration strategies with minimal attention paid to the role of lifestyle in driving migration (e.g., Waters 2006; 2015). In migration studies, migration motivated more by the desire to fulfill lifestyle aspirations than by a quest to advance economic or social status is increasingly recognized (Benson and O’Reilly 2009, 2016). However, existing analyses of lifestyle in migration studies have focused on individual, rather than family, aspirations (e.g., Hayes 2014; Huete, Mantecón, and Estévez 2013). Furthermore, studies of both Chinese transnational migration and lifestyle migration tend to center on the privileges, rather than experiences of precarity, that can occur among relatively affluent migrants (e.g., Bolognani 2014; Ong 1999). As a result, there has not been much attention on the intricate intersections between economic and familial dimensions in lifestyle-motivated migration among the middle and upper-middle classes.

We argue that analyses on Chinese transnational migration can be enriched by engaging the lifestyle migration literature, including work on the aspiration for a better quality of life, and the significance of emotions and imaginaries in driving migrants’ movement and settlement (e.g., Bolognani 2014; Eimermann 2014; Hall and Hardill 2016). At the same time, by unveiling the importance of quality-of-life aspirations centered around the family's, rather than the self's, overall well-being, this article also widens the scope of investigation of lifestyle migration studies, from individual to family migration. Moreover, we argue that both Chinese transnational migration and lifestyle migration studies could enhance their analyses with more attention to migration motivation, such as complex economic considerations among relatively affluent migrants.

To develop these ideas, we begin by reviewing the insights and limitations of the Chinese transnational migration and lifestyle migration literatures, before outlining our research methodology. In the analysis section, we examine returnee parents’ migration motivation by focusing on their negotiations between children's education, quality of life, and economic considerations. Finally, we reflect on the implications of the findings for migration studies.

Chinese Transnational Migration, Education, and Immigrant Youths

Much of the early literature on Hong Kong transnational migration was shaped by Aihwa Ong's (1999) Flexible Citizenship and her work with Donald Nonini (1997), Ungrounded Empires (e.g., Salaff, Shik, and Greve 2008; Waters 2006, 2015). Since the 1990s, scholars of Chinese transnational migration were largely concerned with presenting the pragmatic migration strategies that middle- and upper-class Hongkongers used in their quest to accumulate different forms of capital for the class reproduction of the family unit and these strategies’ effects on the younger generation (Skeldon 1994; Tse and Waters 2013; Waters 2006).

The quest to accumulate different capitals, including university degrees, among the middle and upper classes in Hong Kong was linked to the emergence of a culture that emphasized educational attainment (Waters 2006, 2015). In the 1960s and 1970s, the growing knowledge-based economy in East Asia, including Hong Kong, led to the growth of a middle-class population that possessed financial wealth and technical expertise (Waters 2015). In this changing context, East Asian parents saw a university degree as a key driver to upward social mobility (Ong 1999). Among the Chinese middle class, not having a degree came to be perceived as a social and economic failure that threatened household reproduction (Chee 2019). Particularly in Hong Kong, due to the difficulty of success (i.e., entering top universities) in the notoriously competitive and stressful local education system, overseas schooling became an “escape” route for children of middle-class families (Waters 2006, 2015; Zhou 1998). In addition, as a result of the uncertainties associated with the 1997 handover of Hong Kong to China, acquiring a foreign passport as a “safety net” became a middle-class endeavor (Ong 1999; Skeldon 1994).

Beyond conceptualizing Chinese transnational migration as the accumulation of formal capital, Waters (2015) and Ley (2010), among others, extended this argument by highlighting the significance of less tangible cultural traits among immigrant youths in Canada. Research on immigrant youths from Hong Kong reveals that because of exposure to transnational living and western culture during their education abroad, many of the younger generation in Canada, Australia, and the United States absorbed western values and attitudes – namely, privacy, leisure, laid-back attitudes toward life, and the pursuit of education for enjoyment, not strategic career goals – which were not shared by their parents (Tse and Waters 2013; Waters 2015; Zhou 1998). Although lifestyle has been featured as a theme in the narratives of Hong Kong immigrant youths (ibid.), it has not been the main analytical focus of Chinese transnational migration studies.

Quality of Life and Migration

Recent migration research recognizes that there are varied motivations behind migration (e.g., Benson and O’Reilly 2009, 2016; Hoey 2014). Lifestyle migration scholars have developed an analytical lens to explore a variety of migrations, including return migration and retirement migration, where lifestyle considerations are prioritized in migration decisions (e.g., Bolognani 2014; Eimermann 2014; Hall and Hardill 2016). Benson and O’Reilly (2009, 621), for example, argue that lifestyle migration consists of a search for a more fulfilling way of life among individuals of relative affluence. They define lifestyle migrants as “relatively affluent individuals, moving either part-time or full-time, permanently or temporarily, to places which, for various reasons, signify for the migrants something loosely defined as quality of life” (ibid, italics added). A major motivation for lifestyle migrants, this research shows, is their belief that migration to a new location will result in a better way of life, and their choice of where to live is intentionally about how to live (Benson and O’Reilly 2009; Hoey 2014).

The lifestyle migration perspective enables us to conceptualize reverse migration motivation differently from Chinese transnational migration studies, by centering around quality of life among a younger generation of Hong Kong returnee parents. Settlement in the West during their youth changed their values and attitudes toward living (Tse and Waters 2013; Waters 2015; Zhou 1998). According to Bourdieu (1984), values and attitudes, particularly those acquired in early life, can take the form of enduring dispositions that affect preferences, choices, desires, and future life paths. As he argues, people internalize ways of responding to the world from their circumstances, and this disposition extends to their ideas of what is possible for them to achieve. Bourdieu's argument can be seen in Bolognani's (2014) study of return reasoning among Pakistanis from the United Kingdom, which found that non-economic arguments concerning lifestyle were more vital to younger returnees who were once immigrant children than to older generations who migrated as adults.

Moreover, employing Bourdieu's (1984) concept of “social distinction,” Waters (2006, 185) posits that overseas-educated returnees in Hong Kong should be conceptualized in terms of a “distinctive cultural group” because the acquisition of social and cultural capital enabled them to attain the status of being part of an exclusive transnational group. The negotiation of social distinction and cultural capital has relevance in the study of lifestyle migrants as well. Benson's (2013) research on British residents in rural France shows that these residents’ claims to an authentic rural living are also claims to distinctiveness and should, therefore, be analyzed within the context of the continual processes of social distinction in which lifestyle migrants engage.

Lifestyle migration scholars have identified imaginary and emotional aspects of migration and place as pivotal factors in the construction of an expected higher quality of life after migration (Benson and O’Reilly 2009). Eimermann's (2014) study of Dutch lifestyle migrants’ return reasoning in Hällefors, rural Sweden, highlights the vital roles that romantic and nostalgic imaginings of a rural childhood idyll played in determining the pros and cons of migration decisions and that emotional content pervaded the construction of what a place meant to the individual. In other words, Eimermann's study demonstrates the significance of imaginaries and emotions in driving migrants’ movement.

Tse and Waters (2013, 536) illustrate that among Hong Kong immigrant youths who returned from Vancouver, the transition to adulthood brought about emotional attachment to place, with the Canadian city being constructed “as a place with a leisurely ethos, in contrast to what they perceived as the alienating hostility of Hong Kong as a city.” They also reveal that these young adults’ acquired cultural values and transformed attitudes could clash with their parents’ ideas around transnational mobility and the strategic accumulation of cultural capital, leading to emotional strains. Moreover, Ngan and Chan (2022) contend that the emotional conditions of Hong Kong immigrant youths can have long-term implications for migration trajectories in later life. Using the concept of “emotional geographies,” Anderson and Smith (2001) called for an analysis of emotionally heightened spaces because they can help illustrate the ways that social relations are mediated by feelings and sensibility. Emotions and the imaginary are, thus, integral to understanding migration processes and can shape how future migration decisions are negotiated.

However, existing studies of lifestyle migration tend to focus on individuals and less on families (e.g., Hayes 2014; Huete, Mantecón, and Estévez 2013), as lifestyle migrants are presumed to be concerned with fulfilling a commitment that has potential for self-actualization amid their quest for a better quality of life (Benson and O’Reilly 2009). Our study on reverse migration among Hong Kong returnee parents draws attention to the neglected aspect of family-centered lifestyle, rather than individual, aspirations in driving migration.

Economic Dimensions and Precarity in Lifestyle Migration

Unlike other forms of migrants, lifestyle migrants seem to be able to mobilize capital and resources alongside ease of movement (Benson and O’Reilly 2016). This ability results from their relative privilege that facilitates opportunities in their search for a better quality of life, above other considerations (Benson and O’Reilly 2009, 2016). As such, and in contrast to labor migrants who respond primarily to the quest for better economic opportunities, lifestyle migrants seem to see employment as a calculated means to an end (Hoey 2014).

Notwithstanding insights from the literature on lifestyle migration, among relatively affluent individuals, migration motivated by lifestyle is more complex than just a quest for a better quality of life (Benson and O’Reilly 2016). Huete, Mantecón, and Estévez (2013), for instance, stress that current discussions of lifestyle migration tend to diminish the actual importance of economic factors largely because lifestyle migrants’ affluence is taken for granted by scholars as a position that allows them greater ease in seeking a better quality of life, above other considerations.

As an exception, and using the concept of geographic arbitrage, Hayes’s (2014) study of lifestyle migrants reveals that US citizens migrate to Ecuador for both economic and non-economic reasons, choosing to move because they are not absolutely wealthy and have serious doubts about the quality of life they can afford at home, given the lack of retirement security. As Benson and O’Reilly (2016, 29) articulate,

it is not necessarily the case that such migrants are particularly wealthy or privileged in the countries that they leave, or what we could consider as absolutely wealthy. It is rather the case that they can mobilize capital, assets and resources in ways that make their aspirations for a better way of life possible within the destination.

The intersection of social mobilities, class dynamics, and precarity is clearly integral to understanding the migration of relatively affluent individuals, as is illustrated by Hall and Hardill's (2016) study of British retirees who migrated for lifestyle improvement as part of a healthy retirement. By aging in Spain, British retirees may fall through a support gap, whereby they are no longer entitled to UK welfare services yet are not fully eligible for similar services in Spain (ibid). Economic issues are sometimes rendered invisible by scholars, Benson and O’Reilly (2016) argue, because they tend to perceive wealth and privilege as absolute rather than relative. The changing living conditions and potential experiences of precarity that relatively privileged migrants experience after they settle in the host society underscore the importance of conceptualizing lifestyle migrants’ affluence in relative terms (Benson and O’Reilly 2016).

Studies of “middling migrants” reveal that experiences of precarity can occur among those with relatively higher socioeconomic status as well (e.g., Ho and Ley 2014; Parutis 2014). Middling migrants are neither elite professionals with company-sponsored entitlements nor wealthy business leaders with multiple passports, the two categories commonly discussed in the existing Chinese transnational migration studies (Cottrell 2015; Ley 2010; Ong 1999). Conradson and Latham (2005) argue that instead of focusing on high or low-skilled migrant labor, migration studies should also examine “middling migrants” – those in the middle spectrum of migration.

The concept of “middling” provides a more flexible framing of mobilities than “middle class,” which is often based on an absolute understanding of wealth (Landolt and Thieme 2018). Studies of middling migrants show that in exchange for anticipated future social mobility, these migrants may take on jobs below their qualifications after they migrate (Conradson and Latham 2005; Ho and Ley 2014; Parutis 2014). In the context of Hong Kong, Chinese transnational migration studies reveal that the competitive edge enjoyed by returnees results from their formal overseas qualifications, foreign language skills, intimate understanding of local and foreign cultures, and cosmopolitan cultural traits (Cottrell 2015; Ong 1999; Waters 2006). However, recent media reports suggest that returnees are unable to satisfactorily support the quality of life and education that they prefer for their children in Hong Kong and feel compelled to pursue their desired lifestyles through migration (Cheng 2018; Sing Tao Daily (Canada) 2018, 2020). As such, those in the middling socioeconomic stratum, including the second-generation returnees analyzed here, can experience oscillations between positions of privilege and vulnerability when they are on the move because class dynamics vary across national and cultural contexts (Harris, Baldassar, and Robertson 2020, 1). Together, studies of middling migrants and lifestyle migration that call for more scholarly attention to experiences of precarities highlight the complexity of economic dimensions in the migration of those who are relatively affluent. We argue that such attention will not only enrich discussions of lifestyle migration but also enhance analyses of Chinese transnational migration.

Research Methodology and Informants’ Background

The empirical data analyzed here are derived from in-depth interviews with 38 returnee parents who were relocating or had relocated from Hong Kong to their previous country of residence as a family unit. We define “returnees” as dual citizens of Hong Kong and Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, or the United States who spent their formative years in those western-speaking countries as students and returned to Hong Kong, their place of origin, after living in the West for at least five years. We drew on interview data collected over the course of two projects, between 2015 and 2016 and between 2019 and 2021. The first project was part of research that examined early childrearing practices and strategies among second-generation returnee fathers in Hong Kong. In our questions relating to the informants’ plans for their children's education, all respondents unexpectedly indicated that they intended to relocate part of or their whole family to the West. Because of this finding, in the second project, we extended our research to explore onward family migration in greater depth by examining the motives, strategies, practices, and challenges associated with returnee families’ migration trajectories. We specifically targeted returnee families who had intentions to relocate part or all of their family from Hong Kong or who had recently relocated overseas. Interviews were aimed at gathering data on a series of predetermined themes: migration history, family migration arrangements, employment and social mobility, children's education, transnational networks, family life, and other factors affecting migration decisions.

Participants in both projects were identified, using a purposive and snowball sampling technique, based on criteria that included families with children and dual citizenship for at least one parent. The possession of dual citizenship was important, as it allowed parents to make flexible family migration decisions, something that was not possible for those without the right to abode overseas. We mainly sought informants in the field sites of Hong Kong, Australia, and Canada through different sources, including social media (e.g., Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp), educational and professional institutions, church groups, and friendship networks. To ensure diversity, we limited interviews to no more than one referral per participant.

Interviews were conducted by the first author (Lucille Ngan), who is fluent in English and Cantonese and who is a returnee parent with young children living in Hong Kong. Because of her background, she is culturally attuned to the common words in both languages that are incorporated into informants’ vocabularies. All interviews lasted between one-and-a-half and two hours, were audio-recorded with informants’ consent, and were fully transcribed into English for systematic analysis. To ensure anonymity, pseudonyms are used in this article.

Using inductive reasoning, we read transcripts repeatedly to identify themes and patterns. This article concentrates on thematic elements pertinent to the role of lifestyle, a pattern common among the 38 informants, who were all undertaking a whole-family-unit strategy in their relocation to their previous country of residence. Contrastingly, this theme was almost absent among the 11 informants who planned to live as part of a transnational, split family arrangement (i.e., sending children to boarding school abroad or creating an “astronaut” family) with the aim of maximizing household capital accumulation, a strategy well documented in studies of Chinese transnational families (e.g., Alaggia, Chau, and Tsang 2001; Waters 2006; Zhou 1998). Those relocating as a family unit were leaving when their children were in primary school or below, whereas those planning to send their children alone abroad were planning for their children's departure after they had reached high school or entered university.

The 38 informants who formed the empirical base of this article consisted of 23 fathers and 15 mothers, largely in their 30s and 40s, with children under the age of eight. Because the selected interviews from the first project that analyzed returnees’ fatherhood experiences involved mainly male respondents, their narratives contributed to an unequal gender distribution in the empirical data analyzed here. We acknowledge this limitation and have made a reflexive effort to remain sensitive to gender dynamics in our analysis.

Most informants had emigrated from Hong Kong in the 1980s − 1990s as adolescents, resided abroad for over 10 years, and attained tertiary degrees from the countries in which they had lived. They were all Hong Kong permanent residents, with 17 holding citizenships in Canada, ten in Australia, six in the United Kingdom, and five in the United States. About two-thirds of informants had lived in Hong Kong for ten years or less after their return from the West. At the time of the interviews, one-third were planning to relocate after 5 years, while one-third were planning to leave within five years. Another third migrated from Hong Kong between 2014 and 2020.

In terms of monthly household income, 20 informants (52 percent) earned HK$90,000 ¹ or more, 10 (26 percent) earned HK$60,000 − 89,999, and eight (22 percent) earned HK$59,999 or less. Their occupations included financial consultants, accountants, managers, administrators, salespersons, designers, and engineers. Four were homemakers. This group of informants arguably represented a middle to upper position on the socioeconomic spectrum, compared with Hong Kong's overall population, which has a median monthly household income of HK$35,500 in 2020 (Census and Statistics Department 2021). As an additional point of comparison, just 9.2 percent of total households in Hong Kong make HK$100,000 and above in 2020 (ibid).

Children's Education and Economic Considerations

Informants’ ultimate goal was to provide a good education for their children. However, rather than perceiving education as a strategy for class reproduction, as has been conceptualized in studies of middle- and upper-class Chinese transnational migration (e.g., Ong 1999; Waters 2006, 2015), returnee parents in our sample placed greater value on a balanced schooling environment and family lifestyle. In fact, informants’ reflections on their own parents’ decisions to send them overseas resonated with the education-as-class-reproduction motivation, as exemplified by a comment from Fred: “My parents knew that if we stayed in Hong Kong, my younger brother and I would not get into university. So that's why they sent us overseas.”

In Hong Kong, although a variety of schools exist, informants’ children were (or were once) part of the local mainstream education system, which is well known to be notoriously competitive and to create much pressure on students and parents alike (Chee 2019; Waters 2006). In the narratives of Hong Kong immigrant youths who had been acculturated to a western way of life, a dominant orientation was that of a balanced attitude to living (Tse and Waters 2013; Zhou 1998). Their commonly held perspective was that a western education placed less stress on children because of its focus on creativity, critical thinking, and learning, rather than the pedagogical emphasis on rote-learning and examination success that was prevalent among mainstream local schools in Hong Kong.

These attitudes and returnee parents’ experiences of an overwhelming schooling culture in Hong Kong prompted them to seek a less pressurizing environment abroad. Ryan, for example, went back to Canada four years before this study, when his five-year-old son was in upper-level kindergarten (“K3”). Earlier, at age two, his son had gone through “painful admission interviews” at ten kindergartens before finally being admitted to one. This excerpt captured the disheartening experience:

The whole school admission process made me seriously think about leaving. Not only did I feel defeated, but my son, who was only two, also felt defeated after so many rounds of interviews. Why did a two-year-old child need to go through ten interviews just to go to a kindergarten? It was stressful for all of us!

On top of the stressful process of school admissions in Hong Kong, Ryan also felt frustrated by the struggle of getting his son to complete an “unreasonable amount” of daily homework. Like the majority of informants, Ryan expressed the view that the admission process to state schools in Canada (as well as in Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom) was much easier and consequently less stressful than that in Hong Kong. By returning to Canada, he was able to offer his son an education that aligned with his own values. The change in education system, Ryan felt, also made a pronounced improvement in the overall quality of his family life:

When I get home from work now, it is so much different. My son is in year 4, but I don’t need to worry about his studies. We don’t need to force him to do his homework like we did in Hong Kong, even though at the time he was only in kindergarten! So, we have more free time to chat and play games with him. There is so much more family time now.

Moreover, in Hong Kong's middle-class education culture, extensive involvement in extracurricular activities starting from kindergarten age is common (Karsten 2015). Students take up academic enhancement classes, music classes, and sports, and some interviewees felt pressure to provide these activities for their own children. For instance, Mavis, who returned to Canada after the end of K3, commented on such pressure:

We didn’t like the school's rote-learning approach and the competitiveness among local parents. For example, our son didn’t join many interest classes, as we didn’t feel the need [for him] to. When we talked to other local parents, they would question why we did not apply for those classes in a judgmental way. This kind of pressure made us think whether we wanted this for our family. Do we have to follow the mainstream?

Returnee parents perceived overseas education as enabling overall improvement in their family’ well-being, and improved quality of life featured as an important migration consideration, as captured in Sandra's words: “We think that overseas education is better. Everyone will be happier!”

In interviewees’ narratives, we also found that children's education within and beyond schooling was intricately entwined with class, as is revealed in the following excerpt from Wendy. After moving to the United Kingdom, she evaluated the differences in how sport was consumed in Hong Kong in this way:

Something like tennis is expensive in Hong Kong, but it is much cheaper here [in the UK] and just very normal. You don’t have to be a member of an exclusive private club to play these sports.

Alongside local schools in Hong Kong are the prized international schools, which offer, albeit at a high cost, a different curriculum and a familiar western education system that returnees value. Schools under the local Hong Kong education system are subsidized by the government, making education either free or provided at a relatively minimal fee (Education Bureau 2021). By contrast, school fees at the Hong Kong International School are HK$225,200 per year for primary education (fees increase in higher years, and the cost can reach HK$3,291,900 for Reception 1 (Pre-kindergarten) to Year 12 (HKIS 2022). Despite their desirability, international schools were not an option for half our informant parents, whose monthly household income was up to HK$89,999 (i.e., up to about the top 12 percent of overall Hong Kong household incomes) (Census and Statistics Department 2021). School fees alone (excluding extracurricular activities, charges for the school bus, uniform, etc.) for two children accounted for at least 42 percent of a family's monthly income of HK$90,000. Nor were international schools an easy option for a majority of informant parents with high household incomes (i.e., those with monthly household earnings of HK$90,000 and above). Even this group of interviewees described international school fees as a financial burden. As such, although returnee parents in our study belonged to the relatively privileged middle to upper economic stratum in Hong Kong, challenges were evident in providing their children with their preferred education.

Since returnee parents’ strong wish was for their children to receive a western education in Hong Kong that encouraged creativity and was less stressful and since international schools were beyond their reach, these parents’ strategy was to migrate to the West. This strategy is exemplified by Kai, who planned to return to Canada with his daughter within five years of our interview, before the start of primary school. Working as a salesperson in the beverage industry, with a monthly household income of HK$30,000 − HK$59,999, he expressed his financial burden in this way:

In order for my daughter to have the same environment and education which I had in Canada, she needs to be in an international school, and I can’t afford that. And even if I could, it would consume like a majority of both our incomes. But it's free over there! So I don’t see the reason to push for something that I can’t afford here because I’m not in that category… I am not in the top of the income range. I am not at the bottom, but I am kind of in-between.

Informants commonly equated Hong Kong's prized international schools with government-funded public schools in the West, which are free for citizens and permanent residents to attend. Comments like “public schools overseas are just the same as the high-end international schools in Hong Kong” were frequent. Since some could not foresee their children being able to attend international schools and since others found it burdensome to provide an education they valued in Hong Kong, going back to the West, where public schools were free, was presented as the best solution. Fred, who had a monthly household income of HK$60,000 − HK$89,999, expressed this sentiment:

If you have that kind of money, then you can continue to live in Hong Kong. For us who don’t have that amount of capital or are just not willing to pay that amount of money, then we have no option but to leave.

It should be noted that in Hong Kong there are also private or government-subsidized schools that are more flexible in curriculum and less pressurizing than public schools and less expensive than international schools (Lee, Kwan, and Li 2020). However, there is a high level of competition in gaining admission to these schools, so relocation to the West often became a backup plan. Another interviewee, Ivana, provides an example of this view. She was among the high household income group and wanted to enroll her four-year-old son in a government-subsidized Christian school because it offered a more relaxed pedagogical approach and had lower school fees than international schools. However, because of limited places and competitive admission, her backup plan was to return to Canada if admission for her son was unsuccessful.

Studying abroad enabled interviewees’ children to receive a western education that they, as parents, perceived as aligned with their own values, allowing them to pursue a way of living that was personally meaningful to parents (Hoey 2014). At the same time, a western education, commonly considered by Hong Kong society to be reserved for local affluent families, enabled returnee parents to maintain their distinctive transnational status, offering them a separation from the average middle-class families in Hong Kong (see also Waters 2006).

Housing and Spacious Living for the Family

Beyond education, migrating back to the West was also commonly presented by the interviewees as enabling improvements in the more tangible aspects of family lifestyle that were often constructed in terms of practical considerations, as illustrated by Joshua:

Apart from their education, it's a healthy lifestyle. I think as they are growing up, I would like to provide them with a more spacious environment. I am talking about a much bigger house, a garden, being able to play on the grass, more facilities for them to exercise. I know I can’t provide them with these things in Hong Kong.

A significant part of migration considerations, irrespective of household income, was the quest for more spacious housing. Home purchase in the West was recognized as being comparatively less expensive and, therefore, as offering greater options. Importantly, the interviewees perceived spacious housing and home ownership as bringing about a happier family life. For example, Kai, who had a comparatively low household income, was living with his wife, sister, and brother-in-law in a 450-square-foot rented apartment in Hong Kong. Unable to afford a bigger living space and an education for his child, his solution was to return to Canada to improve his family's lifestyle. Likewise, after the birth of his child, Eric, who was an asset manager with a higher monthly household income of HK$60,000 − HK$89,999, had similar concerns over education, as well as living space. These factors prompted him to return to Canada. Before his departure, he lived with his family at his parents’ three-storey house in Kowloon Tong, an upscale residential Hong Kong suburb. Since he wanted to move out of his parents’ home and maintain the same living space, the only choice for him was to return to Canada:

In Hong Kong, I had no choice but to live with my parents in this house, but in Canada, rent is not that expensive; I can rent a house to live with them. HK$10,000 can get you a three-bedroom downtown!

Even among interviewees who were homeowners and had higher household incomes, housing concerns were still a struggle. Ivana expressed dissatisfaction with the size of her living space:

My parents aren’t that rich, but grandpa's [Ivana's dad] bedroom in Canada is even larger than my living room here. Space is definitely a problem in Hong Kong!

For Vivian, who had a monthly household income of HK$90,000 − HK$109,999, it was necessary to sell a small studio apartment in the Mid-levels, an affluent residential area of Hong Kong in the hope of having enough for the down payment for a bigger apartment for the family. Without selling the studio apartment, she could not afford a down payment for an apartment of 600 square feet in Kennedy Town, a middle-income area. However, she was not satisfied with the 600 square feet space, and with a similar amount of money, the family ended up purchasing a boathouse with an internal space of 2,000 square feet. Despite that bigger space, there were many disadvantages of living in a boat that contributed to her subsequent decision to leave Hong Kong:

We came across this opportunity to rent a boat house…, and we decided to buy a boat because it is cheaper compared to buying anything on land. We just cannot afford a decent flat on land. You know he [Vivian's husband] has a decent salary, and we have some assets. But it is still not enough… There are just lots of disadvantages on the boat, I cannot go out with my kids quite as much as I want to, and grass is on land!

Considerations over housing affordability and space are not surprising, since Hong Kong was rated the least affordable city in all housing markets for the 11th year in a row in 2021, ranking last in major housing markets in affordability, according to the Demographia International Housing Affordability Survey (The Urban Reform Institute and the Frontier Centre for Public Policy 2021). The average living space for domestic households in Hong Kong is 430 square feet (Wong 2018). Portrayals of informants’ lifestyles were often based on constructions that depicted sharp spatial contrasts between Hong Kong and the destination country, which contributed to their aspiration for a better quality of life in the West.

In all these ways, returnee parents were choosing to go back to the West because they were not absolutely wealthy and because they had serious reservations about the quality of family life they could afford in Hong Kong. Such concerns were even evident among the group of parents with relatively high household incomes. However, just like Hayes’s (2014) study of US citizens moving to Ecuador, there was a consensus among informants that the wealth they had accumulated in Hong Kong, coupled with a basic job, could facilitate their desired lifestyles (including a bigger house and western education) in the destination country. This strategic deployment of economic capital was clearly articulated by Fred, an IT consultant:

If I sell my property here and bring along all that capital, plus I will have some income after I go back to Canada, it will be sufficient for a comfortable lifestyle. I just need to find a job that can kill time and pay off my daily food and transport expenses.

Negotiating Improved Lifestyles and Reduced Social Mobility

Despite possessing transnational cultural and economic capital that allowed them to pursue a better quality of family life in the West, with almost no institutional limitations (something that is not possible for those without the right to abode overseas), the majority of informants foresaw suboptimal job prospects, deskilling, and lower income in the host country, as is exemplified by Allison, an assistant wholesale manager who was due to return to Canada in the year following our interview:

In Hong Kong, I have a job with a good income and status. Over there, I will have a much lower pay and will work in a lower position. But it is worth it! I have exchanged it with a less pressured lifestyle, something that I cannot have in Hong Kong. Over there, you have to let go of these things. You do your job during the day, but after work, you can have family life.

Since they had spent most of their working lives in Hong Kong, returnees were adamant that their lack of local work experience and social networks in the destination country would negatively affect their job prospects. In the words of Kate, a 40-year-old marketing manager,

I don't expect to find a role or income better than in Hong Kong… In Canada, they want more local knowledge; they don’t really value Asian working experiences. I have already psychologically prepared myself for this.

Interestingly, irrespective of their career stages and incomes, most returnees displayed a willingness to embrace downward social mobility after their relocation, and few exhibited aspirations to progress over time to jobs more suited to their qualifications. In fact, it could be said that most returnees were migrating without strategic monetary or career goals in mind but were, instead, motivated to move by broader aspirations for lifestyle improvements, just like the lifestyle migrants described by Benson and O’Reilly (2016).

The high incidence of returnees embracing downward mobility was due, in part, to the effect of their transition to parenthood. Taking account of her own age and life stage as a mother, Kate saw migration as a chance to experience a new and potentially more fulling lifestyle in Vancouver, one centered on her family:

I have never lived or worked in Canada after becoming an adult, a parent. I want to try another lifestyle while I am still young. That's one of the reasons that I don’t want to go to Toronto. I don’t want a metropolis lifestyle like in Hong Kong. I want to try something different, like finishing work at three, picking up my son from school, and then going home to cook dinner.

For Ryan, who was an experienced secondary school teacher in Hong Kong, the change in returning to Canada was something he welcomed. Despite having to take on an entry-level role in a new field of work, he saw the return as an opportunity to fulfill his role as a father and to improve his family's quality of life:

I have more family time now, and the house is much bigger. Yes, I am making less money, but I think my lifestyle is better. If we remained in Hong Kong, my wife and I would have been staying late at work. My son would have been taken care of by the domestic helper, and I would have spent a lot less time with him. The outdoor environment is also better. For me, my quality of life is about the combination of all these other things, not just about income.

The career trajectories of several interviewees also contributed to the high incidence of returnee parents embracing downward mobility. Many of those who were working in Hong Kong were in their mid-career stages. Lamenting that they were exhausted physically and mentally, they were ready to abandon their earlier career aspirations for a better quality of life. Those laments led them to see migration as a chance to turn their backs on the rat race and to seek simpler, more worthwhile lives. For example, Cathy, a mother of two in her fifties, went back to Canada one year before our interview. She presented a “been there, done that” attitude, as she embraced the changes to her life before and after migration:

To be honest, you can make so much more money in Hong Kong, but I was exhausted. I am not as aggressive and ambitious as I was ten years ago. Even if my boss didn’t ask me to do something, I would always do more than I needed to. I began to feel exhausted. I do not know whether it is because of age or because I have gone through the career ladder. The best thing at work now is that nothing happens. Back then, I wouldn’t have had this kind of feeling; I wouldn’t have been satisfied.

For a few others, like Hayden, an accountant, presenting the anticipated change to their work and lifestyles as a form of semi-retirement enabled them to embrace reduced social mobility and the possibility of working in jobs below their qualifications, even if it meant taking up “some ad hoc jobs, even labor-type work for daily expenses”:

Life in Hong Kong is so stressful. Here, you have a higher salary, but, to be honest, you are not happy. You may earn less in Australia, but family life is much better. It's not that you want to have a fight with your wife and kids, but in Hong Kong, there is so much pressure around you from work and the school. But overseas, it's different. Their childhood will be happier. There will be less conflict because everything is laid back. I will probably make a lot less in terms of income, just enough for daily expenses, but I don’t mind. You just have to take it as semi-retirement.

Some reflected on their lack of competitive edge in the Hong Kong job market and the plateauing of their careers. For instance, Rex saw his diminished career mobility as the result of the growing supply of elite workers from mainland China and Hongkongers’ marginalization in the workplace:

In the past, our clients were overseas, but now they are mainly Mainlanders. We have changed from English to mostly Mandarin… At work, Hongkongers are Hongkongers. No matter how smart you are, you will not be able to get promoted to a senior position. Mainlanders always take those places. I think in terms of my career, it is not fair.

The high incidence of returnees embracing downward mobility could also be explained by the imaginary and emotional aspects of migration (Anderson and Smith 2001; Eimermann 2014). We found a great deal of idealization of the West as offering quality of life, compared with Hong Kong's perceived hierarchical and materialistic society. Ryan, for example, expressed such idealization in this way: “Everything in Hong Kong is about money. Over there [Canada], people live happily; everything is enough.” This sentiment corresponded with the views of Hong Kong migrants who have charted transnational sojourning over the life course by framing Hong Kong as a place to work and Canada as a place for quality of life (including retirement) (Ho and Ley 2014; Ley 2010; Tse and Waters 2013). These binaries enabled informants to overcome their expected downward mobility and loss of income, as exemplified by Carmen, who was due to return to Canada:

I think in Canada people are not stratified by their jobs or position. Over there, an electrician earns more than a teacher! I think in Hong Kong, people are too bothered by status and all that. In Canada, they see everyone as equal. Everyone goes to the same park. Everyone wears casual clothing. It is a much simpler way of life!

Emotional content pervaded the construction of place, as potential returnees also used memories from their past in the West to make sense of their expected simpler and less material way of life. For example, Sandra enjoyed regular consumption of luxuries, such as fine dining and high-end fashion clothing. However, she could foresee a decrease in household income after her family returned to Australia, where she would no longer be able to frequently enjoy the luxuries she could afford in Hong Kong. Tapping back into childhood memories helped her embrace the prospect of a lifestyle that would be humble but more meaningful:

After relocation, we won’t have to spend much… You know those electric barbecue stoves at the park, I remember you only need to put in a coin to get the hot plate working. On weekends, I imagine that we will meet up with other families, we will bring our own food, then we will spend the whole day lazing in the park. I think it will be amazing! It's a different quality of life. I am ready to give up on fine dining for this!

These emotional sentiments in interviewees’ construction of their anticipated lifestyles following return are similar to that documented by Eimermann (2014) in his study of Dutch lifestyle migrants in rural Sweden. The returnee parents’ nostalgic imaginings and the prospect of greater fulfillment of family life were pivotal in constructing an expected better quality of life after return. Nevertheless, it should be noted that while interviewees contemplated a better family life after migration, we discerned a subtle sense of sacrifice in their careers, income, and material possessions (e.g., “You just have to take it as semi-retirement;” “it may turn out not to be a sacrifice;” “you have to let go of these things”). In this way, their downward career mobility and income highlight the fluidity of class among relatively affluent migrants that challenges scholars’ tendency to perceive wealth and privilege as fixed (Benson and O’Reilly 2016).

We also noted that political concerns were not the main consideration for most interviewees. A few expressed the view that the 2019 Anti-Extradition Law Amendment Bill Movement ² in Hong Kong affected their daily lives, leading them to reassess the timing of their relocation, but was not the main driver of their decision to leave. For most returnee parents, their re-migration decisions were formed after the birth of a child and as that child began the kindergarten/school admission process, well before the onset of political incidents in 2019 that have been linked to the recent emigration wave from Hong Kong (Lui, Sun, and Hsiao 2022). We do not preclude the possibility that political factors were understated by informants, owing to the topic's sensitivity; however, the prominent themes that emerged in informants’ narratives were concerns over education, affordability, and family lifestyle. This finding stands in contrast to recent media reports suggesting that the Hong Kong's anti-government protests and unstable political environment were the main causes behind the increasing number of students and families relocating overseas (e.g., Chan 2020; Wang and Wright 2020; Young 2019). Since returnees had already secured the right of abode in the West, they did not share new immigrants’ motive of acquiring foreign citizenship as a safety net — a common factor that motivated families in the pre-1997 migration wave (Skeldon 1994).

Conclusion

Examining the reverse migration decisions of a younger generation of Hong Kong returnee parents, this paper argues that migration scholars, whether in Chinese transnational migration studies or lifestyle migration studies, should give due attention to family-centered lifestyle migration and the complex economic considerations of middling migrants. By unveiling children's education, economic concerns, and transnational mobility in their considerations, we argue that the dominant driver of migration among relatively affluent middling migrants could be family-centered, rather than individual-centered, lifestyle aspirations. Returnees’ relative, rather than absolute, affluence and their ability to capitalize on their transnational mobility gave them the capacity to aspire to what they saw as “better” education in the West, thus improving their children's lifestyle and ultimately that of the whole family. Such aspirations were not possible for those without the right of abode.

Although returnees were moving between societies in which they held citizenship, reverse migration was not a straightforward process. As they moved back or planned to move back to their previous places of residence abroad, downward social mobility was apparent, with a reduction in income and work positions expected after migration. Their quest for a better and different way of life for themselves and their children was not prioritized to the exclusion of economic considerations, yet their concerns could not be easily reduced to the capital accumulation factor common among middle- and upper-class Chinese transnational families (e.g., Skeldon 1994; Ong 1999; Waters 2006).

Yet, the ‘better’ quality of life that these returnee parents seek was sometimes imaginary rather than real. To make sense of their decision to leave, returnees constructed Hong Kong and the West in binary oppositions, putting the former (Hong Kong) as inferior to the latter (the West) in terms of quality of life (stressful vs. relaxed; materialistic vs. fulfillment; stratified vs. equal). These binaries were sometimes reinforced by nostalgic and emotional memories of their youth in the West. As our findings showed, imaginaries not only supported returnee parents in pursuing a lifestyle that was personally meaningful but also ameliorated uncertainties and emotional challenges (e.g., the feelings of sacrifice involved in their reduced social mobility after migration; the trade-offs made for the benefit of family life).

This article contributes to the literatures on lifestyle migration and Chinese transnational migration in several ways. First, by demonstrating a younger generation of returnee parents’ aspiration for a family-centered lifestyle, we broaden the lifestyle migration framework and frame the pursuit of a better quality of life as a project for well-being of the family, not just for the individual (Benson and O’Reilly 2016). Second, by highlighting the role of lifestyle aspirations and the significance of emotions and imaginaries in migrants’ movement and considerations, we support the view that the second-generation Chinese migrants have developed a habitus, which is different from their parents, and changes to their values and attitudes have long-term impact on their future life paths (Ngan and Chan 2022; Waters 2015). Third, supporting calls for greater emphasis on the actual significance of economic factors in lifestyle-motivated migration (Huete, Mantecón, and Estévez 2013), we reveal the complex coexistence of privilege and vulnerability experienced by middling migrants that have been neglected in the Chinese transnational migration and the lifestyle migration literatures. We suggest that both fields of studies would benefit from a more nuanced consideration of the economic dimensions in the migration of relatively affluent migrants. Finally, we witness a wave of emigration from Hong Kong in the past few years and the media reports have heavily linked the movement to political incidents and motivations (e.g., Chan 2020; Wang and Wright 2020). We argue that future research should consider whether familial quest for lifestyle, education for young children, and complex economic considerations are equally important in driving migration among locals.