Up or out? Exploring opportunity structures for student mobility in Hong Kong

Abstract

The low-income students often find themselves at a “up or out” cross-roads in Hong Kong, given that opportunity structures for further learning and employment are locked in the local-global tensions. While higher education credentials are becoming important to move up in local socio-economic hierarchies, the outbound mobility is of increasing interest to low-income households expecting to break the disadvantage cycles for their offspring. The case-study of Hong Kong explores what low-income students gain and lose while trying to equilibrate their stakes between outward and upward mobility at the time of globalization.