Bridging home and school in cross-border education: the role of intermediary spaces in the in/exclusion of Mainland Chinese students and their families in Hong Kong

The Hong Kong government has made considerable investments to develop the city into a regional education hub over the last two decades, with ‘diversification’ as a key aim. The vision is, however, delinked from the tens and thousands of young children residing in Shenzhen who commute daily to Hong Kong for school. These children embody differences that are considered undesired and their social exclusion has been widely reported. Taking a spatial perspective, this paper deepens our understanding of the in/exclusion processes impacting these children. Drawing on our policy analysis, interviews, observations in physical spaces and digital media, this paper analyses the role that intermediary spaces play in (re)producing difference and social relationship. Specifically, we examine the power geometries of the children’s school journey and school-related digital space, which are arenas where social differences are played out and in/exclusion is practiced and negotiated. We analyse the network of state and non-state actors at work in these intermediary spaces, showing the complex ways in which separation and integration, exclusion and inclusion intersect and constitute each other mutually. Our paper also gives some first insights into the impact of COVID-19 on the school children within this education mobility field.