Mobile Ageing: Transborder Mobilities, Agency and the WellBeing of Older Adults in Hong Kong

Nowadays, more and more older adults are going on transborder journeys as a leisure and as a way of living, giving rise to the phenomenon of “mobile ageing” . Despite older people being more active and geographically mobile, not much is known about the role of transborder mobilities in the ageing process and its impact on the well-being of older adults . As existing ageing research have mostly investigated how older adults can age in place, active ageing experiences that go beyond or across borders have been largely sidelined . To address this issue, this paper examines how older adults experience transborder mobilities in their later life and how their experience of transborder mobilities affect their perspectives on ageing. It aims at advancing the understanding of the relationship between transborder mobilities, ageing, and subjective wellbeing by integrating two strands of scholarship (ageing and mobilities) . A mix of qualitative and visual methods, including in-depth interviews and photo elicitation, were used to generate multidimensional data on older adults’ transborder experiences and ageing attitudes . A total of 29 older adults in Hong Kong (including 14 males and 15 females) were interviewed and 22 of them participated in a follow-up photo elicitation session. Specifically, this presentation will discuss the following questions: (1) Why and how transborder mobilities are utilized by older adults to negotiate ageing? (2) What are the meanings and functions of transborder mobilities for older adults? and (3) What are the impacts of transborder mobilities on older adults’ subjective wellbeing? The findings will not only shed light on the diverse and transborder ways that older adults used to achieve active ageing, but also inform developments of social policies and the silver market on leisure, tourism, border-crossing, and international insurance