Fully-funded PhD Studentship starting October 2023 Lancaster University

The Sociology Department at Lancaster University is offering a three year, fully funded ESRC North West Social Science Doctoral Training Partnership (NWSSDTP) CASE PhD studentship in collaboration with Hongkongers in Britain.

This PhD centres on the experiences of young Hong Kongers newly arriving in the UK. Empirical research with Hong Kongers newly arriving in the UK is necessarily at an incipient stage and has yet to focus exclusively on young Hong Kongers, for whom routes to migration and settlement are, because of their age, inherently more complicated and, as they are within the age group more likely to have been involved in pro-democracy movements, more politically charged.

It is organised around the following research questions:

• In the context of migration flows from Hong Kong to the UK and their governance through both the Hong Kong BN(O) visa route and standard immigration controls, what routes are young Hong Kongers—18-24 years old—using to migrate to and settle in the UK?
• How are their experiences of migration and settlement in the UK shaped by coming of age in the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) against the backdrop of pro-democracy uprisings? How do these shape the ways in which they advocate for political and migrant rights?
• In what ways are their political actions shaped by the longstanding relationship between the British Government and the people of Hong Kong?

This PhD study will adopt a mixed methods approach to map how young Hong Kongers are arriving and settling in the UK through statistical analysis and new survey data; design and deliver in-depth qualitative research with non-academic partner organisation Hongkongers in Britain to document the experiences of migration and settlement among young Hong Kongers newly migrating to the UK, and provide research evidence that can be used within advocacy for migrant rights.

The PhD will be jointly supervised by Professor Michaela Benson (Department of Sociology), Dr Ala Sirriyeh (Department of Sociology), Dr Eva Li (Department of Sociology) and Simon Cheng, (Hongkongers in Britain).

Departmental websites: https://www.lancaster.ac.uk/sociology/

FURTHER DETAILS

• This studentship will commence in October 2023 and is open to UK and international (including EU and EEA) candidates
• You can find information about how to apply for the studentship and the award criteria on our website
• The deadline for applications is 5pm GMT on Friday 17 March 2023
• Candidates should have a high level of fluency in spoken Cantonese. A high level of proficiency in reading and writing Cantonese is desirable
• Please send enquiries about the vacancy by email to Professor Michaela Benson (michaela.benson@lancaster.ac.uk)

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