Trading trash and creating destinies: Pakistani community in a second-hand market in Hong Kong

Abstract

This thesis examines a Pakistani community which is engaged in the second-hand market in a poor neighborhood in Hong Kong. It provides ethnographic details of how the Pakistanis make a living by collecting and trading used electrical items through co-ethnic networks within their group and through inter-ethnic networks among different groups. This thesis argues that the Pakistani community, rather than being disadvantaged as generally perceived, is in fact a very resourceful community which has formed a self-reliant ethnic economy to support the livelihoods of many country fellows, including those who are locally born, immigrants, businesspeople, “tourists”, asylum seekers and illegal immigrants. The second-hand market serves as an epitome of contemporary migration and transnationalism. Social actors from different ethnic backgrounds and with different migration statuses converge in this translocal site to help each other to make a living. Unlike traditional immigrants, many Pakistanis in this market are neither totally uprooted from their homelands nor incorporated into the Hong Kong society. The statuses of many of them are ambiguous and their migration trajectories are closely tied with global politics. Recent decades have witnessed the emergence of translocalities in many metropolises. By studying the everyday social interactions of Pakistanis in the market, this thesis will enhance our understanding of the social dynamics of minority groups in Hong Kong and also offer a glimpse on a spectrum of migration and transnational issues.