(Re)framing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy across borders: the case of the Hongkonger diaspora in the UK

This study critiques prevailing models of vaccine hesitancy for individualising hesitancy and overlooking how socio-political histories shape health decisions across borders. Focusing on the Hongkonger diaspora in the UK, it examines how migration and political displacement reshape the meanings of COVID-19 vaccination. Using Goffman’s frame analysis, and the concepts of paternalistic fabrication, lamination, and reframing, the study reconceptualises hesitancy as a politically mediated, temporally situated interpretive process rather than an individual psychological trait. Based on 21 interviews with Hongkongers in the UK and Hong Kong, the analysis focuses on 11 migrants who relocated after the 2019 protests and the National Security Law. Reflexive thematic analysis traced shifts in interpretive frames across pre- and post-migration contexts. Hesitancy developed through three framing processes: (1) Paternalistic fabrication – Hong Kong’s pandemic measures were interpreted as coercive control framed as care. (2) Lamination – these meanings were carried into the UK, sustaining emotional distrust despite its autonomy-oriented approach. (3) Reframing – some participants re-evaluated vaccination through UK institutional norms and social expectations. Findings challenge individualised accounts by situating hesitancy within political disenchantment and migration, highlighting the need for public-health strategies that engage with migrants’ histories and rebuild institutional credibility.