Pushed Out, Not Plugged In: Welfare Disjuncture in Hong Kong‐Guangdong Cross‐Border Ageing

ABSTRACT Hong Kong's eldercare system faces structural deficits from land scarcity and labour costs. Confronted with care shortages, the government has geographically externalised responsibilities to Guangdong Province, constructing a transborder “welfare hinterland” under “One Country, Two Systems.” Drawing upon fieldwork with 53 Hong Kong older adults enrolled in the Residential Care Services Scheme in Guangdong, this study reveals that spatial displacement generates inter‐jurisdictional institutional misfit: older adults are “pushed out” by the Hong Kong welfare regime yet “not plugged in” to Guangdong's system, acquiring immediate care whilst forfeiting welfare allowances and housing entitlements, becoming “semi‐welfare citizens” suspended between jurisdictions—a condition emblematic of ageing out of place. This article conceptualises this as “welfare disjuncture”—the interruption of eligibility when traversing institutional boundaries. Three dimensions are analysed: healthcare disjuncture exposes non‐transferable and immoveable institutional trust; cash transfer disjuncture reveals incongruity between eligibility thresholds and life trajectories; and housing disjuncture demonstrates how “surrender upon departure” negates cyclical cross‐border realities. These reflect temporal‐biographical disjuncture between institutional and biological time. When bureaucratic rhythms collide with biological exigencies, elders must forfeit entitlements to secure survival. The article argues for moving beyond formalistic “welfare portability” to achieve “disjuncture‐free mobility”.