Hong Kong’s sovereign reversion to China in 1997 has seen marked increase in the number of Mainland Chinese (MLC) students crossing the border to receive tertiary education in higher education institutions (HEIs) in Hong Kong (HK). However, there exist drastic linguistic, cultural and ideological differences between HK and China (Gao, 2010; Xie, 2009). Moreover, the unique relationship between the two entities, typically characterized by the ‘one country, two systems’ principle, (Abbas, 1997; Flowerdew & Leong, 2010) seems to present a novel context for the intricate positioning of MLC students (Gu and Tong, 2012). As such, investigating how they position themselves in their socialisation processes can have significant policy implications for HK HEIs (Li and Bray, 2006, 2007) and for other international institutions which might face similar intakes of students. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of up-to-date research addressing such a burning issue (Lam, 2006; Li and Bray, 2006, 2007; Xie, 2009).  In view of this, this paper examines the living experience of two migrant students in their endeavour to integrate into the new context and seeks to answer these two questions:

1. How do these MLC students respond and adapt to the novel context of HK HEIs?
2. What are the disjunctures between the two spaces/fields of MLC and HK HEIs and how is their habitus confirmed (or not) or transformed (or not)?

The findings of this study may serve to shed light on literature of sojourning experiences of international migrant students. 

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