Crossing borders, creating boundaries: transborder citizenship and the affiliated agency among Hmong migrant workers in the China–Laos border

This article explores the transborder citizenship of Hmong migrant workers at the China – Laos border through their migration and aspirations. On the basis of ethnography among ethnic minority workers at the border of Mohan, China and BoTen, Laos, this paper argues that contemporary transborder movements facilitate the creation of multi-territorial citizenship and aspirations. This article uses the concept of affiliated agency to present the tension and dynamics that arise when individuals seek belongingness under the ideological conditions of nation-states on the basis of institutions and familial practice. Thus, this article demonstrates how ethnic individuals utilize various strategies to engage with shifting policies, institutions and regulatory actors, and foster aspirations for a 'good life' which is in affiliation with a flexible, non-exclusive form of citizenship that transcends national boundaries, a form that coexists with, and complements to, the conventional sense of citizenship attached to one particular nation-state.