This paper examines the global implications of policy borrowing, employing case examples of Chinese school systems, which enjoy the success of grafting new identities to improve education. The paper comments on contemporary scholars’ use of identity grafting theory (Lee in Managing Chineseness: identity and ethnic management in Singapore, Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2017) to generate insights on how schools, teachers and students engaged educational change in mainland China, Hong Kong and Singapore. Scholars presented empirical findings by using identity grafting constructs to explain education stakeholders’ diverse responses to change: (1) born-again—rejecting change by reviving traditional practices; (2) repression—repressing traditional identities instead of embracing change; (3) integration—combining traditional identities and progressive change to achieve a balance; and (4) situationalism—developing new identities that transcend boundaries between traditional identities and progressive change. The scholars contributed research that advances the theorization of identity grafting. First, rising born-again Chinese sentiments seek to reject the imposition of a singular Chinese identity imposed by state governments. Born-again Chineseness no longer singularly focuses on defending traditional identities against Western influences. Second, a better understanding is achieved on identity repression—change resistance results from a displaced focus on repressing traditional identities. Third, the prevalence of identity integration strategies can be explained by intensive policy borrowing in the region. Policy borrowers need to ensure externally imposed identities are represented to overcome challenges generated by identity grafting strategies that impede progressive change. This popularity of integrationist strategies accounts for the challenges in achieving identity situationalism—policy borrowing needs culturally divisive identity markers that provide clear indicators to

Guided by the “opportunity–propensity” (O‐P) framework, this study explores how immigrant status might affect students’ civic knowledge through an antecedent factor (socioeconomic status [SES]), opportunity factors (civic learning at school and civic participation at school), and propensity factors (perceived open classroom climate, perceived student–teacher relationship, and perceived importance of conventional citizenship). The data were taken from the International Civic and Citizenship Education Study (ICCS) 2016. The sample comprised 2,544 eighth graders from Hong Kong. Results of two‐level path analysis showed that, at the student level, mainland Chinese immigrant grant students had a higher level of civic knowledge. Although perceived open classroom climate and perceived importance of conventional citizenship were found to be two positive mediators and family SES (via civic learning at school) was a negative mediator, the mediation effects at the student level were quite small. In contrast, quite a large amount of variance was explained at the school level: School‐aggregated immigrant status was positively linked to school‐aggregated civic knowledge and negatively via school‐aggregated students’ family SES via school‐aggregated civic learning. Copyright © 2019 The Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences and John Wiley & Sons Australia, Ltd.

How migrants, refugees and minority groups acquire a sense of belonging in their adopted society is a concern for nations worldwide as they aim to balance the diversity and inclusion of growing numbers of migrants with ensuring harmony and cohesion across society. In postcolonial Hong Kong, the population diversity is accompanied with a swift change in the racialisation of Hong Kong where minorities in schools find themselves categorised as 'non-Chinese speaking' ('NCS') rather than a 'Hongkonger'. The NCS label stigmatises young people as linguistically and academically deficit, de-legitimises acceptance by the local Chinese, Cantonese speaking majority designated as 'Hongkongers'. Yet how minority youth interpret their status as 'NCS' and negotiate belonging in Hong Kong has received scant attention. This qualitative study is a substantive and theoretical contribution to the literature on how multilingual minorities can construct a positive sense of place-belonging to their adopted city. Reflecting the contentious nature of the politics of belonging, we found that students challenged and sought to redefine the narrow, prevailing identity of a 'Hongkonger'. Rather, they stressed their multilingual identity, historical affiliations, emotional attachments and place-belongingness to the city in order to legitimate their entitlement to sociopolitical belonging in Hong Kong. Copyright © 2018 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.