Chinese Migrant Entrepreneurs Research Articles

Contributors

Contributors

CHINESE AND AFRICAN MIGRANT ENTREPRENEURS' ARTICULATION SHAPED BY AFRICAN AGENCY

Much has been written on the relationship of China and Africa in the past decade. However, the subject of Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Africa and their articulation with African counterparts was little explored up to the early 2010s. Apparently, this research gap has been closed, as shown by four publications in recent years: three edited volumes and one monograph, focusing on this subject. In view of early prejudices on the passive or even disapproving reception of Chinese migrants by Africans, the state of the art underlines the importance and scope of African agency vis à vis Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Africa. This has been underlined unison in the four books under review.

An entrepreneurial migrant family: The rise of Aw Boon Haw’s business empire in the Asia-Pacific

This research note uses the rise of Aw Boon Haw’s dynastic family businesses across Asia to illustrate Chinese migrant entrepreneurs’ business development and dynamism. Although it is known that the management and operation of Chinese migrant family businesses do have disadvantages, there is substantial evidence that family control and network capital can facilitate their business endeavors. Through the case of the Aw family business, it was found that by using key strategies of family control and its network capital, even though their migrant background posed multi-layered disadvantages, the Aw family was able to rise from rags to riches in the medicine and newspaper businesses. Not only did their migrant background not restrict Aw family business growth, it fostered its expansion in the region and the world.

The client side of everyday corruption in Central and Eastern Europe: The case of Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Romania

This article provides an in-depth understanding of the corruption experiences of migrant entrepreneurs in transition economies. Drawing from ethnographic research, including 50 qualitative interviews with Chinese migrant entrepreneurs active in wholesale markets, non-governmental organizations, and supervisory agencies in Romania, this article demonstrates that normalization of corruption by migrant entrepreneurs should be understood in the historical context of the wholesale market as a product of post-1989 transition in Central and Eastern Europe. At a social-interactional level, normalization of corruption is revealed through how migrants use decriminalizing language to refer to corruption and perceive corruption as a survival strategy by public officials. Moreover, the legal and outsider status of migrants and their knowledge of the language, rules and laws further determine migrants’ position as clients of ‘on the spot’ corruption.

Nationalism, overseas Chinese state and the construction of ‘Chineseness’ among Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Ghana

ABSTRACTThis study aims at investigating the role of the expanding overseas Chinese state in the construction of ‘Chineseness’ among Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Ghana. It focuses especially on the manifestation of the ideology of Chinese nationalism in the migrants’ living experience. Data analyzed in this study are primarily drawn from extensive interviews with private entrepreneurs, employees of Chinese state-owned enterprises and Chinese Embassy officials in Ghana. Besides, this study is supplemented by a content analysis of archive data collected from media reports, policy documents, online forums and social media. This study reveals that as an unintended consequence, private entrepreneurs enjoy tangible benefits from the expanding presence of overseas Chinese state in Ghana. Strategies and policies implemented by the Chinese government and its overseas representatives aiming at engaging Chinese diasporas also contribute to spreading nationalism and building a deterritorial Chinese identity.

Karsten Giese et Laurence Marfaing (éds). Entrepreneurs africains et chinois. Les impacts sociaux d’une rencontre particulière

In view of early prejudices about the passive or even disapproving reception of Chinese migrants by Africans, the state of the art underlines the importance and scope of African agency vis-a-vis Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Africa. This has been underlined also by this volume, edited by Laurence Marfaing and Karsten Giese. They document an on-going research project which started six years ago at the German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA-Hamburg) and combines African and Sinolo...

Chinese And African Migrant Entrepreneur'S Articulation Shaped By African Agency

Much has been written on the relationship of China and Africa in the past decade. However, the subject of Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Africa and their articulation with African counterparts was little explored up to the early 2010s. Apparently, this research gap has been closed, as shown by four publications in recent years: three edited volumes and one monography, focusing on this subject. In view of early prejudices on the passive or even disapproving reception of Chinese migrants by Africans, the state of the art underlines the importance and scope of African agency vis a vis Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Africa. Book Review Article of: (1) Giese, Karsten, Marfaing, Laurence (eds) (2016) : Entrepreneurs Africains et Chinois. Les impacts sociaux d'une rencontre particuliere. Paris : Karthala, 2016. 384 pp. (2) Gadzala, Aleksandra W. (ed) (2015): Africa and China: how Africans and their governments are shaping relations with China. Lanham/Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, xxix + 266 pp. (3) Mohan, Giles, Lampert, Ben et al (eds) (2014): Chinese Migrants and Africa's Development : new imperialists or agents of change? London: Zed books, vi + 185 pp. (4) French, Howard W. (2015): China's Second Continent: how a million migrants are building a new empire in Africa. London: Penguin Random House / New York: Knopf, xi + 304 pp.

Chinese Adaptations: African Agency, Fragmented Community and Social Capital Creation in Ghana

Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Ghana perceive themselves as vulnerable, as regularly they encounter problems and their businesses fail. The adaption experiences of Chinese entrepreneurs in Africa, especially non-traders, remain largely unstudied. By looking at the interactions of newly arrived and established Chinese migrants with institutional actors, partners, local employees and other Chinese in Ghana, this paper shows the multiple dimensions of how Chinese entrepreneurs’ migration adaptation evolves, and how they create social capital to develop their businesses in Ghana. From the Chinese perspective, established entrepreneurs condemn the recent numerous “new” Chinese in Ghana as part of the root cause of problems, on account of their “poor quality and bad behaviour”; by comparison, the newly arrived Chinese attribute their challenges to deficiencies in the local people and institutions of the host country. The negative experiences of Chinese entrepreneurs in Ghana provide further evidence for, not only African, but also local Chinese agency from below, and suggest that the rising Chinese presence does not necessarily improve the social status of Chinese entrepreneurs or create a stronger, more unified Chinese community on the continent.

Demystifying Chinese business strength in urban Senegal and Ghana: structural change and the performativity of rumours

Independent Chinese entrepreneurs pursuing economic activities as diverse as restaurants, medical services and, most importantly, general trade are increasingly flocking to Africa in search of business opportunities. This article deconstructs the anti-Chinese attitudes prevalent among Senegalese and Ghanaian business people working in the trade sector. Critically, triangulated data suggest that Chinese commodities, which are said to create unfair competition for local entrepreneurs, come to the African continent through diverse import channels, not least local businesses themselves. Thus their presence is not exclusively due to the in-country activities of Chinese migrant entrepreneurs, as is commonly alleged in the daily discourses of Senegalese and Ghanaian market traders. More fundamental processes of socioeconomic change, however, are subjecting traders in Ghana and Senegal to decreasing profit margins and increasing economic competition. Fuelled by broader general myths, understood as a way of conceptualising an abstract topic in chains of cultural referents (O'Sullivan et al. 1994), about the Chinese presence in Africa, we argue that rumours alleging that Chinese traders encroach on the two countries' urban marketplaces are creative means of sense-making for locals operating in a rapidly changing economic environment.

Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in Budapest: changing entrepreneurial effects and forms

PurposeThis paper seeks to explore the migration dynamics that have characterized Chinese immigration in Budapest and the migrants' understanding of their own position in relation to the Chinese diaspora. The paper also aims to discuss the interaction of the local economy and resources of the Chinese migrants to form viable network communities.Design/methodology/approachThe ideas of market embeddedness and the critical role of market opportunities are critically evaluated in the context of local practices. The paper seeks to show that the “new” entrepreneur is an active and creative social actor able to utilize, mobilize and control resources in different countries to achieve business opportunities and growth for him/herself.FindingsIt is shown that globalization has spawned “new” transnational spaces and enabled migrant Chinese entrepreneurs to thrive and grow their businesses. This is a new trend and clearly suggests that a qualitatively different migration trajectory is evolving; and theoretically, analysts of globalization and entrepreneurial development have to better account for the different trajectories of entrepreneurial forms.Originality/valueThe paper suggests that this “new” migrant entrepreneurship trend is qualitatively different and marks a “new” development and it is a consequence of economic globalization and the transnationalization of business and economic activities.

Drivers of Change or Cut-Throat Competitors? Challenging Cultures of Innovation of Chinese and Nigerian Migrant Entrepreneurs in West Africa

The remarkable influx of Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in different West African countries in recent years has been met with growing resistance by established local entrepreneurs. Whether the former have a competitive edge over the latter because of distinctive socio-cultural traits, or whether the Chinese supposed effectiveness is just a characteristic feature of any trading Diaspora, is open to question. This exploratory study of Chinese and Nigerian entrepreneurial migrants in Ghana and Benin tries to answer this question. Apparently, the cultural motive powers of migrant drivers of change are not restricted to inherited value systems or religions like a protestant ethic or Confucianism, but they are permanently adapted and invented anew by transnational networks of migration in a globalized world. There is no evidence for a supposed superiority of Chinese versus African innovative cultures of entrepreneurial migrants. Rather there exists an enhanced innovative capacity of a trading Diaspora in general vis-a-vis local entrepreneurs, regardless of the background national culture in which it is embedded. In addition, the rivalry of Chinese and Nigerian migrant entrepreneurs in African markets does not necessarily lead to the often suspected cut-throat competition under the impact of globalization. Often both groups act rather complementary. This contributes under certain conditions even to poverty alleviation in the host country.

Mobilization and disengagement: Chinese migrant entrepreneurs in urban France

This article is an exploration of the political and economic forces which condition the possibilities for political engagement among a segment of the petty bourgeoisie in urban France. By drawing on Bourdieu's idea of habitus, I explore the ways in which the ideologies and practices of petty capitalism incline the Chinese small entrepreneurs toward political abstinence as they confront the changes in norms of citizenship that accompany neoliberal transformation.