The Chinese Diaspora in the EU Countries

Abstract

This article is a further contribution to the discourse on the ethnic ‘diffusion’ in European countries — the debate started on the pages of the Baltic Region journal by the triumvirate of three authors — Yu. N. Gladky, I. Yu. Gladky, and K. Yu. Eidemiller [4]. We assume that Europe has been a major centre of attraction for immigrants in recent decades and a site for the rapid emergence of ethnic communities. Unlike Muslim immigration — a product of the Arab Spring and often a measure of the last resort, — the Chinese immigration is a result of a certain convergence between the ideologies of the host countries, committed to multiculturalism, and the country of origin, pursuing a ‘go global’ policy. We chose the EU countries as a ‘demonstration site’ and the Chinese diaspora as the object of research. Our aim is to describe the process of migration from China and the formation of a Chinese diaspora in European countries. We analyse the timeline and scope of Chinese immigration, the qualitative changes in the composition of the immigrants, factors affecting the choice of the country of entry, and the quantitative parameters and settlement patterns of today’s Chinese diaspora in the region. We suggest grouping the Baltic region states by the numbers and ‘age’ of their Chinese diasporas. We consider the ethnic ‘diffusion’ as part of the ‘European project’ within Beijing’s global strategy.

Keywords

• ethnic ‘diffusion’
• ‘new’ migrants
• chinese diaspora
• eu countries