Imprenditoria cinese in Italia e processi di integrazione sociale

Abstract

Till the beginning of the last decade most Chinese enterprises were small workshops working as a third party for Italian firms in the industrial districts. Chinese entrepreneurs and their workers therefore had limited interactions with mainstream society.Nowadays, having spread out all over the country and penetrated many different sectors of the economy, Chinese entrepreneurs and their workers have in many ways developed interactions with mainstream society.The article analyses the development of Chinese entrepreneurship and its perception in mainstream society, and highlights the emergence of different (and contrasting) processes of social integration. While the activity of Chinese enterprises results in the emergence from below of significant processes of social integration that trend to overcome the ethnic divide, identity prescription is the answer from mainstream society to Chinese claiming their belonging to Italy, and characterizes the emergence from above of other processes of social integration that stress the ethnic divide.