Chinese Migrants in Russia, Central Asia andEastern Europe

Book Release: “Chinese Migrants in Russia, Central Asia andEastern Europe”

Posted by Elena Sadovskaya, esa2004@mail.ru

Edited: by Felix B. Chang, Sunnie T. Rucker-Chang

Published: September 28th 2011 by Routledge – 256 pages

Series: Routledge Contemporary Russia and Eastern Europe Series

Web address: http://www.routledge.com/books/details/9780415578745/.

Abstract: Much of the former Soviet bloc has become a destination for new Chinese migrants. Throughout Russia, Eastern Europe andCentral Asia, Chinese migrants are engaged in entrepreneurial activities, primarily as petty merchants of consumer goods in unsteady economies. This book situates these migrants within the broader context of Chinese globalization and China’s economic "rise." It traces the origins of Chinese migration into the region, as well as the conditions that have allowed migrants to thrive. Furthermore, it discusses the perception that Chinese globalization is purely economic and explores the relationship among petty merchants, labourers and institutional investors. Finally, by examining the movement of China’s minorities into Central Asia, this book challenges the ethnic construct of new "Chinese" migration.

CONTENTS

Introduction: Globalization without gravitas—Chinese migrants in transition economies

By Felix B. Chang P. 1

PART I. RUSSIA: A CENTURIES-OLD DIASPORA

Historical and contemporary trends of Chinese labor migration into Siberia

By Vladimir Datsyshen P. 19

The Chinese experience in Russia: Adaptation, tolerance, law and politics

By Alexander Larin P. 41

Perceptions of Chinese migrants in the Russian Far East

By Victor Larin P. 69

PART II. CENTRAL ASIA: THE MULTIETHNIC DIMENSIONS OF “CHINESE” MIGRATION

The dynamics of contemporary Chinese expansion into Central Asia

By Yelena Y. Sadovskaya P. 85

Patterns of contemporary “Chinese” migration into Kazakhstan

By Yelena Y. Sadovskaya P. 106

PART III.  EASTERN EUROPE: CHINESE ENTREPRENEURS AT THE GATES OF THE EUROPEAN UNION

Myth and migration: Zhejiangese merchants in Serbia

By Felix B. Chang P. 137

The Chinese under Serbian laws

By Felix B. Chang P. 153

The Chinese and their competitors in Bulgaria

By Anna Krasteva P. 184

Filmic representations of the Chinese presence in Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Slovenia

By Sunnie T. Rucker-Chang P. 199