Chinese immigration to italy and economic relations with the homeland: A multiscalar perspective

Abstract

The chapter characterizes the Chinese migrant economic integration in Italy in three ways. First, in a globalized world, migration flows are not discrete processes, but create permanent international links through different economic channels. We identify investments, remittances, and international trade as examples of these ties. Second, migrant integration occurs at different territorial scales, with the local level being the most interesting. Chinese firms and migrant remittances are embedded in a local context, and follow the geography of territorial change. Third and most important, liabilities and outsidership are ambivalent. The statistical analysis shows that Chinese communities would not have filled the gap left in Italian industrial districts by the industrial decline in the textile sector without their connection to their homeland. The growth of second-generation migrants and their embeddedness in the local communities of the receiving country is strategic, drawing a picture of a transilient migrant community.