Chinese migrants’ spatial politics of belonging, identity, and citizenship in Santiago de Chile

ABSTRACT

Chinese migrants are often used as an example of socio-spatial self-segregation, exemplified in Chinatown studies. Drawing on scholarship on citizenship and multiculturalism, I analyze the case study of the ethnic Chinese in Santiago, Chile, to interrogate their perceived reluctance towards social or political integration. Analysis draws on interviews, participation observation, and media coverage of a 2016 Chinese mass protest in the city center, and a 2018 proposal by the Santiago mayor to establish a Chinatown in a multicultural commercial neighbourhood. By discussing Chinese and Chilean interpretations of these events, I highlight the diverse practices of citizenship and identity – between ‘old’ and ‘new’ Chinese migrant groups in Chile. These not only challenge views of Chinese migrants as homogenous and/or politically disengaged. It also highlights complex evolving practices and attitudes towards belonging and citizenship in the diversifying overseas Chinese population, in an era marked by tropes about ‘the rise of China.’

KEYWORDS:

• Space
• identity
• ethnicity
• citizenship
• politics

Acknowledgments

Research for this article was supported by Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico (FONDECYT) Chile, Proyecto Postdoctorado N° 3170051, 2017-2020. The discussion and development of this paper in a seminar at the Universidad Alberto Hurtado in Santiago was supported by the international network “Migración, Etnicidad y Espacio: aproximaciones críticas desde la etnografía” (MES Network, ANID/PCI REDI 170315). Special thanks to the people I spoke with and interviewed for their patience and time, to Carolina Ramírez for her participation in some of the fieldwork and analysis conducted for this article, and to Venera Khalikova, Laavanya Kathiravelu, the anonymous reviewers, and associate editors of the journal for their constructive feedback on previous versions of this manuscript.

Disclosure statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Notes

1. Taking ethnicity as a sociocultural construct, ‘ethnic Chinese’ in this article refers broadly to persons who identify as and are identified as such (in Mandarin as huaren or an affiliation with Han Chinese descent as opposed to ethnic minorities within the People’s Republic of China or Republic of China). While the ethnic Chinese population in Chile is diverse, including a significant Taiwanese population, this article primarily discusses people who are primarily affiliated or aligned with specific places and populations in China – specifically Guangdong and Zhejiang.

2. Interviews were conducted primarily in Mandarin Chinese or Spanish and transcribed and translated into English. Participant observation was partially conducted alongside Carolina Ramirez, both at the protest of December 2016 as well as in the neighbourhood of Meiggs. This article forms part of a broader project, where in total 52 semi-structured interviews were conducted with both first and second/third generation ethnic Chinese migrants in Santiago, which includes 7 interviews with gatekeepers of the community such as key members of the Chinese Associations.

3. The majority of these deportations included persons with a criminal record, even in cases of petty theft or a crime in which the individual had already served the due sentence.

4. Older patterns typically refer to Cantonese migration to the U.S. and Canada, and the migration of Zhejiangnese from Qingtian and Wenzhou to Europe, both phenomena that increased numerically from the 1980s (Pieke 2007). The Zhejiangnese, however, began to expand aggressively from western and southern Europe. By the 1990s, in addition to establishing a stronghold in North America, they appeared in new frontier areas, such as Eastern Europe and Africa, before expanding their networks into parts of Latin America in the 21st century.

5. While these tensions between the ‘older’ and ‘newer’ migrant groups may certainly be read in terms of class – this is a complex question beyond the scope of this paper. Some of these tensions exist between small business owners from Guangdong or Zhejiang province, despite similar economic situations, and living and working in similar neighborhoods. However, class may be indexed by education, language, and consumption practices, as well as whether persons possess identity documents in rural or urban parts of China. Furthermore, there are also complex dynamics and differences between the Chinese shopkeepers that I discuss in this article and the ‘professional class’ of ethnic Chinese, who work in the financial, mining, or technological sectors, usually in a wealthier and safer part of the city or other cities. Regarding the dynamics between Chinese workers and their Chinese employers, it is however worthwhile to note that several Cantonese restaurant workers were present at the protest, while it is unclear whether workers – as opposed to merchants – joined in the Zhejiang-organized night patrol team.

6. Another reason for their absence may be their relative distance to an event they perceived as organized by the Cantonese migrants.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fondo Nacional de Desarrollo Científico y Tecnológico [3170051].

Notes on contributors

Carol Chan

Carol Chan is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Universidad Academia de Humanismo Cristiano.