UNIVERSITY OF MACEDONIA MA in Politics and Economics of Contemporary Eastern and South-Eastern Europe Legal and illegal Chinese immigrants in Greece Status, stories, narratives from a fieldwork in Thessaloniki Student: Supervisor: Yang Jie Fotini Tsimpiridou Thessaloniki, 2017 1 CONTENTS Abstract..................................................................4 Introduction...........................................................5 History of Chinese Immigration in Thessaloniki.......8 Time............................................................................................8 Two groups.................................................................................8 Motivation.................................................................................10 Channels....................................................................................11 Geographical distribution and main features…........................15 Population Size and Business Activities…………...................16 Daily Exchange and Organization of Chinese Immigrant Communities.............................................20 The Inside of Chinese Immigrant Community……………….20 1) The Chamber of Commerce……………………..…………………..22 2) Chinese gangland –mafia……………..……………..………………25 3) Inside conflicts……………...……………………………………….28 Chinese immigrants and Greece……………………………...29 2 Life stories and narratives…………………..40 1) Mr. Yang………………………………….…………….40 2) Mr. Lee………………………………………………….42 3) Miss Zhang……………………………………………..44 4) Mr. Chen………………………………………………..49 5) Mr. Zhao………………………………….……………..51 6) Mr. Hu……………………………………….………….52 7) Mr. Long………………………………….…………….54 8) Mr. Su………………………………….……………….56 9) Mr. Wang……………………….………………………58 10) Mr. Qin……………………………...…………………59 11) Miss Mai……………………………….………………61 12) Mr. and Mrs. Huang……………………………………62 Conclusions..........................................................66 References............................................................67 3 Abstract As early as around 1995, Thessaloniki ushered in the first batch of Chinese immigrants. After more than 20 years, they have established their own communities here. While adapting to the local economy and culture, they have had a huge impact on the society of Thessaloniki. Based on fieldwork, this article conducts an analysis of the major groups of Chinese immigrants and their arrival time, motivation and main approaches to Thessaloniki. Besides, it also introduces the geographical distribution of Chinese immigrants in Thessaloniki, population size, their business activities and key features. Then this article also introduces the daily exchange and organization of Chinese immigrant communities from the internal perspectives of Chinese immigrant communities and the external perspectives of Greek society. Finally, based on the living experiences and life stories of Chinese immigrants living in the community, this article presents a more vivid picture of the living conditions of legal and illegal immigrants living in Thessaloniki. 4 Introduction Thessaloniki has accepted refugees from Anatolia and Pontic Greeks since the 20th century, thus embarking on the urban transformation. By the end of the 20th century, Thessaloniki began to accept more immigrants of diverse countries or areas, mainly from the Balkans, the former Soviet Union and Asian and African countries, including China. During this period, foreign immigrants chose Greece as their destination, mainly because of the geographical location of Greece. As the east gate of the EU, it has a vast coastline and an easily crossed border. Although the Greek authorities had strengthened border control in 1998, the trend of smuggling still was not slowed down. Besides, Greece joined EEC in 1981, and thus has narrowed the economic and social gaps with the Nordic countries. Therefore, its rapidly transforming economic situation has also made it the number one choice for many Chinese who have immigrated to Europe because of economic factors. The most immediate attraction is the improvement of living standards and education due to the economic development of Greece, which has caused a large number of Greeks to refuse to engage in low-paid jobs, resulting in a large number of job vacancies and attracting migrant workers. In contrast, the number of Chinese ready for immigration has began to take shape after China reform and opening up①. So far, there have been three obvious waves of immigration. All in all, the Chinese immigrants who came to Thessaloniki are all seeking to make a better life, which means that they had few choices but to leave due to their concerns over economy. The reason why —————————— ①The Chinese economic reform and opening-up refers to the program of economic reforms termed "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" in the People's Republic of China (PRC) that was started in December 1978. 5 China saw a climax of oversea immigration during this period was closely related to the demographic situation in China at the time. Fujian is one of the areas with the highest population pressure in China. Its terrain is dominated by hills and hills with little arable land. The conflict between a small area of cultivated land and a huge population is prominent. In recent history, the invasion of foreign goods has caused the unemployment of a large number of Fujian peasants, traders and handicraftsmen. Therefore, moving to the overseas became the only way for life. In addition to the objective factors of poverty, the deep-rooted traditional ideas also play a powerful role in promoting the immigration. In Fuqing City of Fujian Province, immigration to overseas for work has evolved into a local tradition, and they saw the smuggling into the Europe to work as the fastest earning-money way. However, with the prevalent competition among locals, most of the money earned abroad is not used to develop the local economy of Fujian Province. Instead it was used to demonstrate its own wealth and status①. Therefore, the next generation often would continue to be forced to cross the border to Europe because of low income or unemployment. After more than two decades of change, Chinese people have emigrated abroad not just for money. Parents came to European countries for the sake of their children's education, and China's relatively backward medical environment and expensive medical expenses are also driving forces for many people to leave. The endless cases of food safety scandals and environmental pollution in recent years have also drawn the attention of many people, making them put on the agenda of immigration programs. Chinese immigrants living in Thessaloniki are a special group. Whenever people speak of Chinese here, they would always associate them with China —————————— ①Conclusions derived from fieldwork are based primarily on the information provided by respondent No.1, 3, 4, 9 who came from Fujian Province. 6 Town on opposite of the train station, the retail and wholesale stores and cheap clothing. While within the Chinese community, they clearly define their own networks and forces by their clans and geographies②. As a Chinese student who has lived in Thessaloniki for three years, the peculiarities of the Chinese immigrants would strike me every time when the Greeks distinguish me from Chinese living in China Town and every time the Chinese immigrants here see me as a somewhat foreigner, because this group now neither belongs to China nor to Greece judging from the current situation. This has aroused my strong interest in them. And I decide to set them as my research object. Fieldwork took place between July and October 2017, mainly by interviews. 12 groups of individuals were selected, including Chinese immigrants who came to Thessaloniki illegally, such as Chinese-store owners and workers (No.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7) Besides, they also include Chinese immigrants who came here through legal channels such as work (No.12), marriage (No.11) and family reunification (No. 8, 9 and 10). I hope that through this fieldwork and this article a better understanding of the evolution of the Chinese community in Thessaloniki in the past 20 years could be achieved and why this group is so special could be revealed. By interviewing them for their personal experiences to get their true thoughts, analyzing their decisions to come to Thessaloniki, and observing their daily life and communication here, we could summarize their characteristics and behavioral patterns or the logic and finally find out how this group can better blend in the local community in Thessaloniki —————————— ①Conclusions derived from fieldwork are based primarily on the information provided by respondent No.7 who worked as a solicitor and respondents No. 1, 2, 9. 7 History of Chinese Immigration in Thessaloniki Time Undoubtedly, the year of 2004 could be regarded as an important time point in the analysis of Chinese immigrants in Thessaloniki. Between 1995 when the earliest wave of Chinese immigrants came to Greece and 2004, almost all of them came to Greece through improper or illegal channels. Even though some of them saw Greece as their final destination, a large proportion of them had been resided in other some countries for some years. The reason for the year of 2004 as a time point is that the number of immigrants that arrived in Thessaloniki after 2004 is not as many as before, or at a slower pace. Besides, instead of the dominant smuggling, many new channels emerge, which speaks for the fact that Chinese immigrants through visa of family reunion after 2010 has been on rise significantly①.