Publisher:
China Africa Research Initiative (CARI), School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Johns Hopkins University, Washington, DC
Abstract:
This paper examines the widespread belief that Chinese immigrants in Africa self-isolate and whether this alleged behavior is due to extreme ethnocentricity. Such beliefs implicate Chinese identity as central to this behavior, implicitly assuming that other non-indigenous people do not self-isolate. While some scholars claim that Chinese enterprises have achieved significant localization, others hold that the Chinese tend to live isolated from local society and leave open the reasons for this trend, allowing that ethnocentricity may be a cause. However, for the authors, who conducted a survey on the level of adaptation of Chinese immigrants in Zambia, there is no evidence that Chinese immigrants are particularly ethnocentric.