Diverging opportunities: Chinese migrants in the transnational immigrant economy in Vienna

Abstract

This paper aims to explore firstly, the distribution of economic opportunities in the Chinese immigrant economy, and, secondly, how opportunities have gradually diverged among Chinese migrants against the backdrop of increased globalization and Chinese transnationalization. Conceptually, it departs from the literature of immigrant economy as well as transnationalism, in particular, Chinese transnationalism. Methodologically, qualitative and inductive methods including in-depth interviews and participant observation are employed. By revealing that some Chinese migrants enjoy economic opportunities induced by transnationalization process while some others are deprived of them, this paper questions the much-celebrated effects of the social mobility of immigrant economy. This paper sheds light on how unequal opportunities can be exported from China channeled by transnationalization, as unequal pathways of Chinese migrants in Vienna, among other cases in Europe, appear to extend the divergent experiences of winners and losers of the late-socialist economic reform in China.