Kitajski trgovci v Srbiji: priložnosti spolov, translokalne družinske strategije in transnacionalna mobilnost

Since the late 1980s and early 1990s developing countries and transition societies have become attractive new destinations for Chinese traders. As “economies of scarcity” (Nyíri, 2007, 139) they provide opportunities to import and trade in a range of inexpensive Chinese goods. These new destination countries have become particularly attractive to Chinese traders also because they have weak links to the global economy, and do not have severe restriction to immigration. Consequently, many countries in Africa as well as Central and South Eastern Europe have become new destinations for Chinese migrants who operate in trade and services as transnational, petty entrepreneurs (Haugen, Carling, 2005; Mohan, Tan-Mullins, 2009, 595; Chang et al., 2011; Krasteva, 2005; Nyíri, 1999, 2003, 2007).In this paper I focus on Chinese trading migration to Serbia. I argue that in choosing destinations for their businesses Chinese traders increasingly opt for underdeveloped regions and transition societies not because they provide good business opportunities measured by economic indicators alone. Rather, these destinations are chosen because they provide better opportunities for an entrepreneurial life embedded in self-reliance and self-management. Some of these opportunities, as my discussion will demonstrate, are importantly gendered, opening up new gender space for young families and for women in particular. My discussion will further point out that because business opportunities in Serbia do not necessarily imply desirable living conditions, Chinese traders diversify their family strategies, which are translocally and transnationally negotiated. In doing so, I argue, they become protagonists, actively involved in establishing their livelihoods and flexible ways of incorporation