Transnational pathways to integration: Chinese traders in Serbia

This article focuses on the process of integration of Chinese immigrants in Serbia. It is based on a pilot study conducted among Chinese traders in Belgrade, and examines the ways in which this highly mobile group of people is becoming incorporated into the Serbian society. The discussion points to a set of opportunities that Serbia as a transition society and a non-immigrant country offers to Chinese traders who have been settling in Belgrade and Serbia since 1996. It explores multiple and various types of emerging social interaction embedded in daily life of both Chinese traders and locals, all of which shape their local integration. It argues that a society such as Serbia provides a space for choice and active management of risks involved in trading migration enabling Chinese traders to create a transnational pathway to incorporation. Although their primary aim is not to ‘settle for good’, but to remain mobile for the better, Chinese traders have established a wide range of contacts with the local population and have created some important inroads into the Serbian society.