Wednesday,
February 20,
Influence of 20,000
Chinese in
The
ANNOTICO Report
As
a follow on to My Report about the Chinese presence in
The
New Chinatowns
Corriere della Sera
Marco Del Corona
19
febbraio 2008
No
more workshops, fewer warehouses and more shops. Pilot study
of 20,000 Chinese in
They
used to run workshops but not any longer. Behind the frosted glass of the old
artisan stores, they occupied the big basements below Via Morazzone
and Via Bruno in
In
2001, there were sixteen businesses but now there are none. Via Paolo Sarpi has changed and thats one of the signs. The
wholesale trade that worries residents and poses problems for the mayor,
Letizia Moratti (such as the scuffles on 12 April
last year) is expanding but retail shops are growing even faster.
Todays
snapshot is profoundly different from the picture as recently as five years
ago. A
new study updated to 2007, edited by Daniele Cologna
with the Codici social research agency, focuses on
Chinese entrepreneurship, showing that demographic data and investigations in
the field are often at odds with the widespread perceptions held by Italian
residents of the district and
Chinese,
but not only Chinese, go to
According
to Mr Colognas report,
the signs of further development are already appearing. "n increasing number of Chinese wholesalers are opting to
convert their businesses into retail shops or move out" spontaneously delocalising and abandoning a district that is unsuitable
for such a concentration of wholesale activity. In 2006, according to the
Chamber of Commerce, only 18% of the 2,822 Chinese-owned sole traders in the
The
upshot is that growth in wholesale business has been overtaken by the vibrant
service and retail sectors, which now no longer restrict themselves to a
Chinese clientele. Out of 482 businesses registered in Chinatown -three
times as many as there were six years ago -53.3% are wholesalers, an
increase of 342.2% over 2001, when there were 64.
But
there are now 111 retailers, more than six times as many (+640% with respect to
2001, when there were 15). They cover a range of sectors, especially food,
telephones and clothing but there is a wine shop, a fish shop and a fresh tofu
shop. If we add other service businesses, such as bookshops, estate or travel
agencies, the sixteen restaurants and the internet cafis,
retail service businesses account for 41.3%.
Elsewhere
in north
Immigrants
from the Peoples Republic now scatter across the region to work for
Italians, especially immigrants from the new areas, the northern regions of
Liaoning, Heilongjiang (mining areas with declining heavy industry) and the
Shandong peninsula, who have no support network in Italy. The figures do not
reflect a ghetto or a community that shuts itself off from society. The
Chinese might misspell "hairdresser" two different ways on the same
shop window, or open restaurants offering "warm food", but according
to the national statistics institute ISTAT they are the second most numerous
group attending Italian language courses for adults. Their passport is still
Chinese but
English translation by Giles Watson
The
ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (and are Archived) on:
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Annotico
Email: annotico@earthlink.net