The Chinese in Prato and the Current Outlook on the Chinese-Italian Experience

This chapter was co-authored by Gabi Dei Ottati (who wrote the sections at pp. 39-45) and Daniele Brigadoi Cologna (sections at pp. 29-39; 45-47), who examined how Chinese migration to Prato articulates with contemporary trends in Chinese entrepreneurship in Italy (especially in the older established Chinese communities in Milan). As the Chinese-Italian experience reaches well into its fifth generation - Chinese migration history in Italy is at least ninety years old - the authors argue that stereotyped perceptions of Chinese within Italian society go ever more against the grain of the manifold new realities of economic, social, cultural and political interaction between Chinese and Italians. The chapter considers, in particular, the key historical features of the Chinese community in Prato as an exemplary case of the development of industrial districts in Italy. It examines the changes in Prato during the latest two decades, including the extraordinary growth of the Chinese pronto moda business. Using demographic and ethnographic data, the authors suggest that Chinese migration to Italy may have peaked in the mid-2000s, and they illustrate how there has been a change in business and social interaction practices as the result of a trend away from the manufacturing and restaurant sectors to the services Sector. Thus what used to be a rather segregated community of ethnic entrepreneurs is now flourishing in all sorts of different business denominations in the services sector, recruiting the Italian-speaking, largely Italian-born second generation to deal both with their Italian customers as well as those who belong to other immigrant groups, ushering in a new perspective of cultural and political empowerment for many Chinese-Italians, whose claims of social and formal citizenship are gaining momentum.