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Thriving Chinese Migrant Entrepreneurship in a Deteriorating Socio-Economic Environment in Zimbabwe

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Migration, Cross-Border Trade and Development in Africa

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies of Sustainable Business in Africa ((PSSBA))

Abstract

Using literature and findings of an ethnographic study of small-scale Chinese retailers in Harare to derive a nuanced understanding of the complex, dynamic and multi-layered narrative of Chinese retailers in Zimbabwe, this chapter explains why Chinese migrant retailers are able to set up businesses in an unstable economic environment in which locals are failing to establish themselves. It focuses on the nature of Chinese business establishments, the social relations that Chinese retailers rely on, and their relations with local people. It seeks to explain and establish when, where and to what extent these factors determine Chinese migrant activities in the retail sector in Zimbabwe. The chapter further looks at how the economic activities of small-scale Chinese retailers are enmeshed in broader economic and political conditions and how they are influenced by these. The approach employed in the chapter is, in essence, borrowed from the human economy idea posited by Hart and Sharp (2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Human Economy Programme, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Maureen Kademaunga

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  1. Maureen Kademaunga
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Correspondence to Maureen Kademaunga .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for the Study of Governance Innovation (GovInn), Department of Political Sciences, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa

    Christopher Changwe Nshimbi

  2. Department of Geography, University of Zululand, KwaDlangezwa, South Africa

    Inocent Moyo

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Kademaunga, M. (2017). Thriving Chinese Migrant Entrepreneurship in a Deteriorating Socio-Economic Environment in Zimbabwe. In: Nshimbi, C., Moyo, I. (eds) Migration, Cross-Border Trade and Development in Africa. Palgrave Studies of Sustainable Business in Africa. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55399-3_5

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