Chinese migrations to Argentina: Diasporic bureaucracy, identifications and rituals

Abstract

This chapter aims to analyze some processes that occurred after the arrival of the last Chinese migration flow to Argentina at the beginning of the 21st century. Since 2003, specially Buenos Aires began to receive Chinese migrants from Fujian in an amount that was estimated to exceed 100 thousand people. They mostly installed small supermarkets that locals visit daily, which generated a great presence in the city.At the same time, relations between China and Argentina were strengthened. As soon as Nestor Kirchner assumed the presidency of Argentina in 2003, he traveled to Beijing and signed the strategic agreement between the two countries. After that, when Cristina F. De Kirchner became president in 2007, she and members of her government traveled very often China. In 2014, President Xi visited the country for the first time.Both phenomena had repercussions on the previous migratory flows that conformed the Chinese and Taiwanese diaspora in Argentina. On the one hand, the Taiwanese who had founded the current Chinatown, who were the only holders of Chinese language and arts, found themselves in the need of differentiation from newcomers. This differentiation is based on arguing that Taiwanese are more educated and hold the legitimate Chinese culture. Thus, new tensions arose within the diaspora.On the other hand, both migration and bilateral relations between the two countries gave rise to Chinese diasporic politics in Argentina. That attempt to strengthen relations between expatriates and the Chinese State needs a formal diasporic bureaucracy. Gradually, this diaspora started gaining the spaces that were previously occupied by the no formal diasporic bureaucracy.In this chapter, therefore, I will describe Chinese migration flows to Argentina from the late 19th century to the present, focusing on the Taiwanese of the 1980s and Chinese of de 2000s. Then, I will analyze in the different tensions on migrant´s identifications. After that, I will introduce the phenomenon of diasporic bureaucracies as the way in which states used diasporas as a resource for their benefit. Finally, I will analyze the Chinese New Year to account for the way in which the formal Chinese diasporic bureaucracy began to dispute spaces with the informal diasporic bureaucracy.