From a history of building ties between China and Italy

The first major Chinese emigration that affected Europe and Italy took place only after the First World War, when several thousand Chinese, who were part of the 150,000 workers recruited in 1916 by the Allies (Britain and France) as workforce during the conflict, they refused to return to China after completion of their task. Most of those who decided to stay in Europe came from Wenzhou and Qingtian, two cities located in the southern part of Zhejiang.

Milan was the first Italian city to be touched by immigration Chinese. During the twenties and thirties the Chinese were forced to work as street vendors of silk neckties and purses, as long as some of them were not hired by textile laboratories and Italian leather within which they could learn the trade and afford to open a 'own business.

The Chinese immigration in Italy, however, remained for a long time a sporadic phenomenon, low numerical relevance and concentrated only in a few cities, such as Turin, Bologna, Florence and Rome. It was only since the eighties that the Chinese community began to grow and gain some visibility throughout the peninsula.

One of the factors which at the time helped to create this strong push migration to Europe and Italy in particular, it was the policy of opening to the outside undertaken by the new head of the People's Republic of China Deng Xiaoping, which made possible a rapid reactivation of migration from China in 1979 were created economic zones "special" in the south of the country (one of which was precisely the Zhejiang region) where he was admitted private initiative and encouraged foreign investment and where the various communities Chinese around the world were able to quickly take a leading role in the economic development of their respective regions of origin.

Photo: China Daily

As for the Chinese community in Italy, over the past twenty years young Chinese entrepreneurs have succeeded, thanks to their strong commercial skills, the use of an organization of family-type work  to expand its laboratories and diversifying production in order to become highly competitive in the Italian market.

Moreover, in cities where there is a higher concentration of Chinese immigrants have witnessed, along with the proliferation of companies fully operated by Chinese citizens, even to the birth and development of the Chinese restaurant, which has been a big hit with Italian customers, and new activities (grocery stores, jewelry stores, travel agencies, etc.) related to the needs of a community that continues to grow.

The economic success of the Chinese community is undoubtedly due to the way it has been able to exploit and adjust to your favor of the migration chain mechanism through the so-called "strategy of the relationship": the one who decided to emigrate already know they can count on his arrival in Italy on the support of their "extended family", ie relatives, friends or acquaintances , from the same village of migrant who already own their own business in Italy. The family structure that receives the migrant on his arrival exerts two extremely important functions: providing protection and assistance to newcomer mediating the relationship with the surrounding environment and, more importantly, gives him a first place in the Italian labor market.

Chinese residents have passed the threshold of 18,609 units in Rome in 2014 and have positioned in fourth place among the foreign communities are most frequent in the capital. The figure is still indicative because Chinese communities are characterized by a strong mobility that leads them to move where you create new job opportunities.

The areas of Rome where a greater number of Chinese have focused on I, VI and VIII Hall, ie the Esquiline, the Pigneto, Casilina and Prenestina.
sign of growth and stabilization of the Chinese community in Rome in recent years is also the significant increase of Chinese students at the Roman public schools.

By the author of 'Italy on the palm of your hand', Giuseppe Zaccaria