New Chinese Migrant Community in Cambodia: A Fieldwork Report

Abstract

Abstract: The ethnic Chinese in Cambodia formed the country’s largest ethnic minority with 60 percent of the Chinese are urban residents engaged mainly in commerce and the other 40 percent in the rural area. Since the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime, the once stricken or even perished Chinese community under Pol Pot has been rejuvenating with large number of new Chinese migrant influx from mainland China, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. Companies set up by Chinese migrants from Hong Kong, Taiwan and mainland China can now be seen almost in every sector of the Cambodian economy, particularly in Phnom Penh. Chinese entrepreneurs own, operate, and built factories, banks, hospitals, restaurants, hotels, discos and casinos in the country. In the meantime, a great many of Chinese skilled labours have been recruited to work in the garment factories owned by migrant entrepreneurs. Even the triads, mafia and prostitutes from Taiwan and the Chinese mainland have managed to settle down in Cambodia. Why suddenly did large number of new Chinese migrants move into Cambodia over the past two decades from the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan? What are the social, cultural and historical factors, if there is any, that can be advanced to account for the new Chinese emigration to Cambodia? What are their major businesses in Cambodia? How do Chinese private entrepreneurs achieve success in a transnational context? How could we identify and mapping out the ethnic Chinese business networks in Cambodia? And what are the main features of Chinese new migrant community in the country? Based on the fieldwork conducted in Cambodia over the past six years, this paper tries to reconceptualise the subject against the background of the increasingly rise of China in the international community and the significant Chinese globalization processes, examining the dynamics of Chinese business migrants in the less developed country and their connections with both homeland and other ethnic Chinese communities overseas.