An overview of Chinese migration to Europe before 1980

Before 1945, two main types of migratory flows from China can be distinguished. First, many Chinese came to Europe as contract labourers, much like the Chinese coolies in South-East Asia, South Africa and the Americas half a century earlier. Cantonese seamen waiting for recruitment in western Europe’s main harbour cities (London, Liverpool, Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Antwerp) helped European shipping companies break the power of the unions of European sailors (Bowles, 1992; Eberstein, 1988; Knödel, 1995; Pang, 1993; Parker, 1998; Pieke and Benton, 1998). Chinese contract labour also played an important role in opening up Russia’s Far East before the Revolution of 1917 (Larin, 1998). The Allied forces in the First World War recruited well over one hundred thousand labourers from Shandong, Shanghai and Zhejiang. Contract workers who had stayed in Russia after 1917 helped the Bolsheviks in their war against the Whites (Larin, 1998).

Sustainable Development Goals:

Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions