20 years ago, most people who came from China to Europe did so to make money. Today, increasingly, they come to spend it – as tourists, students, managers of Chinese multinationals, or as lifestyle migrants looking for a better environment. In both migration waves, Hungary has played the role of an unlikely pioneer as a destination of small traders in the 1990’s and host of a ‘residency-for-investment’ scheme in the 2010’s. Based on long-term ethnographic research, this talk will focus on two case studies: relations between Chinese managers and local workers after the acquisition of a large chemical factory and the motivations of lifestyle migrants.
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