Investment migration & social reproduction: The case of recent patterns of migration from China

In this presentation I introduce two migration trends that have emerged and developed rapidly in the decade of 2010s in China: the out migration of the rich Chinese businessmen, and the student migration to European countries, especially the UK. These two types of migration overlap to a certain extent, and entail different degrees of financial investments. They also represent two types of strategies for social reproduction and social mobility through geographic mobility. The rich Chinese investment migration, with the US and Australia as the most popular destinations, aims at elevating class positions by converting parent generation’s wealth into their children’s elite cultural capital. The student migration to UK, on the other hand, is often a social reproductive strategy adopted by middle or upper middle-class families in provincial towns to overcome regional inequality.