The Entrepreneurial Activity of Chinese Migrants on the Border Areas of Russia and China at the Turn of the Centuries: the Features of “Shuttle” Migration in the Context of State and Regional Policy

Abstract

Russia and China have extensive border areas in the Far East. For morethan 150 years, Slavic and Confucian civilizations — Russians and Chinese— have been closely involved here. The constant presence and economicactivity of Chinese migrants in this region has become a specif-ic featureof the development of the border areas. In the article, the author analyzesthe entrepre-neurial activity of Chinese migrants at the turn of the 20thand 21st centuries, describes in detail the socio-economic conditionsand features of state and regional policies in this historical period, andhighlights migration movements across the border. This paper addressesimportant questions: First, how were the entrepreneurial activities ofChinese migrants and their migration movements caused by the socioeconomic situation in the Russian Far East and by the ethnic characteristicsof migrants? Second, how did Chinese migrants apprehend changes instate and regional policies on border areas and the opening of borders?Third, how did the border areas serve as platforms for their start-ups anddo Chinese migrants consider them to be such plat-forms in the future?Through my analysis, I create a better understanding of the features ofthe Russian population and Chinese migrants` interaction on the borderareas of the Far East, and of the perspectives for Chinese business in theperipheral regions of the conglomerate societies of Russia and China.