Chinese people in Italy


The Chinese people in Italy comprise Italian residents or citizens of Chinese heritage and Chinese who migrated to Italy.
With a century-old history, the Chinese community in Italy has grown rapidly in recent decades. Official statistics indicate there are at least 308,984 Chinese citizens in Italy, although these figures do not account for former Chinese citizens who have acquired Italian nationality or Italian-born people of Chinese descent.

History

Origin

The origin of Chinese immigration to Italy dates back to the late-19th century, who came from the older Chinese communities of Paris, Amsterdam, and other major European trading ports as seamen and traders. As the nation's most important economic and industrial center, Milan was the primary destination for the Chinese immigrating to Italy.
The provenance of Chinese migrants in Italy is marked for its exclusive geographical extent, with the majority of them hailing from Qingtian and surrounding counties of Wenzhou in southern Zhejiang, a region known for its highly mountainous terrain, and tradition of emigration and overseas trade due to its lack of arable lands. When they first arrived in the city, they initially settled in what is now the Porta Ticinese quarter, at the time the most impoverished and illicit area of Milan, but also offered some of the cheapest license for vending in the whole of European continent, allowing the community to gain a foothold by supporting themselves through street vending.
After the mid-1920s, trade in imitation pearls became the main business of Chinese community in Italy, allowing women of all social classes to purchase the otherwise unaffordable jewelries. When the imitation pearl industry waned by the end of the decade, the community began to dedicate themselves to the processing of silk for ties and leather and belts.

Wartime

The outbreak of World War II and the ensuing conflicts have inflicted serious devastation to the Chinese community in Italy and wider regions of Europe. After Italy, under the Fascist government of Benito Mussolini, entered the war on the side of Germany and Japan through the signing of the Axis Pact on 27 September 1940, the Chinese residents, whose home country was aligned with the Allied Powers, came under suspicion. The Italian authorities launched widespread arrests of Chinese nationals, and close to 200 migrants from Qingtian were subsequently incarcerated in the internment facility at Isola del Gran Sasso in Abruzzo.
A report published in L' Osservatore Romano on 4–5 August 1941 noted that forty of the internees underwent baptism in the camp's church, following missionary work by a Chinese clergyman identified as Pastor Chang. The internment ended in late 1943 when local anti-Fascist partisans took control of the area and freed those held at the camp.

Demographics

Prato, Tuscany has the largest concentration of Chinese people in Italy and all of Europe. It has the second largest population of Chinese people overall in Italy after Milan.

Religion

In total, approximately one quarter of the Chinese community was classified as belonging to the Chinese religion. The surveyors weren't able to determine a precise Taoist identity; only 1.1% of the surveyed people identified as such, and the analysts preferred to consider Taoism as an "affluent" of the Chinese religion. The survey found that 39.9% of the Chinese had a thoroughly atheist identity, not believing in any god, nor belonging to any religious organisation, nor practicing any religious activity.
The study also analysed the Chinese Christian community, finding it comprised 8% of the total population. The Christian community was small, but larger than that of the province of origin, especially for the Catholics and the Jehovah's Witnesses, the latter being an illegal religion in China. Protestants were found to be basically nondenominational and largely women.
In the years 2011 and 2012 the ISTAT made a survey regarding the religious affiliation among the immigrants in Italy, the religion of the Chinese people in Italy were as follows:
  • Non religious: 44.5%
  • Buddhists: 44.4%
  • Christians: 7.3%
  • Other religions: 3.8%

Community relations

In 2007, several dozen protesters took to the streets in Milan over alleged discrimination. The northern Italian town of Treviso also ordered Chinese-run businesses to take down their lanterns because they looked "too oriental".

Cities with significant Chinese communities

Based on Demo ISTAT statistics.
The city of Prato has the second largest Chinese immigrant population in Italy. Legal Chinese residents in Prato on 31 December 2008 were 9,927. Local authorities estimate the number of Chinese citizens living in Prato to be around 45,000, illegal immigrants included. The majority of Chinese living in Italy are from the city of Wenzhou in the province of Zhejiang, some of them having moved from the Chinatown in Paris.
In 2021, there were 33,871 Chinese in Milan and 33,649 in Prato.