Abstract/Summary

‘China in Africa’ has generated significant debates in the media and academia. However, there is limited understanding of those individuals who choose to work and live in Africa. This ethnographic study was designed to explore the lived experience of Chinese expatriates in Tanzania from an emic perspective. By living and working in the Chinese community for seven-month, the researcher investigated the background of Chinese expatriates, their motivation for taking the international assignments, and most importantly the key issues that are relevant to their experience. The study shows that Chinese expatriates in Tanzania generally see their overseas experience as an 'investment' - an investment that above all seeks to maximise economic efficiency. They usually prioritise family-oriented well-being over individual-oriented well-being. It is to some extent associated with their less affluent family background and less educated background. Petty corruption is a major problem encountered by Chinese expatriates in Tanzania. Through a careful examination of the conditions and processes under which petty corruption occurs, the researcher discovered the complex power dynamics in the day-to-day interaction between Chinese expatriates and locals, showing that the economic privilege of Chinese expatriates is accompanied by political vulnerability, which leads them to trade economic advantage for political convenience. Language is another important issue that has influenced the daily interaction between Chinese expatriates and locals. When language was used as a resource (linguistic capital), it was invested and exploited by expatriates. When language was treated as an identity, its symbolic power served both as a protection for expatriates and a criterion for their segmentation to local clients. Moreover, Language differences put both expatriates and locals in a vulnerable position by increasing the power imbalance and causing trust issues. This is the first ethnographic study to investigate the individual experience of Chinese expatriates in the African context from the perspective of international human resource management. It also explores an issue rarely discussed but relevant to expatriates in that context - petty corruption. This study expands our understanding of expatriates from emerging markets who work in less developed regions, extends and develops the push and pull theories in motivation by enriching each element and introducing throw and drag factors to understand repatriation, and challenges the conventional focus on high-status expatriates and shifts the attention to the middle-status and low-status expatriates. It also challenges the preconceived and untested assumption of ‘powerful’ or ‘bullying’ China that weakens the role of African agency in the interaction. Last but not the least, this study contributes to the existing literature by integrating Bourdieu's theory of habitus, field and capital with institutional theory to analyse the interplay between social structures and institutional contexts in shaping expatriates’ behaviour in the context of Africa. This study has some practical implications for organisations operating in a similar context, and its findings can be applied to certain stages of the expatriation cycle. It also provides some real-world values for individual expatriates who decide to work and set up businesses in Africa.