Transnational embeddedness, localization strategies, and the new Chinese immigrants’ entrepreneurship in Africa

Immigrant-entrepreneurship research explains how migrants mobilize resources across origin and destination settings, but it is less clear whether deeper local embeddedness corresponds to permanent settlement. Drawing on interviews with 32 new Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs in Africa and 12 African respondents, this study finds that China-based supplies and hometown and co-ethnic networks remained important as entrepreneurs built local relationships, adapted management practices, and learned local languages. At the start-up stage, supplies, credit, and entrepreneurial information secured through origin-country hometown and co-ethnic networks were especially important for business entry and establishment. During subsequent business operations, resources obtained through host-country co-ethnic networks and newly built social ties with local residents became increasingly important for sustaining and developing their businesses. Notably, localization strategies developed alongside, rather than replacing, transnational embeddedness. Remittances and hometown investment linked business activity in Africa to family obligations and possible return. Yet settlement did not follow uniformly: 22 of the 32 entrepreneurs explicitly rejected permanent settlement, 5 were uncertain, and 5 could not be clearly categorized. African respondents’ accounts showed varied evaluations of their interactions with new Chinese immigrant entrepreneurs, while the wider analysis identified opportunities alongside workplace discipline, competitive pressures, and environmental concerns. The study treats transnational embeddedness, local embeddedness, and settlement orientation as analytically distinct, refining the application of mixed and parallel embeddedness to South–South migration.