ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on post-1978 Chinese migration to Central America and the ambivalent local perceptions regarding these new immigrants’ ability to become business owners soon after their arrival. A key question raised by local stakeholders was the source of start-up capital in Chinese businesses and whether it is evidence of shady capital markets involving Chinese criminal syndicates. Drawing from ethnographic data collected in Belize and Panama, and the literature on Chinese business finance past and current, we suggest that Chinese migrants in Central America and elsewhere are able to achieve rapid economic mobility in the form of business ownership due to their ability to tap into various forms of informal finances and other resources mediated through networks rooted in regional, dialectal and social affinity.
