Chinese Migration to Africa: Findings from the 2013 Chinese in Africa Health Survey (CAHS)

Giovanna Merli, Duke University
Jing Li, Duke University
Jennifer Shen, Duke University
Ted Mouw, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

We identify and describe the main types of Chinese migrants in Tanzania. Similar to many other countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, Tanzania has experienced a rapid growth of Chinese immigration since the mid-1990s, as a result of growing Chinese investments in Africa and trade flows between China and Africa that are thought to fuel a Chinese state-led migration as well as flows of voluntary migrants. We use data from the 2013 Chinese in Africa Health Survey (CAHS), a pilot survey of the health of Chinese living in Dar es Salaam based on information collected from 147 respondents who reported on 1,211 alters. The study was designed to (a) provide a preliminary characterization of Chinese migration to Sub-Saharan Africa and its implication for migrants’ health outcomes and (b) test the viability of implementing Network Sampling with Memory (Mouw and Verdery 2012), a new network-based sampling approach for hidden populations in the field.