The Migration of Chinese Women to Mexico City

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xv

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2. Introduction

   • Ximena Alba Villalever

   Pages 1-36

3. Locating the Chinese in Mexican Popular Markets

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 37-39

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   2. The Organization and Characteristics of Street Markets and “Popular” Economy

      • Ximena Alba Villalever

      Pages 41-76

   3. Building Alternative Commodity Chains Between Mexico and China

      • Ximena Alba Villalever

      Pages 77-104

4. Herstories of Migration, Building Spaces of Opportunities

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 105-108

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   2. Gender Inequality in China, a Path to Migration

      • Ximena Alba Villalever

      Pages 109-141

   3. Migration to Mexico as a Strategy for Survival and Growth: Building Opportunities in Mexican Popular Markets

      • Ximena Alba Villalever

      Pages 143-184

5. Migration and Commodity Chains, Drafting Alternative Spaces of Globalization

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 185-188

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   2. Women as Actors of Transnational Formations

      • Ximena Alba Villalever

      Pages 189-244

   3. Conclusions

      • Ximena Alba Villalever

      Pages 245-264

6. Back Matter

   Pages 265-281

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​This book focuses on the migration strategies of Chinese women who travel to Mexico City in search of opportunities and survival. Specifically, it explores the experiences and contributions of women who have placed themselves within the local and conflictive networks of Mexico City´s downtown street markets (particularly in Tepito), where they work as suppliers and petty vendors of inexpensive products made in China (specifically in Yiwu). Street markets are the vital nodes of Mexican “popular” economy (economía popular), but the people that work and live among them have a long history of marginalization in relation to formal economic networks in Mexico City. Despite the difficult conditions of these spaces, in the last three decades they have become a new source of economic opportunities and labor market access for Chinese migrants, particularly for women. Through their commerce, these migrants have introduced new commodities and new trade dynamics into these markets, which are thereby transformed into alternative spaces of globalization.

• Chinese women and migration
• Urban anthropology
• Migration to Mexico City
• Mexican popular markets
• Globalisation
• Migration stories
• Transnational
• Mexican migration networks
• Chinese market

• Lateinamerika Institut, Freie Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

  Ximena Alba Villalever

Ximena Alba Villalever earned her PhD in Anthropology from the Institute for Latin American Studies of the Free University of Berlin, Germany. Her research interests revolve around gender, migration, inequality and globalization. She has researched Chinese migration to Mexico for more than a decade. More recently, she has turned her sight to processes of forced migration and organized violence in Mexico. She is currently working as a Postdoctoral Fellow in a project founded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft in the Institute for Latin American Studies of the Free University of Berlin.

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